During yesterday’s post-shellacking presser, President Obama mentioned that he would seek Congressional authorization for the ongoing campaign against ISIS instead of continuing to coast on the fumes of the post-9/11 AUMF:
“The world needs to know we are united behind this effort and that the men and women of our military deserve our clear and unified support,” Mr. Obama said, adding that he would begin a dialogue with congressional leaders when they come to the White House on Friday.
Better late than never. The timing is interesting, though. It’s not likely that forcing the Repubs to take a position on this would have affected the midterms, but I don’t understand why it made sense to let them have their cake and eat it too, with McCain and Co. screeching for more bombing and arming of elusive “moderates” on the one hand and the GOP peanut gallery criticizing the administration’s strategy and results on the other.
Well, in any case, the legislative branch is supposed to weigh in on this kind of thing — it’s right there in their pocket Constitutions, I think — and now they’ll have their chance. It’s not only the right thing to do, it might also result in a scrap between the GOP’s neo-con and libertarian factions. I’ll be rooting for injuries in that contest.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Between this and the rumored pending executive order on immigration, Obama is setting the GOP up for a suicidal civil war. If the Republicans leave you any money for popcorn, go get some as the next couple of years should be fairly entertaining.
Dexter
May be the Pryor et. al. on the democratic side were too afraid to take the vote. Just like they were afraid with the immigration reform.
Seanly
Speaking of the branches, it looks like the 6th Court of Appeals upheld marriage equality bans in 4 states today.
gbear
Rooting for injuries will be the only reason to pay any attention to either the house or senate for the next two years.
JPL
Democrats better learn how to nationalize elections or they will lose. It’s not all local.
SiubhanDuinne
@Seanly:
Meaning it will now go to the Supremes? Would they hear it this session?
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Almost certainly and possibly.
JGabriel
Betty Cracker:
I absolutely think the President should have gone ahead with executive action on immigration reform before the election, but this I get. No, it probably wouldn’t have affected the midterms much, but the Republicans would have been required by their base to oppose anything and everything the President proposed in the run-up to the election – or expose themselves to the kind of wrath displayed towards Cristie for working with the President after Hurricane Sandy.
So putting the AUMF on hold until after the election makes sense, if the President wants to have any hope of getting any cooperation at all.
Major Major Major Major
Glad he’s finally doing it. The sad thing is it’s still just a symbolic act and political theatre even though it’s, like, you know, mandated by law and stuff. I know Obama tries to be a Good Governance Guy and all though, not really criticizing the action, just a little sad.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: My half-baked theory is that the rapid and widespread acceptance of marriage equality, mostly by the courts, was a net plus electorally for team R Tuesday. It was something that was difficult for Democrats to take credit for in the campaign, and it completely eliminated it as an electoral issue most places, making some of the R’s not look as foaming-at-the-mouth crazy as the 2012 batch did.
chopper
Could be the operation against ISIS is starting to shift a bit.
FlipYrWhig
@Dexter: It even may have been a sop to “the left”: don’t put Democrats in a position of feeling like they have to support new military action that a lot of their voters are leery about.
FlipYrWhig
What about forcing the Democrats to take a position on it? Because that would have happened too.
Major Major Major Major
OT: https://twitter.com/YouAreCarrying is my new favorite twitter account. tweet ‘inventory’ at it and it’ll tell you what you’re carrying.
Howard Beale IV
@Omnes Omnibus: Now SCOTUS will have to take it up, and ironies of ironies, CATO will be right there with an amicus brief wielding something about the Supremacy clause trumpeting the states or some such bullshit.
In this case, CATO follows the stopped-clock example.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: Now if I could take a picture of a person and it’d tell me they’re packing heat, that would be useful.
Someguy
So what to think about this on the merits, domestic politics aside?
ISIS is really shitty.
On the other hand, this is just another attack on brown people to secure The Oil Zone so we can continue to make deals with the crooked regional bosses to basically steal the oil from the locals, who the regional crooks exploit.
Oh wait, silly me. Let’s call Bibi and ask him what to do. He’ll know.
Marc
@Dexter: Yes, exactly. Obama could have put the GOP in a corner by asking for an ISIS vote (as he once did with Syria). The only reason he didn’t was to protect timid Dems who didn’t want to take the vote either.
And, just as with the immigration delay, he got nothing to show for it–not even the senate seats he was trying to save. Might as well go all in now, but I wish he had done this over the summer.
Mostly I wish more senate Dems would grow a pair. It’s not like running and hiding helped them.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
This wouldn’t have hurt Republicans at all. They would simply have attacked the president’s proposal for being insufficiently hawkish and no one would have made them get more specific. Without anyone who both could and would pin them down (Democrats couldn’t on their own and the media wouldn’t), there would have been no downside in the debate for Republicans.
Howard Beale IV
@Major Major Major Major: Ah, the old Infocom days.
Mike E
Wow, this president didn’t use our troops as political theater, huh. Weird. I’m really not used to this…
The Other Chuck
@Major Major Major Major: Also check out https://twitter.com/_The_Thief for a nice complement to YouAreCarrying
Major Major Major Major
@Howard Beale IV: Inform 7 is a pretty fun little programming language if you’d like to write your own. It looks like this.
Understand “talk to [someone]” as talking to. Understand “talk to [something]” as talking to. Talking to is an action applying to one visible thing.
A thing has some text called printing. The printing of a thing is usually “blank”.
Understand the command “read” as something new. Understand “read [something]” as reading. Reading is an action applying to one thing, requiring light. Check reading: if the printing of the noun is “blank”, say “Nothing is written on [the noun].” instead. Carry out reading: say “[the noun] reads: [printing of the noun][line break]”. Report reading: do nothing.
Major Major Major Major
@The Other Chuck: yeah that fucker stole one of my potions
Donkey Hotey
Since we all know how concerned the republicans are about the deficit, what with it stealing the very bread from the mouths of our children and all, I have no doubt they will pass a surtax to pay for our ongoing bombing, etc., and whatever comes next.
Buddy H
Just saw this latest Key & Peele “Obama Anger Translator” bit. Luther, the anger translator, compares Obama to a Lord of the Sith, but instantly regrets it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDyO4KzbuiE
BillinGlendaleCA
@Donkey Hotey: Sure, just like they did last time.
Sherparick
@FlipYrWhig: I believe this is correct. A request for an authorization vote for ISIS would have split the Democratic Party with most of the progressive left (and most people on this blog) calling for their liberal, Democratic, senators and representatives to vote “No.” Then the media story would be about all the hippies in the Democratic Party not supporting their President and sending love notes to beheaders. I expect both Reid and Pelosi asked the President not to request it before the election. Not particularly brave, but they remembered Bush asking for his use of force in Iraq authorization before the 2002 midterms and how that worked for the Democrats.
Chris
I’m not convinced that going after ISIS is a great idea, but purely politically, this is the smart way to do it. Do not let Congressional Republicans turn it into an endless stream of Monday morning quarterbacking – rope them into the decision-making process and make them own it.
Chris
@Someguy:
Leading inevitably to a resurgence of something like ISIS further down the line; corruption and heavy-handedness from the government in Baghdad directly fueled its rise in the first place.