Washblog || Will Patty Murray Give Bush Authorization-by-Default to Attack Iran?

Will Patty Murray Give Bush Authorization-by-Default to Attack Iran?

By noemie maxwell
Mon Mar 19, 2007 at 10:50:13 AM PST
Section: Washington State Topic: Peace

President Bush now has implied authority to launch military attacks on other countries without prior approval from Congress. There have been efforts to reassert the Constitutional requirement for Congressional approval. In January, Senator Byrd sponsored Senate Resolution 39, "Expressing the sense of the Senate on the need for approval by the Congress before any offensive military action by the United States against another nation." Earlier this month, Senator Jim Webb sponsored Senate Resolution 759, "A bill to prohibit the use of funds for military operations in Iran."

These resolutions have not gone anywhere. The current supplemental, which would authorize another $100 billion for this war, and is about to be approved by the House, originally contained language that would have required Bush to get Congressional approval before attacking Iran. It was stripped out.

A failure to reassert this Congressional role is tantamount to implicitly abandoning it. Senator Murray is the Senate Majority Conference Secretary, the fourth-highest rank in the Democratic caucus. She is a senior member of the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations. In an increasingly weak Congress which has ceded so much power and authority to the Executive branch, Murray, nonetheless, has great power over whether Bush is authorized to attack Iran. How will she use that power? Here's a form to write her: Peace Action: End the War in Iraq.

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Will Patty Murray Give Bush Authorization-by-Default to Attack Iran? | 13 comments (13 topical)

A quickie before I'm off to the peace march~

Jim McDermott, at his annual Potato Feast fundraiser last might, said that Pelosi "had promised" a vote requiring congress to authorize any miltary action against Iran. (After such language was stripped from the current funding bill.)

Better than nothing, but I don't think Bush will be stopped, or even much slowed down much, even if such a resolution passes with the usual warnings against "tying the President's hands" (from Democrats!)

by dinazina on Mon Mar 19, 2007 at 01:15:10 PM PST

* 1 none 0 *

what are you implying?

Patty has been one of the strongest opponents of Dubya's Folly in the Senate. She voted against the original authorization, and she's been consistent in her opposition.

So why all this anti-Patty stuff? I mean, that "citizens' arrest" crapola in her office (and Inslee's too, as I recall ... also a stupid choice), and now this.

Why pick on your friends when there are plenty of non-friends out there?

You're only young once, but you can be immature forever -- Larry Andersen
Blogging at Peace Tree Farm

by N in Seattle on Mon Mar 19, 2007 at 02:58:37 PM PST

* 2 none 0 *

Friendship by noemie maxwell, 03/19/2007 03:06:12 PM PST (none / 0)
I don't care what Sen. Murray does by DWE, 03/19/2007 09:06:48 PM PST (none / 0)

it takes 51 to tango by N in Seattle, 03/20/2007 08:49:44 AM PST (none / 0)

And we really start 2 down by gibney, 03/20/2007 10:03:15 AM PST (none / 0)

Tim Johnson by N in Seattle, 03/20/2007 11:09:13 AM PST (none / 0)

Granted, but by gibney, 03/20/2007 01:21:34 PM PST (none / 0)

Sen. Murray by DWE, 03/20/2007 04:28:27 PM PST (none / 0)

we're talking about eloquence? by N in Seattle, 03/20/2007 04:55:24 PM PST (none / 0)

Actually, by today's standards, by DWE, 03/20/2007 05:20:28 PM PST (none / 0)

If everyone waits for everyone else by noemie maxwell, 03/20/2007 04:47:39 PM PST (none / 0)
51, 67 today. not 60 for 6 years. 50.7 % by rmdSeaBos, 03/20/2007 06:25:52 PM PST (none / 0)

Will Patty Murray Give Bush Authorization-by-Default to Attack Iran? | 13 comments (13 topical)

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