If you can make sense of Mitch McConnell's approach to running the Senate, by all means explain it to me. Because I'm lost. Faced with a rogue president who is determined to make his own treaties with hostile foreign nations, in obvious violation of Article 2, Section 2 of the Constitution, McConnell's response is to attempt to pass a statutory law establishing the very thing already established by Article 2, Section 2.
But then - wait! - to postpone the vote on this very same bill because it has no hope of passing!
How do you like government-by-the-seat-of-the-pants, America? Because that's what it's come to:
The Senate majority leader has decided to delay a Tuesday vote on legislation that would allow Congress to approve or reject any nuclear agreement that global powers reach to scale back Iran’s nuclear ambitions. He informed the Senate Republican Conference of the decision on Thursday afternoon following Senate Democrats’ decision to vote against advancing the bill before March 24.
“It is clear that Senate Democrats will filibuster their own bill—a bill they rushed to introduce before the White House cut a deal with Iran. So, instead, the Senate will turn next to the anti-human-trafficking legislation while Democrats decide whether or not they believe they and Congress as a whole should be able to review and vote on any deal the President cuts with the leaders of Iran,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for McConnell.
This is the same thing they tried in December when Obama went full-bore with executive amnesty. They tried to pass a bill saying he couldn't do that. Of course, he would have vetoed the bill, meaning they had failed in their attempt to assert by statute what is already clear in the Constitution.
You can of course condemn the Democrats for filibustering the bill, and you should - not to mention Obama for his willingness to veto it, although Harry Reid will save him from having to do that by never letting it come to a floor vote.
But what's with the idea in the first place? The president has the power to negotiate a treaty, but it is not in force unless the Senate ratifies it. In fact, it requires a supermajority of the Senate to ratify a treaty. That is certianly not going to happen with this moronic Iran deal. He's unlikely to even get a majority, let alone a supermajority.
The problem we have here, though, is that Obama is perfectly willing to simply assert his own authority to do whatever he wants, then proceed with a foreign policy that treats the agreement as if it's in force even though the Senate never ratified it and never would. By proposing a bill to establish Senate authority - a bill that would need Obama's signature for passage - he is essentially asking Obama to give the Senate back what Obama never had the authority to take in the first place. And if Obama refuses - which he would if he had to - then what?
It doesn't mean Obama can now make treaties without the Senate, because the Constitution is pre-eminent over his veto of a statute, but it certainly makes it seem that way, doesn't it?
The obvious problem for Congress is that all the federal government's law enforcement powers are controlled by the executive branch. When they decide to act in a lawless manner, Congress can a) withhold funding, which they consistently fail to muster the resolve to do; or b) tell them to knock it off. Congress doesn't have its own enforcement resources to stop Obama from doing things he has no authority to do. Of course, there is Option C. The House could impeach him, but the Senate couldn't get a two-thirds majority necessary to convict because Democrats don't care about the separation of powers or checks and balances. They only care about wins for Team Blue.
The only way out, it seems to me, is for McConnell and Boehner to both convince their caucuses to say, in essence, the hell with the media, we'll let government grind to a screeching halt if that's what we need to do to re-establish the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution.
And since McConnell and Boehner have the spines of jellyfish, get used to the monarchy, everyone!
