Apparently Byrd and the Democrats are trying to rewrite the Constitution again. With the help of a spineless Republican majority, Democrats have successfully changed the ‘advise and consent’ aspect of the judicial confirmation process into a 60 vote requirement from a simple majority, now he wants the requirement of a popular mandate to appropriations bills:
SEN. ROBERT BYRD: Secretary Rumsfeld, where is the mandate from the American people to carry out the reconstruction of Iraq? Who has set the parameters for how extensive this nation- building effort should be? And when did the American people give their assent?
DONALD RUMSFELD: Thank you, Senator Byrd. The answer to your question is that in our constitutional process, the president came to the Congress, as we all know; sought a resolution, received a resolution. He recognizes that under Article I of the Constitution, the Congress controls the purse strings, and therefore, he has made this request to the Congress. And certainly the deliberations that we’re currently engaged in…
SEN. ROBERT BYRD: But where is the mandate from the American people to carry out the reconstruction of Iraq and to Democratize that government?
DONALD RUMSFELD: The goal for the United States is not to stay there– or for the coalition. It’s to turn that country back over to the Iraqi people, which is, as Ambassador Bremer pointed out, a seven-point plan to do that through a constitution and elections, and then passing of sovereignty at a pace as rapidly as is reasonable.
SEN. ROBERT BYRD: But still I haven’t had an answer to my question as to where the mandate comes from the American people. The American people have never been told that we’re going into that country to build a new nation, to build a new government, to democratize the country and to democratize the Middle East. The American people haven’t been told that. They were told we were going in there because of weapons of mass destruction.
The man is a walking joke, and you can tell his colleagues on the right hold him in utter contempt while his colleagues on the left are simply terrified he is going to embarass them all again.
BTW- Bill Hobbs reminds us of the bait and switch some on the left are now trying to pull regarding the debate to go to war with Iraq.
Norbizness
I’m sure that this bait and switch, a mammoth conspiracy started by started by a single commenter on Mr. Hobbs’ weblog, is a much bigger problem than “Operation: Shifting Rationale” or “Operation: Phantom WMD”.
Don’t want the two conflated? Stop sending Cheney to appear on Meet the Press. Actively stop the rumor mill that leads to any substantial portion of Americans thinking that Iraq is involved in 9/11. Don’t call Iraq “the central battlefield” in the war on terrorism time and time again while Pakistan and Saudi Arabia remain unscathed.
Kimmitt
Dude’s got a point; Congress authorized the President to use force to remove a threat, not to rebuild Iraq afterwards.
Andrew Lazarus
It might also have been better not to fire the Cabinet officer who let us know how much George and Dick’s Excellent Adventure was going to cost (Lindley), while giving more and more influence to officials who, at least publically, underestimated the amount considerably (Wolfowitz, et al). You can imagine that not just Senator Byrd but others are a little peeved at the amount for which the blank check got cashed.
John Cole
Kimmit- You shock me.
Show me the consititutional requirement for a ‘mandate from the people,’ and I will side with you.
If Byrd wants to vote against it, the old coot can. But his grandstanding about irrelevant issues is stupid and pointless.
Kimmitt
I didn’t say he was right; I said he had a point. And I like watching old coots grandstand.
Pauly
THE CARRIER LANDING WAS A HUGE WASTE OF EVERYTHING! GAHHH! Sorry, I was channeling some old coot.
Harry
Isn’t ol’ Byrd referred to a the “Senselessness of the Senate?” It’s heartening to see that the good people of West Virginia don’t discriminate against politicians suffering from delusions, hallucinations, and senility. Hell, they get all three in one package.
M. Scott Eiland
I would suggest that Senate Republicans cast their “no” votes to Senator Byrd (D–Pork Barrel, West Virginia) with a single finger. You know which one.
Kimmitt
And I would suggest that maintaining a modicum of civility might be a good idea in a representative democracy.
cj
Kimmitt:
“Congress authorized the President to use force to remove a threat, not to rebuild Iraq afterwards.”
If any member of Congress did not realize that removing Saddam meant rebuilding Iraq afterwards, s/he was blindingly stupid.
I DO expect my Congressmen to connect point A to point B. That they claim not to be capable of doing so should reflect negatively upon THEM, not the current administration.
Jay Caruso
Maybe the old doddering idiot remembers The Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 which passed the Senate without amendment by unanimous consent?
Kimmitt
If Bush wanted a blank check to rebuild the country as well as to destroy it, he should have asked; he certainly would have gotten it.
Stentor
So far as I can tell, Byrd never said that reconstructing Iraq without a mandate from the American people is unconstitutional. The exchange is roughly:
BYRD: This is a bad idea because the American people don’t support it.
RUMSFELD: We aren’t obligated to have the support of the American people.