Iran, the Constitution, and the would be emperor


The Washington Monthly reproduces a portion of an interview with constitutional scholar Bruce Ackerman, in which Ackerman says that Bush lacks the constitutional authority to attack Iran without prior Congressional approval. Kevin Drum concludes:

I think that's right. And I think Democrats better be prepared to figure out how they're going to vote on such an authorization. It's not as if they aren't getting plenty of warning that it's likely to cross their desks sometime in the near future.

I think he's wrong. The Democrats are never going to have to worry about how they're going to vote on such an authorization, because Bush will never seek such an authorization. He will conclude, rightly, that he stands a chance to lose such a vote. He will simply order an attack, and dare the Democrats to do something about it. At that point they will have only two choices, which in the end will yield the same result.

They can acquiesce and do nothing. Or, they can impeach Bush. The end result of either approach will be the same, except the latter course is the more honorable. If the last few days have proven anything, it is that Congressional Republicans in both houses have abandoned any loyalty to the constitution or to republican forms of government in the name of blind loyalty to their party and, by extension, the sociopath who currently heads that party. Bush would be impeached in the House were it to come to a vote, but the Senate would never convict. In 1974 there were enough Republicans with consciences to spell Nixon's doom; he was going to be convicted in the Senate with plenty of Republican votes. That isn't going to happen this year, barring a miracle or a political earthquake of magnitude 8.

So Bush will simply attack. It's not like he hasn't been telling us, in his signing statements, that he holds the power of war in his blood stained hands.

The attack on Iran, when it comes, thus poses two distinct threats. It threatens to complete the destabilization of that region of the world, with consequences that can't be totally predicted, but which will range from bad to disastrous. It also threatens to end our form of government as we know it, dramatically altering the relationship between the president and the Congress, reducing that body to almost advisory status. This is being done to us by a man mired in historically low approval ratings, but so long as Congressional Republicans (aided and abetted by the compromised beltway media) continue to enable him, he might just as well still be in the 90's. The Democrats (perhaps) might try their best to do something about it, but they will be reduced to impotent bystanders in the face of Republican intransigence.

As Paul Krugman pointed out in another context, The next two years ... are going to be a rolling constitutional crisis. Iran will be the ultimate constitutional crisis, and it may prove our downfall.
Posted: Thursday - February 08, 2007 at 08:38 PM          

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