All day yesterday, John Kerry was forced to try and defend the President's request for a nebulous, ill-defined, apparently goal-less, war in Syria. Never have I seen a President place his Secretary of State in such an impossible position. Part of me - a very small part - almost feels bad for John Kerry. Please note that I said "almost," because it was impossible not to smile when Rand Paul had his chance to bring the constitutional heat.
I hope John Kerry was wearing his asbestos undies, because the Senator positively torched him.
First, Paul dared Kerry to say that the administration would obey the Constitution and end its march to war if no authorization was given.
“Make me proud today, Secretary Kerry,” Paul said. “Stand up for us and say you’re going to obey the Constitution. And if we vote you down - which is unlikely by the way - you would go with what the people say through their Congress and you wouldn’t go forward with a war that your Congress votes against.”
Kerry refused to acquiesce, and said “I don’t know what the decision is." Then he argued that "[The President] still has the Constitutional authority and he would be in keeping with the Constitution.”
At that, Senator Paul launched into a seminar designed to teach John Kerry a thing or two about original intent, separation of powers, and constitutional law. Kerry was unimpressed.
“If we do not say that the Constitution applies," Paul argued. "If we do not say explicitly that we will abide by this vote, you’re making a joke of us. You’re making us into theater. So we play constitutional theater for the president."
"If this real," Paul said of the hearing, "you will abide by the verdict of Congress."
Senator,” Kerry fired back, “I assure you there’s nothing meaningless and there’s everything real.”
Paul wasn't buying it. According to the Senator, the hearing is a charade unless "you adhere to what we vote on - only if our vote makes a difference.”
Needless to say, Kerry wasn't especially interested in learning about the Constitution. Instead, he started getting angry. He issued a series of diatribes that were furious in a fashion reminiscent of "Jenjish Khan."
The gist of it seemed to be that the administration doesn't feel that Congress gets a say because they're not "going to war in the classic sense." Basically, attacking the Syrian government won't be a "war," because they're not calling it a "war." When he was finished yelling, he turned to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, and asked if the general had anything he'd like to add.
The reply was pretty blunt: "No. Not really Secretary, thanks for offering."
At that, you could hear Kerry muttering that General Dempsey had pulled "the rug out from under me."
Ouch. An ugly day for the Secretary of State. Video of the complete exchange is below.
