Moribund Congress

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 …

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Publication information: Article title: Moribund Congress. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: The Washington Times (Washington, DC). Publication date: August 21, 2007. Page number: A12. © 2009 The Washington Times LLC. COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale Group.

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