Moribund Congress

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Byline: Bruce Fein, SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES

It has meekly surrendered to the President its pivotal lawmaking and oversight powers. Absent a miracle, the nation is destined to lose its time-honored checks and balances for a dominating and secret executive.

Congress has yielded to the president the decisive voice over war and peace. It customarily enacts open-ended authorizations to employ military force - for example, the Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) passed after September 11, 2001. The AUMF empowered the president to conduct war against international terrorism forever - putting the nation in a permanent state of war at the president's discretion. Since Pearl Harbor, Congress has never balked at supporting initiation of war or the use of military force by the president: Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq. The idea that Congress now would …