Reading about Trump’s reaction to being questioned about his hit job, to use appropriate mob language, on General Qasem Soleimani, as seen in this NPR interview with Senator Mike Lee (R-UT):
[NPR HOST RACHEL] MARTIN: You came out and came to the microphones and said it was the worst briefing you have seen on a military issue in your nine years in the U.S. Senate. What happened?
LEE: Yes. You know, my anger was not about the Soleimani killing. It was, instead, about the possibility of future military action against Iran. And it was on that topic that they refused to make any commitment about when, whether and under what circumstances it would be necessary for the president, or the executive branch of government, to come to Congress seeking authorization for the use of military force.
MARTIN: Because Congress was not given a…
LEE: I find that unacceptable.
MARTIN: Congress was not given a heads-up that the strike was going to happen against Soleimani.
LEE: That’s right. That’s right. And now, I want to be clear – with respect to the strike against Soleimani, that was arguably lawful. I still have questions that remain unanswered on that point. I’m going to set that side – aside a moment. And I’m going to assume, for purposes of this discussion, that that may well have been lawful.
What I’m most concerned about is about where that goes from here. What comes next? Is there another strike coming against Iran? If so, at what point do they need to come to us seeking an authorization for the use of military force? The fact that they were unable or unwilling to identify any point at which that would be necessary yesterday was deeply distressing to me.
And then Trump’s reaction to the House’s War Powers Resolution, in process, as reported by Gary Sargent in The Plum Line:
Meanwhile, Trump just rage-tweeted that he wants “all House Republicans” to “vote against Crazy Nancy Pelosi’s War Powers Resolution.”
That’s a reference to a measure that the House speaker is putting to a House vote Thursday that would require Trump to cease any military hostilities against Iran 30 days after enactment, if he hasn’t received congressional authorization for it. The House will all but certainly pass this, and there are other tougher measures on tap. …
Our system is now functionally that one person makes these extraordinarily consequential decisions. Plainly, the person in question is not fit to do so. …
But Trump’s tweet calling on “all House Republicans” to vote against the new war powers measure now means that being loyal to Trump is synonymous with giving him unconstrained warmaking authority, despite all the madness we’ve seen. And so it shall be.
And so has the mob boss decreed, so get thee behind him or suffer his wrath. I like the mixture of mob boss with evangelical language, it’s so appropriate.
But how to characterize the future? I’m a little divided here. Is this like a baby, seeing its rattle being taken away, screaming its infantile head off in hopes that Mom will lose her nerve and return it forthwith?
Or are we seeing the second coming of Gaius Julius Caesar, Roman dictator, frantically gathering power around himself? It sure seems like his second- and third-rate minions are doing his bidding because they, like him, can’t conceptualize how an actually functioning democracy makes us stronger, not weaker. Of course, with Moscow Mitch (R-KY) squeezing the idea of cooperative governance to death in the Senate, and former Speaker Ryan (R-WI) demonstrating exceptional incompetence in leading the House, I can see how those minions might not understand how a democracy is supposed to work – most of them are too young to have seen it in action, and they’ve been spoon-fed a hatred of the Democrats that blinds them to facts.
Understand, but neither excuse nor forgive.
And just for that little nuclear cherry on top of the sundae comes former Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders:
SARAH SANDERS (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): You know, I can’t think of anything dumber than allowing Congress to take over our foreign policy. They can’t seem to manage to get much of anything done. I think the last thing we want to do is push powers into Congress’ hands and take them away from the president. Any Democrat that doesn’t understand that America is safer now that one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world is rotting in hell is completely naive and completely misses what we need to have in a foreign policy and the last thing I want to do is see them take power away from President Trump and put it into their own hands. I don’t think anything could be worse for America than that. [Fox News via MediaMatters]
In case you don’t know it, war making powers are specified by the CONSTITUTION to reside with Congress. That they haven’t managed them very well for decades is irrelevant.
So I’m sure a lot of pundits are going to make much of Sanders’ remark, suggesting she’s ignorant, but I doubt that’s the case. I suspect this is just part of the GOP strategy for painting Trump as a helpless victim while he attempts to aggregate more and more power – and get himself elected. And unless Fox News gets on that rare white horse and makes a big deal out of the fact that Congress is the custodian of war making powers, most of the Fox News audience will just nod complacently and mark that off as another offense by the House Democrats. A few will remember, but will they bother to get outraged?
No, it’s the Democrats. When you’re in a cult …
