Dennis Kucinich Praises Bush, Slams Obama on Libya

Reuters
John Hudson 1,603 Views Jun 16, 2011

In today's Twilight Zone moment, liberal stalwart Dennis Kucinich praised former President George W. Bush while slamming President Barack Obama for his handling of the conflict in Libya. This morning, the anti-war congressman took to C-SPAN to harangue Obama for dragging the U.S. into another war, while noting that Bush at least formally consulted Congress about the Iraq War prior to the U.S.-led invasion. "President Bush came to Congress ... President Obama doesn't feel like he needs to come to Congress," Kucinich said. "That's why we need to go to court... We cannot continue to escalate these wars... the American people by and large want us out of Libya." On Wednesday, Kucinich and nine other members of Congress filed suit against the administration for not seeking authorization from Congress with regards to the war effort. He explained the rationale for his suit today with the following remarks:

It's our contention that the President of the United States violated Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution when he proceeded to order an attack against Libya absent a vote by the United States Congress, furthermore... he violated the War Powers Act, which requires him to come to Congress within 60 days for approval once initiating hostilities and we also say in the suit that even though the president had the approval of NATO and had the approval of the UN Security Counsel, those two institutions to do not trump the United States Constitution in the fact that the president has to come back and get approval.

Finally... there's the issue of cost. Where's this money coming from? We have not appropriated money for this war and with the United States being in so much fiscal difficulty it really becomes imperative that we raise the issue of the cost of this war and others.

The Times noted yesterday that "courts in the past have dismissed similar cases on technical grounds."

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