Pelosi as ‘ridiculous hack’ with war-powers claim

Charles Cooke writes for National Review Online about a former U.S. House speaker’s clear partisan double standard.

As Nancy Pelosi knows, many other Democrats have taken action that was equivalent to Trump’s attack on Iran without asking Congress for permission. Barack Obama did it in Libya (and tried to do it in Syria, until he backed down — sort of); President Clinton did it in Kosovo; President Kennedy did it in Vietnam; and Harry Truman did it in Korea. Did Nancy Pelosi condemn them? Of course not. In 2011, the Washington Post reports, Nancy Pelosi became “one of the few to publicly defend” Obama’s incursions into Libya when she contended that “the limited nature of this engagement allows the president to go forward” without Congress. When asked explicitly by reporters if she was saying that Obama did not need authorization from Congress either for the initial attack or for the ongoing operations, Pelosi said, simply, “yes.” …

… Today, Pelosi complains that President Trump “ignored the Constitution by unilaterally engaging our military without Congressional authorization.” Come now. If Pelosi actually believed this, she would say the same thing irrespective of who happened to be president at the time. … Instead, she is expressing one of the core progressive views of government, which is that the executive branch must not be limited in its power, but that Republicans ought not to use that power if they are fortunate enough to win an election. This will not do. It cannot be the case that war-making is one of those irregular verbs from Yes, Minister: I may act without congressional authorization; you are ignoring the Constitution; he should be impeached and removed from office. The rules are the rules are the rules. There is nothing about President Trump that exempts him from the system that was used by Presidents Obama, Clinton, and others.

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