Posted on 09/01/2002 7:42:31 AM PDT by Brian Mosely
Newsweek Interview: 'One of the Things I'm Most Disturbed By Since the Attacks Is the Tame Acceptance of the Idea That the Decision for War or Peace is President Bush's To Make By Himself,' Says Historian Schlesinger
September 11 'Will Take Its Place Along With Pearl Harbor, Which Is to Say It Will Be Very Vivid in the Memory,' Says Appleby
Sunday September 1, 10:06 am ET
On Bush's handling of the war on terror:
Schlesinger: One of the things I'm most disturbed by since the attacks is the tame acceptance of the idea that the decision for war or peace is President Bush's to make by himself. As if Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution had been mysteriously canceled one dark night. I think that the members of Congress should reassert, reaffirm the constitutional requirement that Congress has the exclusive power to authorize a war.
Brinkley: I don't see in Bush the capacities that Franklin Roosevelt had to exert leadership: to be open to a range of ideas, to be stealthy and devious when necessary, to handle a wide range of different possibilities at the same time. Bush is a very single-minded man, it seems to me, and that, I think, served him well in the immediate aftermath of September 11 ... . But over the longer term, this is a set of circumstances that's going to require a lot of subtlety, a lot of ability to deal with complexity, and I just haven't seen any evidence that this president, or, for that matter, this administration, has that capacity.
Lewis: Mustn't it be said that part of the reason for the president's apparently cavalier unconcern with the Constitution is that, in fact, the loyal opposition is not really loyal, but slavish and passive? And that is, it seems to me, one of the most troubling aspects of the aftermath of 9-11: that a confused blend of patriotism and official intimidation has resulted in giving too much slack to this president.
On how Sept. 11 will be remembered in history:
Appleby: I think it will take its place along with Pearl Harbor, which is to say it will be very vivid in the memory. It's there. But I don't see that it's going to represent what July 4 does, nor do I see it being imbedded in a holiday or a commemoration. But it's certainly going to be every bit as powerful, I would think, as Pearl Harbor for this generation.
(Read Newsweek's news releases at
www.Newsweek.MSNBC.com. Click "Pressroom.")
This bothers me, as well.
Doesn't it bother you?
This bothers me, as well. Doesn't it bother you?
On September 14th, 2001, Congress gave Bush complete authority to deal with the attackers and their ilk as he saw fit, so no, I don't have a problem with it.
I do have a problem with the unelected media looking down their snoots presupposing that somehow their knowledge and judgment superior to the President's.
It's the 'Bush is stupid' argument, and that bothers me.
My fellow freepers, many of these hit pieces on FR today are filled with "aides close to the President", unamed sources and "those that wish to remain anonymous"...it is my fondest wish that freepers will bury the media in email demanding that they name names and go back to the having two named sources. We can put a stop to this crap if we bury them in protest. It is not enough to merely carp on this web site.
But Bush won't always be President. A person who can depose foreign leaders by his command alone, using our military forces without a Declaration of war, is an emperor.
The fact that it is Bush vs. Hussein makes the consequences of this deviation from the architecture of a Republic minimal in this case.
When Hillary is President, you may feel differently about it.
Newsweek: White House Distances Itself From Cheney Comment On Iraq: 'A Return Of [U.N.] Inspectors Would Provide No Assurance Whatsoever' of Saddam's Compliance With UN Resolutions
Card Says Specific Language Was Not Ordered By Bush; Veep Didn't Check His Iraq Facts With the CIA; State Department Never Saw the Final Text
Sunday September 1, 10:50 am ET
"The president said 'I want you to include the following,'" chief of staff Andy Card tells Newsweek. "We knew the gist, but not every word." Asked if the president had ordered the inspections language, Card said no. Indeed, Cheney didn't repeat it when he gave another speech three days later, and aides claimed he hadn't meant to slam the U.N. door.
Cheney's speech followed weeks of public warnings by eminent Republicans who fear America would become a pariah if it attacked Saddam Hussein without a new attempt at diplomacy and weapons inspections. So in a videoconference last Monday, President Bush ticked off points he wanted Cheney to make in a speech later that day. Bush and Cheney had had enough and it was "time for a giant pushback," as one aide later put it. The result generated headlines, infuriating a planetful of allies upset by his view that, according to Cheney, the only way to neutralize Iraq was war.
And critics who accuse Bush of being "unilateralist" don't know the half of it, writes Fineman. His people ignore each other when it suits them. Sources tell Newsweek that the vice president didn't check his Iraq facts with the CIA and the State Department never saw the final text of the speech.
(Read Newsweek's news releases
at www.Newsweek.MSNBC.com. Click "Pressroom.")
That's how many of us felt about Clinton - remember the attack on the Sudan the night before Monica's Grand Jury testimony? Do you recall Denny Hastert saying in the days following that attack, "It's like he lobbed those missiles in there and then sent over the check. We had no idea it was going to happen"
The fact that Bush has his 'mandate' is proof of the difference between the two men. The point is he already has Congressional approval; he's not acting of his own volition. 600 legislators have said, "You have our consent".
When Hillary is President, you may feel differently about it.
I hope she is never President, that's for sure. If she acts with impunity, I'll feel different. If she acts with the advice and consent of Congress, I'll hold my nose and go along.
The Bible says, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" or as Grandma used to say, "Don't borrow trouble." Our survival depends on taking out terrorists before they take us out. If we don't do that, none of these fears about future hitleries will matter. They say making sausage ain't pretty. Sorry, no Marquess of Queensbury Rules in this one.
No, we don't.
I don't condemn W for acting to protect us, but I do condemn the parliament of whores that Congress has become for abdicating their power and their responsibility to every President since 1941.
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