Quote:
Originally Posted by spence
Makes the FU even better 
-spence |
makes your continued support disturbing
By DONNA CASSATA
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) --
Republicans and Democrats on Thursday derided President Barack Obama's claim that U.S. air attacks against Libya do not constitute hostilities and demanded that the commander in chief seek congressional approval for the 3-month-old military operation.
In an escalating constitutional fight, House Speaker John Boehner threatened to withhold money for the mission, pitting a Congress eager to exercise its power of the purse against a dug-in White House. The Ohio Republican signaled that the House could take action as early as next week.
"The accumulated consequence of all this delay, confusion and obfuscation has been a wholesale revolt in Congress against the administration's policy," said Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee who has backed Obama's actions against Libya.
The administration, in a report it reluctantly gave to Congress on Wednesday, said that because the United States is in a supporting role in the NATO-led mission, American forces are not facing the hostilities that would require the president to seek such congressional consent under the War Powers Resolution.
Instead of calming lawmakers, the White House report and its claims about no hostilities further inflamed the fierce balance-of-power fight.
"We have got drone attacks under way, we're spending $10 million a day," Boehner told reporters. "We're part of an effort to drop bombs on Gadhafi's compound. It doesn't pass the straight-face test, in my view, that we're not in the midst of hostilities."
Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., a combat veteran and member of the Armed Services Committee, scoffed at the notion.
"Spending a billion dollars and dropping bombs on people sounds like hostilities to me," Webb said in an interview.