There is an old Peyton Manning skit from SNL called “Mentor.” In it, Manning brings his unique motivational style to a pick up game of football. In it he asks one hapless kid, “I’m sorry, do you wanna lose?”* It is really hard watching the antics of the GOP in Congress and not have that phrase come to mind. One of the issues Obama has been using to flog Congress with is the approval of an new Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) to update the one dating from the Iraq War and to focus on ISIS.

I posted on how Obama is using this as “stray voltage” to divert attention from his other failures. If you recall the major objections which led to the GOP not passing the Obama-proffered draft back in August was that 1) it was only for three years, effectively signalling our allies and ISIS how long we were going to be interested, and 2) it forbade the use of ground troops, which, again, told our allies and ISIS that we weren’t taking it very seriously.

Yesterday a “bipartisan” AUMF was introduced in the House and Senate (our half of the bipartisan cluster f**k is VA Rep. Scott Rigell and AZ [mc_name name=’Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’F000444′ ]). Guess what.

SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES.
(a) Authorization- The President is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States as the President determines necessary and appropriate against ISIL or associated persons or forces as defined in section 6.
(b) War Powers Resolution Requirements-
(1) SPECIFIC STATUTORY AUTHORIZATION- Consistent with section 8(a)(1) of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 1547(a)(1)), Congress declares that this section is intended to constitute specific statutory authorization within the meaning of section 5(b) of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 1544(b)).
(2) APPLICABILITY OF OTHER REQUIREMENTS- Nothing in this Act supersedes any requirements of the War Powers Resolution (50 U.S.C. 1541 et seq.).
(c) Purpose- The purpose of this authorization is to protect the lives of United States citizens and to provide military support to regional partners in their battle to defeat ISIL. The use of significant United States ground troops in combat against ISIL, except to protect the lives of United States citizens from imminent threat, is not consistent with such purpose.
SEC. 4. DURATION OF AUTHORIZATION.
The authorization for the use of military force under this Act shall terminate three years after the date of the enactment of this Act, unless reauthorized.

Notice anything particular? Like it is only good for three years AND it contains a much stronger prohibition on the use of ground forces than the one Obama wanted.

Obama’s AUMF allowed US ground forces to engage in defensive operations, this AUMF means it would be illegal for US forces to engage ISIS forces overrunning an allied position.

You don’t even know what to think when you are confronted with this kind of rank douchebaggery. Why are our people playing all cutesy with this instead of simply giving Obama the authority to fight ISIS and then holding him accountable rather than acting as his willing accomplices in avoiding responsibility.

Enjoy Peyton.

*Trust me, if you are working on a project with your wife never use “look, I throw, you catch, it’s not that hard” as a critique of her performance.