Tuesday, January 16, 2007

A Much Needed Lesson in Constitutional Law   [Andy McCarthy]

Let us give thanks, as usual, to the nonpareil team of David Rivkin & Lee Casey.  Here's an excerpt from their terrific op-ed in the Washington Post this morning that Kathryn already flagged in NRO Hot Links.  It should be required reading for the Democrat majority (in addition to the several Republicans who don't seem to know better) in the new wartime Congress:

To maintain the integrity of this original design, the Supreme Court has long ruled, in such cases as United States v. Klein (1872) and United States v. Lovett (1946), that Congress cannot attach unconstitutional conditions to otherwise proper legislation, including spending bills. As explained by Professor Walter Dellinger — President Bill Clinton's chief constitutional lawyer at the Justice Department — "[b]road as Congress' spending power undoubtedly is, it is clear that Congress may not deploy it to accomplish unconstitutional ends." This includes restricting the president's authority as commander in chief to direct the movement of U.S. armed forces. In that regard, Dellinger quoted Justice Robert Jackson — who said while serving as President Franklin Roosevelt's attorney general: "The President's responsibility as Commander-in-Chief embraces the authority to command and direct the armed forces in their immediate movements and operations, designed to protect the security and effectuate the defense of the United States."

You oppose the war?  Fine.  Then have the courage of your convictions:  Cut off funding and be politically accountable — and live with responsibility for the ensuing disaster that withdrawing while al Qaeda is still on the battlefield would be. 

But if you're not willing to end the fighting — which it is within your power to do — you don't get to micromanage the fighting.  And you should be ashamed of yourselves for passing anti-war, defeatist resolutions that have no effect on the power to prosecute the war and serve only to embolden the enemy while betraying our forces in harm's way.  That, as Bill Kristol has aptly put it, is "a demoralizing and revolting spectacle."

01/16 07:07 AMShare