PHOTOS, PAGE 1

       Editor and prime reporter is Doug Terry, a veteran television and radio reporter in   Washington, DC, (details below)

The US House of Representatives has defeated two measures that were pushed by Republicans, and some Democrats, designed to embarrass Obama on the involvement in Libya.

First, the House refused to pass a resolution that would have officially authorized American involvement in actual hostilities, in effect kicking Obama for proceeding without prior Congressional authorization.  Next, the House voted down a measure that would have cut off funding for further involvement in the Libya effort of the US and NATO.

The Republicans are suddenly against war. Who knew? Will we see them, ties and  pinstripes, marching in DC soon singing “Give Peace a Chance?” Not likely. Those with reasonably good short term memory will recall that it wasn’t so long ago some Republicans were calling Democrats traitors for questioning anything about the Bush war in Iraq. Plus, they said no one could talk about when a withdrawal would occur, because it would weaken the forces in the field. Well, no matter. The boot is on the other foot now.

It is in no way unprecedented for members of Congress, particularly of the opposite party, to try to find ways to embarrass a sitting president, but doing so on a matter of this sort is highly unusual.  If anything, the Republicans could be seen as taking a page from a very old Democratic books, except that when opposition to the war in Vietnam boiled up, there was a Democrat in the White House. In all the time Nixon was president (6+ years), the resolutions against the war in Vietnam, far, far more costly and controversial than Libya, never passed. In this case, the Republicans decided on their own to make a challenge, without a ground swell of public opposition coming first. These efforts show just how sharp partisanship is these days in DC and how very far it would be to go toward any sort of cooperation on anything.

Raising Constitutional issues about war can be valid. The War Powers Act passed in the wake of Vietnam has actually had the effect of making going to war easier for presidents. What is so different, in Republican eyes, about going to hostilities in Libya versus spending hundreds of billions to go to war in Iraq? It seems like what matters most is who was president when the bombing  started, not the principles involved.

Doug Terry, 6.24.11

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