House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., are trying to figure out how to respond to the expected presidential proposal tonight to surge the United States deeper into the quagmire that is Iraq.
But there is no equivocation from the man who, by virtue of his long service in the Senate and his mastery of that chamber's politics and procedures, is respected by savvy Democrats and Republicans as the essential member of the new Congress.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., has introduced legislation to "prohibit the use of funds for an escalation of United States forces in Iraq above the numbers existing as of Jan. 9, 2007."
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AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
Sen. Edward Kennedy gestures as he answers a question at the National Press Club on Tuesday.
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Kennedy voted against authorizing President Bush to invade Iraq and he has been a consistent critic of the war. But this targeted piece of legislation specifically addresses the "surge" being proposed by the president.
"It seems to me that we are at a time of a major escalation into a civil war, that's what the proposal of a surge is really about," Kennedy told the New York Times. "This president is going to escalate the American presence and escalate the whole Iraqi war. This is a major mistake and a major blunder."
Even more important, Kennedy's bill reasserts the role of Congress in a time of war. The Constitution allows the president to serve as commander in chief and affords him reasonable war-making powers. But it reserves for Congress the power of the purse, and the founders were clear in their belief that the House and Senate should use that power to constrain a president who is waging war without reason or sound strategies.
The Congress has frequently used the power of the purse to control presidential war-making. Kennedy points to examples from the Vietnam era, but there are also examples from just the past quarter century of Congress embracing troop caps in Lebanon, in NATO countries and in Colombia.
Indeed, as the Center for American Progress notes in a detailed new report, "Congressional Limitations and Requirements for Military Deployments and Funding," Congress has a rich record of stepping in to prevent presidents from expanding U.S. involvement in foreign conflicts.
Kennedy recognizes that record, and he embraces its central theme: The constitutionally mandated system of checks and balances requires Congress to be in the thick of decision-making on wars and their escalation.
Kennedy's specific message is summed up in the title of the speech the senator gave Tuesday at the National Press Club: "Escalation Is Not the Answer: Time for Congress to Insist on Real Change in Iraq."
As he told the New York Times, "If there's one thing that the election was about last fall (it) was sending a very clear message to Congress and to the president that the American people want accountability. They want a change in direction on Iraq, they want accountability, and they want people to stand up and be counted."
Will other members of the Senate stand up and be counted? And will members of the House do the same?
Pelosi is clearly toying with strategies to challenge the proposed escalation of the war. She has said that Congress must be part of the discussion about the president's "surge" proposal, while Reid has remained far too vague on this front.
Ultimately, it is Kennedy who has offered a clear challenge to the administration. And he should be joined by his fellow senators, especially war critics such as Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold.
"I think it's to try to hold policymakers accountable," Kennedy explained in his discussion with the New York Times regarding the Democrats' role in Congress and his legislation. "The president is the commander in chief. This is George Bush's war. But we have some responsibility in holding him accountable and holding accountable the people that want to continue the war in the way that it is being undertaken at the present time. The American people have expressed a different view and we need accountability."
