They are, indeed, curiously insular personalities given the overt political definition of their positions. Happy to see them exit, but certainly hope Petraeus can somehow manage to get Iraq back into a position where it doesn’t simply become the new headquarters office for worldwide terrorism incorporated once the next POTUS pulls the plug.

Sure, the co-equal, check and balance architecture is a beautiful feature of our government’s construct. I have no issue with the Congress, as an institution, attempting to flex its authorized muscle. But, the personalities within this Congress seem to be more focused on merely putting Bush in his place than convincing me they have a better forward-looking strategy.

To have not stood up for their convictions or duty obligations earlier on……..taken the political heat, questioned the data, questioned the strategy……i.e., acted like the leaders they now claim they are….doesn’t get them an automatic nod from me now to take over as political caucus commanders in chief either.

Bush is obviously going to go down swinging and I don’t think impeachment proceedings are going to have any chance of amounting to anything but, as Bush’s speech writer coined, political theater. It’s a sad chapter for us.

We need to get to a cleaner slate, a more unified view of what we do or don’t do on the world stage and it will be on our shoulders to find the right executive to get us started on that. I’d really like to see a candidate discuss what they actually would do internationally beyond “pull out of Iraq and talk to people”.

I’m not doubting that Democrats in Congress should have looked harder at the power to use force that was given to the president, but the evidence was cherry-picked, and there was enormous pressure to vote for it or face political oblivion. It would have been said that the Democrats were still unable to face a growing terrorist threat after our country had undergone attack. And you really can’t blame Congress for poor planning in the Pentagon by Rumsfeld, Gingrich and Franks.

Bush believes in the unitary executive, which basically negates the power of the other branches. His statements and Cheney’s on the war continuosly seek to ignore or block Congressional intervention , which as Sen Hagel said recently is unconstitutional and could result in his impeachment.

What were these MMQ’s saying and voting for 3 years ago? The US Armed Forces have never been trained and configured to perform as policemen. The objective of “nation rebuilding” in Iraq is not something that has been closeted for the last 3-4 years and now just leaking out.

Bush violated a basic tenet of the Cap Weinberger armed conflict theory…albeit made more famous as the Powell Doctrine…… and the price of that poor executive decision is now being paid. Bush now deserves to be relieved as CinC, but the Constitution will see to that shortly in its perpetual wisdom.

Congress had its first chance to exert its Constitutional powers a long time ago…….but blew it. And if HRC, Edwards, Kerry, Reid are so much smarter, why didn’t they vote no back then? The big picture objective/strategy has NOT changed. The Constitution still gives them the power to control the purse…….so let them do that if that is their will.

But for all you who would have the President take orders from Congress now, read the War Powers Act and cite the language under which this will be authorized.

You don’t violate 230 years of Constitutional integrity to serve an immediate day’s desire.

Besides, in my opinion, it would amount to the blind leading the blind anyway.

I will feel much better when (the President) starts obeying Congress
–

If you really believe that statement, that the Presidency is subordinate to the Congress, I truly hope that you are not an American.

If you are an American, please stop voting until you comprehend how the three branch system works.

Bookman
Yes, i slightly edited his text, for the purpose of pointing up how silly his statement was.

Looks like he better get a “permission slip” from the UN next time. I’d certainly feel safer. At least listen to SOMEBODY besides his own echo. I honestly believe the man is off his nut and it scares me. 2009 will not be here fast enough for me.

But NO ONE, not even the administration, thinks a military victory is possible The administration though thinks, correctly I believe, that a political solution can’t happen until you fix the security situation, enough that you can fix some of the infrastructure and bring more economic prosperity to those areas.

Now the chaos is such that we can’t even begin to get the infrastructure fixed because the insurgents know that with running water and electricity the people will be less likely to side with violence.