Obama to Congress: I don’t trust you…
…but I trust them:
A political storm over the trade of five Taliban inmates for a captured American soldier intensified on Monday when Obama administration officials told U.S. lawmakers that up to 90 people within the administration – but no members of Congress – were told in advance about the swap.
“It strikes me as unfortunate that they could have 80 to 90 people in the administration aware of what was happening and not be able to trust a single Republican or Democrat in the House or the Senate,” Representative Greg Walden of Oregon, a member of the House of Representatives Republican leadership, told reporters after leaving a briefing on the exchange.
And this, of course, despite the fact that Obama was required by law to inform Congress 30 days ahead of time.
Ted Cruz is proposing legislation in the Senate that “would bar any federal funding for Guantanamo transfers for six months.” The same will be happening in the House. There is even a very remote possibility that such a statute might pass, even in the Democrat-controlled Senate, because Democrats are that angry at the president. And isn’t it interesting how so many of the bipartisan votes in Congress during this administration have been in opposition to Obama rather than in agreement?.
Of course, it won’t matter, even if the bill does manage somehow to pass. Obama will just defy it if he wants to and take the funds from elsewhere. But the more Democrats in the Senate he pisses off, the more likely it is that some day he could be impeached in the House and convicted through the votes of Democratic senators joining Republicans to do so. I am not saying this has any sort of likelihood of happening, of course; the possibility is remote as well. But that would be the route by which it at least theoretically could happen.
Members of Congress don’t like to find out they’re just figurehead puppets to this president. But if they don’t want to be considered puppets, they’d do well not act to like puppets. Tyrants usually work their way into greater power by getting a legislature to vote away some of its power (see the Enabling Act, or the history of Hugo Chavez, for example) under the guise of crisis. So far Obama has dispensed with that step. He figures he can accomplish the same thing without it.
[NOTE: Egad.
I guess Congress is always the last to know.]
Impeaching the President would be surest way for Republicans to piss away the 2016 election.
Dave Miller:
Not if there is strong bipartisan support for conviction. That is the only circumstance under which I would ever recommend it. Impeachment without conviction is worse than futile.
“It strikes me as unfortunate” that we have
Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon as a member of the House of Representatives Republican leadership.
Leadership, my ass.
The Waldens, the Ryans, the Cantors are all wonderful Leaders From Behind.
As to impeach/convict, forget about it, do, even if there’s bipartisan sentiment for conviction. Cutting one head off a many-headed Hydra accomplishes nothing. Impeachment was designed to deal with a solitary rogue, a wannabe King, not an entire Administration.
Didn’t we have the chain of succession posted here recently? It will make your blood run cold.
I wonder how significant the anti-Clinton wing of the Democrats is. Removing Obama before the last year of his term would put Biden (shudder) in a stronger position to stop Hillary! ™.
The administration is going to experience more and more “insiders” starting to jump ship. As in the case of this from National Journal – “The email hit my in-box at 9:41 p.m. last Wednesday. From one of the most powerful Democrats in Washington, a close adviser to the White House, the missive amounted to an electronic eye roll. “Even I have had enough.”
I once knew a political operative. He worked for Reagan. But he had worked for other Republicans before that and went on to work for George H.W. Bush. People like him live and breathe politics. It’s their life, and in most cases, their religion. When an administration is coming up on its last two years, they must begin to look for new jobs for the years ahead. If the administration is in trouble, they get cold feet fairly easily. They don’t want to be stuck on a leaky boat and will start to look for new allies or new boats to ride in. It’s an uncertain life and requires a good deal of reptilian instincts. That’s why they are so, well, reptilian in manner.
We’ll probably see more “insiders” beginning to abandon this leaky boat. This administration is not going to get any better. If it was a stock, I’d short it. The question is, are we headed for an Argentinian type crisis, or is Obama another Mugabe?
So there is one thing that Obama and I agree on; I don’t trust Congress either.
And Eric Cantor loses to a political novice in the VA 7 primary.
When you are not constrained by law and/or conscience, what difference does it make? The dinosaur media will not say a word, and the rest of us are just “right-wing” nut cases. What would restrain Hillary if she is elected? NOTHING!!!