I certainly share Congressional Republicans frustration at a President who unilaterally decides when he will and when he wont fulfill his Constitutional duty to take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed (Article 2, Section 3). But this essay persuades me that it is futile and even perhaps dangerous to our Constitutional system for some Members of Congress to sue him for his failure to do so. The suit will almost certainly fail--probably by a unanimous Supreme Court decision. There are two appropriate Congressional responses instead. The less extreme is to confront the President directly--by refusing to fund things he DOES want to do, by refusing to pass laws he does want to enforce, etc. Thats the way our Constitutional system was designed to have “[a]mbition . . . counteract[ing] ambition” (The Federalist, no. 51). The more extreme is to impeach him. I think Obamas done thoroughly impeachable offenses, but so long as Democrats hold the majority in Congress impeachment will NOT result in conviction and removal from office and will instead only get his critics a black eye (no pun intended, but the race card will most certainly also get played). Consequently, I dont favor any impeachment attempt--certainly not now, and probably not even if Republicans gain control of the Senate via Novembers elections. The essay also persuades me, by the way, that House Speaker John Boehner and other establishment Republicans leading in the lawsuit action are doing so quite cynically: The most likely explanation is that Boehner and most of his colleagues in the House Republican leadership doubt their ability to defeat President Obama in the court of public opinion if and when they take up their real constitutional tools. Better to use the lawsuit to signal to voters their displeasure with an unpopular president on the upcoming pre-election county fair circuit than to risk their own political fortunes in a direct confrontation. To go a step further than the essay: House cleaning really must start with the Republican Party, particularly with its top leadership.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 21:56:13 +0000
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