And I'm proud to be an American, where at least we all have these ...
On one hand you've got Tom Coburn threatening efforts to
rewrite the Constitution in order to rein in an administration gone amok and "re-establish the powers of Congress." You've got House Speaker John Boehner so concerned with executive tyranny that he's got the House suing the executive branch. You've got a goodly number of the far-right members of that House shrieking that impeaching the president may be the only way to save the republic from things like
czars and
executive orders.
And then you've got Rep. Frank Wolf, planning to introduce legislation to allow the president to unilaterally take military action against any nation or "organization" or even individual "person" he likes without approval from Congress, forever, so long as the magical word terrorism can be invoked, because demanding the president go to Congress about these things is just too darn inefficient. Think the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), but with no expiration date and fewer pesky details:
Titled the ‘‘Authorization for Use of Military Force against International Terrorism Act’,” Wolf’s bill would greatly expand the already overly broad mandate given under the 2001 AUMF:
The President is authorized, with the close consultation, coordination, and cooperation with NATO and regional allies, to use all necessary and appropriate force against those countries, organizations, or persons associated with or supporting terrorist groups, including al Qaeda and its regional affiliates, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, al Shabaab, Boko Haram, and any other emerging regional terrorist groups that share a common violent extremist ideology with such terrorist groups, regional affiliates, or emerging terrorist groups, in order to eliminate all such terrorist groups and prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States or its allies by such terrorist groups, countries, organizations, or persons.
So on one hand Obama is a tyrant whose executive interpretations of healthcare laws are close to collapsing this great American experiment forever, and on the other hand House hawks are bristling that Congress holds too much power over the president when the president decides which populations need killing and why.
Makes sense to me. Oh, and while Wolf's personal version of the bill isn't likely to pass, it seems increasingly likely that Congress will officially demand that Obama bomb something. When they get back from vacation, of course. Terrorism is an existential threat, mind you, but so are these last few fundraisers.