Without a pressing emergency, the Executive at war violates the Constitution by usurping Legislative powers.
To: exodus
If President Bush was usurping the Legislative powers, the constitution provides several avenues of relief. (1) They can refuse to vote for any funds to our military, thus forcing the President to stop all military activity, or (2) They could impeach the President, or (3) they could declare war on their own (they don't need to wait for the President to ask do they?, or (4) they can vote another resolution authorizing the President to continue doing what he has been doing, or (5) they could stand in the corner out of the way like good little boys and girls hoping that the President makes a mistake so they can then jump on him and blame him for all that goes wrong.
I suspect that Congress will try and do option 5, and President Bush will force them to take option 4. The truth is, we would not be in this position if we had Statesmen in office instead of politicians. I would trace the down fall of congress to the 16th amendment and the direct selection of Senators followed closely by the 17th (women's suffrage).
I would really like to see congress declare war, but today we have men (and women) in office who put their own politics ahead of what is good for the country. President Bush has surprised me in the past, and he may just surprise me again.
# 113 by CIB-173RDABN
I agree completely with your analyses, CIB-173RDABN.
Congress WANTS the President to usurp it's war powers. If they didn't, they could easily stop him.
I believe that Congress as a whole doesn't want to declare war for two reasons--
1) so that they can avoid political responsibility while seeming to support the war, and
2) to illegally interfere with the power of the President during wartime.
As long as we fight this war under the authority of the President, Congress has the power to declare his actions corrupt and stop the war. If something goes horribly wrong and we need a "war crimes" scapegoat, they would have a ready-made patsy.
Congress can even "discover" that the President exceeded his powers, and use the un-Constitutional war as a reason for impeachment. That's a heavy stick to hold over any President's head.
None of that excuses President Bush's usurpation of war powers, though.
The whole batch of 'em are corrupt.