Kowabunga

San Fran Nan Wants To Sue The President

San Fran Nan is at it again, this time looking at suing the president should he use a signing statement on proposed legislation that would provide needed funding for the troops.

According to a report on the Hill:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is threatening to take President Bush to court if he issues a signing statement as a way of sidestepping a carefully crafted compromise Iraq war spending bill.

Pelosi recently told a group of liberal bloggers, “We can take the president to court” if he issues a signing statement, according to Kid Oakland, a blogger who covered Pelosi’s remarks for the liberal website dailykos.com.

“The president has made excessive use of signing statements and Congress is considering ways to respond to this executive-branch overreaching,” a spokesman for Pelosi, Nadeam Elshami, said. “Whether through the oversight or appropriations process or by enacting new legislation, the Democratic Congress will challenge the president’s non-enforcement of the laws.”

It is a scenario for which few lawmakers have planned. Indicating that he may consider attaching a signing statement to a future supplemental spending measure, Bush last week wrote in his veto message, “This legislation is unconstitutional because it purports to direct the conduct of operations of the war in a way that infringes upon the powers vested in the presidency.”

The legislation that Bush vetoed last week was definitely unconstitutional as it put Congress in charge of the military, circumventing the President’s ability to function as Commander in Chief, by requiring a withdrawal from Iraq if Congress decides they don’t like how things are going. Bush, by communicating the fact that the bill was unconstitutional via a signing statement, was the correct way to communicate to Congress the reason the veto should be sustained.

The President is the only thing standing between the Democrats in Congress, who continue to extend their grab for power.

Currently, a number of Democrats running for the presidency, have made it clear that they would like to rescind the authorization for war in Iraq, a tactic that is gaining popularity with the Dems in Congress as a whole. How this would, or could, work is beyond me. So long as Bush is in the White House, such legislation would be vetoed, rightfully so, and the veto would be sustained as the Dems do not have enough support to override the veto. This tactic, even if it were to gain enough momentum in Congress now, would not have any chance of getting through before 2009. Hopefully, by then, we’ll have been able to stabilize Iraq and it will become a moot point. But don’t hold your breath.

The biggest thorn in Iraq continues to be al-Qaeda terrorists and the armed militias of such thugs as Muqtada al-Sadr. These militias act as death squads, inciting more violence. Iran is also a serious problem as it continues to funnel funding and materials to the terrorists and murderers. Syria is also a problem as it continues to serve as a gateway for terrorist recruits heading into Iraq.

As long as al-Qaeda continues to operate, and thugs like al-Sadr are allowed to maintain armed miltias, there will be problems in establishing a free and democratic Iraq. Eliminating these threats is the key to success, and closing the avenues of funding and materials is tantamount to continued success.

Tags:

Pelosi Veto Congress Iraq War On Terror