The first vote admonished Obama for his illegal war in Libya and the House overwhelmingly spanked Captain WTF, with 70 Democrats joining in, including progressive Congressman Jerrold Nadler, from New York City, who said that Obama was becoming an "absolute monarch". (H/T The Lonely Conservative)
The second vote was to de-fund Obama's illegal war in Libya (where he has our troops helping al qaeda and other jihadis who have a history of helping to kill Americans). That vote failed, thanks in part to the 89 Republicans who joined 149 Democrats in voting against the measure. (See who voted how HERE)
Via The Last Refuge:
The attempt at cutting off the funding for the war failed, even though by an overwhelming majority, most, believe the war is illegal, some GOP members jumped ship and voted to continue to fund it. Here is the update on that aspect:The Other McCain notes irony of Dem support for Obama's illegal war. Stacy's got some good snark going there:
House Votes Down GOP Attempt At Defunding Libyan War – WASHINGTON — The House has turned back a Republican-led effort to cut off money for military hostilities in the Libyan war. The vote was 238-180. It came after the House had overwhelmingly rejected a largely symbolic measure to give President Barack Obama the authority to continue U.S. involvement in the military operation against Moammar Gadhafi’s forces.The funding measure would have barred drone attacks and airstrikes but allowed the United States to continue actions in support of NATO. (article)If the attempt had been successful Obama would have been pinned against the wall and essentially would have needed to either a) Go to congress and ask for permission, or b) remove American troops from offensive combat operations. However, the vote failed.
Here is the ROLL CALL VOTE
You will note that Darryl Issa, Allen West, Michele Bachmann and Paul Ryan voted arm in arm support with Nancy Pelosi, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and the other rabid progressives to continue this constitutional violation and allow President Obama to continue violating the law. READ THE WHOLE THING
Today, 149 Democrats voted against defunding Obama’s Illegal War™ in Libya. Our nation now awaits the onset of Code Pink peace protests against such bloodthirsty imperialist warmongers as Nancy Pelosi, Raul Grijalva and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. RTRJosh Rogin writes at The Cable about some of the motivation on both sides of the aisle for voting against the attempt to de-fund Obama's illegal war in Libya; apparently, the wording of the bill may have actually given a backdoor endorsement by Congress for Obama's illegal war in Libya:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried to put lipstick on the pig of today's admonishment of the administration by Congress, saying that she was "gratified that the House has decisively rejected efforts to limit funding" for the intervention. She was referring to the House's rejection of a bill put forth by Rep. Tom Rooney (R-FL) that would have shut off the spigot of funds for most, but not all, U.S. military operations in Libya.Which begs the question, why doesn't someone in Congress put together a strong bill to truly stop Obama's illegal war in Libya? Also, for that matter, why don't they just go ahead and impeach Obama for his illegal war in Libya, which is an impeachable offense?
The vote failed 180-238 - but, in fact, there were more than enough lawmakers to pass the measure. Of the 149 Democrats who stuck with the president, up to 70 of them are totally opposed to the Libya intervention and want to see it completely defunded as soon as possible. They voted "no" on the Rooney's bill because they thought it was too weak, did not cut off all funds, and implicitly authorized the intervention.
These 70 Democrats make up the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), the largest caucus within the House Democratic Caucus, whose leadership includes Reps. Mike Honda (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ).
"Members of Congress voted no because the bill provided funding and legal authority for everything we're currently doing. It was back door authorization. Members didn't support authorizing what we're doing now in Libya," Michael Shank, Honda's spokesman, told The Cable. "The majority of the CPC voted no on the Rooney vote because of this."
In other words, if the GOP had put forth a stronger anti-Libya resolution, the progressive Democrats would have joined them and it would have passed. Despite what Clinton or other administration officials may say, the bill's failure cannot be seen as an endorsement of the Libya war.
The argument that the Rooney bill indirectly authorized the Libya war was made Friday on the House floor by many, including Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), who said:
"This bill purports to cut off funding for combat in Libya. In doing so it simply forbids what the constitution already forbids, the waging of war without explicit congressional authorization. But then it specifically grants to the president what up until now he has completely lacked: Congressional authority to engage in every conceivable belligerent act short of actually pulling the trigger."
"Refueling bombers on their way to targets, identifying and selecting targets, guiding munitions to their targets, logistical support, operational planning... these are all acts of war in direct support of belligerence at war and this bill authorizes them," he said. "Let's not enter a war through the backdoor when we have already decided not to enter it through the front." RTWT
Our "representatives" in Congress really do have some explaining to do; perhaps they've forgotten that if they continue to fail us, that we the people have the ability to see to their removal via primary and general elections which aren't all that far away. I think a lot politicians assume that we'll forget all about their repeated betrayals of us by the time we get to vote on whether these pols get to keep their jobs, but they need to realize that we're awake, we are paying attention, and we are not amused by their shenanigans.
This post is linked at The Other McCain. Big thanks to Wombat-socho!
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