A key problem for the Obama Administration has been the "sit on our hands" strategy of the GOP members of Congress. Our strength in the Senate the past eighteen months has been barely enough to get something done, although every step has been dogged by smirking Republicans. The House is completely out of control. The Speaker cannot even bring key votes to the floor and know they will pass. He is a holdout who still foolishly believes that the Hastert Rule even matters any more within his own party.
What to do to wake these slackards up and actually do something?
Now a war is looming. A war that by the New Normal bizarro world rules would have been hot by now. But President Obama is sending it to Congress. More important than what happens in Syria is what is happening at home. But a war is a perfect thing to force Congress to actually debate and actually vote. Even if it does not pass, at least Obama will have forced Congress to know what it feels like to govern. And actually have taken a stand and a vote to boot.
It's a shot, anyway. Unless Congress can be forced to take a stand on some issue, the Republican incumbants will coast to gerrymandered-assured victory next year. The mojo of legislative give and take is dead in that chamber. One wonders if they even know how to do that. The GOP Message Machine sent out the meme for the Great August Town Hall Blow Outs they have enjoyed so much since 2000: that Obamacare's defeat is the number one burning issue. Crickets. Yawns. Some hostility, even.
Shit.
Now a frickin' war?
Shit.
President Obama can see that the legalistic fallacy of the Authorization To Use Military Force, illegally passed by Congress since World War II so they don't have to stand and debate and vote for war itself, is costing the US blood and treasure, and both are now too dear for business-as-usual actions by the Administration. The Neocon-driven meme that pre-emptive actions should be the norm started with Reagan and his little wars and became codified as the New Normal after 9-11. We just got out of Iraq and China got all the treasure. We are getting out of Afganistan and they are taking as much blood as they can on our way out.
We The People are not happy about this little domino theory George W. Bush cooked up with PNAC sauce actually playing out as The Arab Spring hardens into the Summer Of Discontent across Northern Africa and the Middle East. The UN can't move. Britain can't move. France is rarin' to go, but they are always ready to go. NATO isn't much interested, every developed nation being flat on their lips economically right now. And Russia has some real estate in Syria, natural gas supplier to Europe that they now are.
Shit.
It really should be up to Congress to pull the trigger. President Obama did The New Normal Formula For InterveningTM in Libya, and got nothing but shit for it. Egypt is fucking itself in the ass. Putin is sneering and moving warships around on the big Risk board in his head. Iran is patiently waiting for what the US will do, and therefore what Israel will do. Maybe it's best to let them set the board for a while and watch them in high-def real-time panorama with the input from satellites and drones. No real hurry to do anything until they get everything buried and hidden, pattern-recognition software agents following every vehicle and aircraft and generating automated attack patterns ready to send to the missles on a moment's notice. One thing the 9-11 witch hunts have yielded is much better technology and much smarter semi-autonomous weapon systems than the old stuff used in Iraq. Doesn't work good enough for Afganistan's natural chaos yet, but Syria and Iran are not Afganistan.
No hurry. More time could actually help. Assad might hold back on using those weapons, knowing we are watching intently now, and he is center stage. Even if he waits long enough for Congress to actually have to do something, that would be enough. If he starts loading incriminating munitions on Russian ships or into Iran, he might be digging in for a while. No hurry.
Meanwhile, every intel asset we have is focused on Syria and Iran and Lebanon. Assad would be a fool to use chemical weapons again, but it sure could happen. The case is being made by the US and independently by the UN that this time Assad fucked up and allowed samples out. If we attack, the strongest Opposition Party is "linked to al Queda" -- the kiss of death for any political cover, even worse than the Islamic Brotherhood in Eygpt. Yeah, real sweet deal this little war would be.
But in this strange lull between proving the violation of International Law and Assad being stupid enough to try it again 'cause Putin has his back, there might be an opportunity to open a crack in that Republican bulwark known as the House, Congress 113 (lucky number, that!).
The Media Talk Bots are all over this. Why can't a President just blast the hell out of anybody they please?, they opine in their incipid questions. How are you going to vote? Why should you have any say in it? Today on the Corporate Message Insemination Sessions on all channels, Congresspeople acted confused and the ole' GOP "let's kill something, damn it!" meme they've ridden since Ronnie slew the Soviet Dragon with a pen knife is falling apart. These clowns look like deer in the headlights. Their little Obamacare gambit is dead. No more media cycles for you!
Shit.
Hmmm. You know, the House could vote it down, just to continue the 2014 Safe Playbook. They could even end up supporting the President on something (cue 2014 tea party guerilla candidates crawling out of every hole). Either way, they actually have to do something, you know, legislative. Just the thought of it was giving them the vapors today. The Talk Bots were reporting today, with surprise, that Congresspeople are actually flying back and getting briefed, in the middle of a holiday weekend! Damn, they're acting like they might take this one seriously! That's News!
David Gergen today was all a-huff about how terrible it is for the President to risk being the first -- after 18 successful AUMF requests and no losses ever sent to Congress -- to lose the opportunity to embroil the US in another quagmire. Gergen doesn't get it that the Age Of War Without Cost is waning, and President Obama knows it. The President has been saying it for years, and again this week. We The People are weary of endless war. We The People are fed up with Congresspeople who show up to work to not do any work.
It might be time for all this New Normal to fade away, at last. And the Do-Nothing House be the agent of its demise.
Now that could be worth playing out. Assad isn't going anywhere (unless Iran convinces him otherwise -- worth a shot to see). And Bin Laden is still dead. Eventually even the tea partiers will get that fact through their heads. Maybe now would be a good time for a teachable moment. President Obama still has three years and no more elections to stand for, but the House only has one year before they have to stand for election.
Shit, yeah!