Bipartisan Congress rebuffs Obama on Libya mission

[Geee]

Washington Times:

Crossing party lines to deliver a stunning rebuke to the commander in chief, the vast majority of the House voted Friday for resolutions telling President Obama he has broken the constitutional chain of authority by committing U.S. troops to the international military mission in Libya.

In two votes — on competing resolutions that amounted to legislative lectures of Mr. Obama — Congress escalated the brewing constitutional clash over whether he ignored the founding document’s grant of war powers by sending U.S. troops to aid in enforcing a no-fly zone and naval blockade of Libya.

The resolutions were non-binding, and only one of them passed, but taken together, roughly three-quarters of the House voted to put Mr. Obama on notice that he must explain himself or else face future consequences, possibly including having funds for the war cut off.

“He has a chance to get this right. If he doesn’t, Congress will exercise its constitutional authority and make it right,” said House Speaker John A. Boehner, the Ohio Republican who wrote the resolution that passed, 268-145, and sets a two-week deadline for the president to deliver the information the House is seeking.

Minutes after approving Mr. Boehner’s measure, the House defeated an even more strongly-worded resolution offered by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Ohio Democrat, that would have insisted the president begin a withdrawal of troops.

Most lawmakers said that was too rash at this point, and said they wanted to give Mr. Obama time to comply. Some also said immediate withdrawal would leave U.S. allies in the lurch.

[pollyannaish]

IMO, this is the biggest thing to happen to President Obama since he took office.

 

Partisans can blame all kinds of things on the other team. THIS is something that Obama completely and totally owns. His one solo effort. And he screwed it up in a HUGE way by not getting proper approval and by making promises he can not keep.

 

This could be real trouble during the election. I suspect we are on our way to seeing a primary challenge.

[Argyle58]

That Kucinich signed on as a co-sponsor says a lot, and getting 47 Democrats to vote "aye" on an anti-Obama bill would have been unthinkable a couple of months ago. Its still a long way until November 2012, but the trends are gaining momentum.