I don’t want to get into the middle of this stink but I do want to go on the record as saying that I believe it was foolish to involve the United States in Libya, that the president should have treated our efforts there as “hostilities” from the beginning and assumed a responsibility to comply with the requirements of the War Powers Resolution, that he was wrong to subvert the normal Office of Legal Counsel procedure, that he took the wrong advice when he rejected the OLC and the Attorney General and the Pentagon’s legal advice, that he has no obvious justification for his actions, that he could have avoided controversy and bolstered support for the mission by simply following the clear meaning of the law, and that I wrote a letter to a well-placed person I know in the White House telling them all of these things and also telling them that I thought they were being stupid and arrogant, and that I couldn’t accept their explanations or defend them, and that I can’t for the life of me figure out what they think they’ve gained out of this.
All that being said, this is not something I would impeach the president over. It is a potentially impeachable offense, but a more reasonable response is either to (threaten to) cut off funding until the president complies with the law and gets an authorization to use force, or to censure him. I think Congress would have approved this mission if asked respectfully. I think Congress continues to believe in the mission. And, so, this is really not about the policy as much as separation of powers and the prerogatives of Congress. Congress doesn’t need to go impeaching anyone when they can simply insist on their rights, and use their existing powers to get their way.
I am somewhat disappointed, both politically and as a matter of principle, but I am not surprised to see the Executive Branch give the middle finger to Congress. I have no problem if Congress gives the middle finger right back, just so long as they don’t overreact.
As for the mission? What can I say? I told you so.
