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Newly elected Rep. Nancy Boyda (D-Kan.) almost certainly has the wrong idea. Asked if she could support a troop escalation, Boyda characterized it as a fait accompli for the entire legislative branch of government. Bush, she said, “is the commander in chief…. We don’t get that choice. Congress doesn’t make that decision.”
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That, of course, is entirely wrong, but it does touch on a certain uncomfortable reality: the Dems’ options are somewhat limited.
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The most common proposal — having Congress de-fund the war — is problematic. For one thing, Nancy Pelosi (hardly a war supporter) has said the option is off the table. For another, as Barney Frank explained during an interview with Keith Olbermann on Wednesday, the administration would work around it.
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OLBERMANN: Are you fearful that if you were to cut the money off, if you were to actually refuse to bankroll it, as a Congress, that the money would be spent, there’d still be money spent to send them there, without protecting them, or…

FRANK: Well, that’s the problem. It could be spent. The fact is that the Pentagon budget could–other money could be taken from other purposes and spend it. You couldn’t do it just by voting no money. You would have to say–you’d have to pass something that said, None of the [money] that we’re voting can be used for this. But it’s too late for that. We’ve already voted for the defense budget for the year….
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He already has hundreds of billions of dollars legally in his possession to spend. So there is, in fact, no way, I think, to cut off the money, unless we were to pass a law and he would veto it. So we are frustrated in that extent.

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The Carpetbagger Report

Bush will just veto the changes, right?

Is the authorization for military force an open ended law?

If Bush were to openly defy an action by Congress to reduce or limit funding for the war, that would amply show how isolated and lawless Bush has become. I think the Congressional Dems. here are working on multiple tracks, one of which is to demonstrate through a variety of mechanisms, including oversight hearings, that Bush must either deliver a credible and complete justification for his desired actions (which he won't, being petulant); or further isolate himself from the ballooning national consensus that favors de-escalation and troop pull-outs. This strategy also puts Rep. Congress members' asses on the line, ie. if they will continue to blindly support whatever Bush says or move toward the consensus position. By steadily turning up the heat, Dems. can say to Repubs. in Congress ... do you really want to run in 2008 on this vote ??? Really ???

Pelosi is loathe to speak the words, but we have a president who is a corrupt little nutball, a Nero wannabe. But you can't just say that to a reporter, or it will create a shit-storm of negative publicity. The president simply cannot be called a nutball, even if he really, really is.

Personally, I have to agree with Ian, that Pelosi has to go after Dirty Dick before taking on Bush. It will be difficult, because BushCo has adopted the stance that they are not only above the law ("unitary executive"), but that the president can literally create law at his whim with those incredibly bogus signing statements.

How does Pelosi get around these new and intimidating advantages? I have no idea, but somebody's got to try. Could be that simply confronting them on these grounds is a good start. If BushCo simply stonewalls Congress and goes on its merry ways of warring and pulling new laws out their asses, then Pelosi and company can make them look like what they are: criminal dictators.

If nothing else, it will make it damn hard for the Republicans who enabled these creeps to win the presidency in 2008. Let's hope the nation survives until then.

"Death before being dishonored any more." - Col. Ted Westhusing

So says legal experts Marty Lederman (Georgetown University professor) and Neil Kinkopf (President Clinton’s former constitutional advisor), as well as House Defense Appropriations Chairman Jack Murtha (D-PA). Watch it:

Think Progress