Congressman John Murtha does his job

Why did the Democrats run John Kerry for president when they had John Murtha?

Rep. John Murtha, Democrat of Pennsylvania, stepped forward Thursday and did what the U.S. Constitution says he should do. He questioned whether the United States ought to have troops deployed overseas in a military engagement.

In 1793, James Madison wrote this:

In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found, than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not to the executive department.

and this:

Every just view that can be taken of this subject, admonishes the public of the necessity of a rigid adherence to the simple, the received, and the fundamental doctrine of the constitution, that the power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature; that the executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war; that the right of convening and informing congress, whenever such a question seems to call for a decision, is all the right which the constitution has deemed requisite or proper.

President Bush has argued that a democratic government in Iraq is key to U.S. national security. He may be right. That doesn't change the fact that the Constitution does not give him the power to decide how long U.S. troops may be deployed in the effort to achieve that goal. The power belongs to Congress.

Because the Constitution does not give the president the power to take the country to war, presidents who usurp the power to take the country to war must do so by persuading or intimidating Congress into backing their policy.

This is where things can go terribly wrong.

Presidents who believe they are pursuing the correct policy in the correct way are sorely tempted to do whatever is necessary to keep public support on their side. Everything depends on maintaining the ability to pressure Congress into staying onboard.

Struggling to achieve what they may truly think is the greater good, presidents have a strong incentive to conceal unfavorable facts. During the Vietnam War, the leak of the Pentagon Papers painted a picture that President Nixon hoped the public would never see.

Secrecy, spin, intimidation, the demonizing of opponents, the undermining of critics, these are all signs that the constitutional power to decide when the country goes to war has been usurped by the president. By challenging and debating the president's Iraq policy, the Congress does not threaten the national security of the United States. The Congress is the national security of the United States.


Copyright 2005

Source notes:

James Madison, Letters of Helvidius, in Writings, ed. G. Hunt (New York, Putnam, 1900-1910) vol. 6, p. 174, quoted in Raoul Berger, Executive Privilege: A Constitutional Myth (Harvard Press, 1974) p. 65, 68-9.

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