In some ways, John Yoo’s argument (“Antiwar Senator, War-Powers President“) is almost… superfluous. The basic point is straightforward enough: President Obama, just like every other President since 1973, has come to the conclusion that the War Powers Act is in fact an unconstitutional and onerous restriction on the executive branch’s constitutionally mandated oversight of military affairs. This conclusion follows the usual evolutionary arc: as Yoo helpfully points out, Senator Obama and Candidate Obama had a fairly different view of unilateral action than does the (theoretically) better-educated and (theoretically) more experienced President Obama. Couple that with the further detail that the usual Democratic suspects will not be trying to repeat with Libya their largely ineffectual push against the liberation of Iraq (Kuchinich and Dean, to give just two examples, have already been effectively whipped back into place), and one is left to conclude that there was a lot of deliberate lying about motivations being made over the last decade by the Democratic party.
Again, this is almost superfluous. John Yoo is arguing on Barack Obama’s behalf. His major complaint is that Obama’s doing a worse job than George W Bush did*.
John Yoo. The guy who did the waterboarding memos.
There are antiwar progressives asking themselves right now, Were we really this stupid? Did we really let the Democratic party shake us down for money and time and effort and votes, just so we could have it rubbed in our faces that they cared less about our beliefs than they would a used tissue? Are we really this easy to manipulate? – and the answer is, of course, “yes.” They’re also quite abysmally stupid. And the best part? They still have no excuse for not anticipating this. Even the abysmally stupid should have seen this coming. That they chose not to is an ironic testament to the power of human delusion. Or possibly it’s just funny. I can’t quite decide which.
Via Instapundit, who is enjoying putting the boot in as much as I am.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
Moe Lane
Dan Spencer
Dan McLaughlin
Jeff Emanuel
Thx for this Moe. I am proud of how those on the right, on BOTH
Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary) Saturday, March 26th at 5:05PM EDT (link)sides of the legal, constitutional and other issues re war powers, are most always consistent no matter who is President. Its one of the reasons I am proud to be a Republican.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com and Charlotte Observer columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
Yoo's article is right on
aesthete (Diary) Saturday, March 26th at 5:26PM EDT (link)Though our intervention in Libya seems to have been undertaken without forethought or a point, it is not without precedent and Constitutional support.
I’m glad that he’s staying consistent: while I’m not sure that I agree with all of his writings about the Constitution and the unitary executive, he is to his credit consistent and always ready with proof for his beliefs.
“It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.”
-P.J. O’Rourke
Agreed.
spainishirish (Diary) Saturday, March 26th at 6:24PM EDT (link)I think intervention on behalf of rebels who very well may want to kill us once in power is foolish. Nonetheless, I don’t doubt for an instant it is constitutional. Yoo is both right and consistent.
completely agree
streiff (Diary) Saturday, March 26th at 7:37PM EDT (link)what Obama did is stupid and ill considered but not unconstitutional
“What keeps me here is the reek of beer, the ladies and the craic”
I had the pleasure of working with John Yoo
leftylurker (Diary) Saturday, March 26th at 8:15PM EDT (link)And while the infamous memo is a pretty sorry piece of legal writing (he would have not accepted something that shoddily written in his Conlaw class) he was always a total gentleman, an amazing resource for his students, and really good natured in the face of all the attacks on him.
So I’m not surprised that he’s displaying integrity now.
I saw him on the Daily Show
aesthete (Diary) Sunday, March 27th at 12:08AM EDT (link)and thought that he acquitted himself pretty well.
Is there any chance that I could coax an explanation out of you regarding why/how the waterboarding memo was based on bad legal reasoning? I am not a lawyer, and have only heard the perspective of those pre-disposed to agreeing with Yoo for ideological reasons, so I would be interested in your response.
“It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.”
-P.J. O’Rourke
Absolutely
leftylurker (Diary) Sunday, March 27th at 9:41AM EDT (link)I have to put up a bunch of drywall today, but next open thread I’ll write more on why I say that the memo was bad.
Sound Like Some Group You Know?
saintgeorgegentile Saturday, March 26th at 11:37PM EDT (link)Even the abysmally stupid should have seen this coming.
Could say the same about the Dems and the unions in Wisconsin.
Professor Yoo also has a series of posts over at Ricochet on this matter, linked here http://ricochet.com/Profile/John-Yoo
Freedom is the glue of capitalism, that amoral wisdom of the markets that most efficiently allots goods and services to a citizenry.
-Victor Davis Hanson
Yoo is correct about Executive power
Adjoran (Diary) Sunday, March 27th at 2:38AM EDT (link)So I agree Obama has the right to enter the Libyan action – even under the War Powers act, which I believe to be unconstitutional.
It is one thing to HAVE the right to do something, and quite another to BE right in doing it, though. Obama’s indecisiveness – this crisis began back around the time of the NEW ZEALAND earthquake, and that was the time a real leader would have acted – has led to a muddled policy without any clear goals or endgame strategy.
But he also has left Congress in the dark about his intentions. Again, he isn’t legally obligated to include them at this point, but even a Bozo like Barack must realize he will eventually have to get the funding from them.
War D'jure
tulsajack Sunday, March 27th at 5:08PM EDT (link)A political leader who goes to war without mobilizing public support behind him is a fool. He risks having the rug pulled out from under him, both militarily and politically. Obama had plenty of time to consult with Congress and America’s allies on contingency plans as Mideast turmoil mounted, with the goal of defining the national interest and arranging bi-partisan agreement on U.S. policy in advance.
So what did The Kenyan do? Nothing, as usual, except lie and obfuscate. He is, indeed, a fool. But people will die unnecessarily because of this phony’s cowardly incompetence, and the time will come when even clowns like Joe Biden and Harry Reid may not find that funny.
Tom Woods
devereaux Monday, March 28th at 11:33AM EDT (link)On War Powers
http://www.tomwoods.com/warpowers/