Peter Krupa

Interesting things going down on Capital Hill. Bush having vetoed the Democrat’s withdrawal time-table/military funding bill, Sen. Clinton is going all scorched earth on him and proposing a vote to reverse the authorization of force that Congress granted the President five years ago.

A couple of thoughts come to mind. First of all, this kind of makes me like Hillary. Not because I think we should pull out of Iraq immediately, but it’s nice to see someone in the legislative branch finally play hardball with this president. A leader, she is? Maybe?

The second thought is the one most constitutional scholars are probably having at the moment: Is Congress even allowed to do take-backs on war authorizations? It’s never happened before, but speaking as a non-lawyer private citizen-type person, I think it would be a wonderful development.

It would be wonderful because, historically, American presidents have shown a penchant for duping the American people into wars. Spanish-American War, Vietnam War, Iraq War, etc. The idea has been, basically, if you can get Congress to write you that blank check, you’re home free, and who cares if it turns out you were lying through your teeth? There’s a war on!

But if Congress can do take-backs? That might make these war-mongering, chest-beating tough guys think twice before they climb into their tanks (metaphorically speaking of course).

Anyway, we’ll see how it shakes out. Oh, and speaking of scorched earth, that Washington, D.C., madam will be naming names on 20/20 tonight. If I only had a TV.