President Obama has blundered his way into a serious constitutional crisis.  He has played one too many word games and this time he could have made a critical unforced error.  Congress is not about to give Obama a blank check to wage war.  They are also not about to deny Obama the funds to bomb the crap out of ISIS.  Obama jumped into the ambiguity with both feet.  He forgot something really important:  “Only congress can declare war.”

His disastrous speech Wednesday was bad enough. Most people interpreted that as saying we were at war with ISIL, which is precisely what Obama intended.   Then John Kerry shot off his mouth saying we aren’t actually at war.

“I believe what we’re engaged in is not a full-fledged war like we were in before.  It’s a heightened level of counterterrorism campaign, and it will have its own pace, its own dymanic, but it’s counterterrorism.”

That confused just about everyone, so today Presidential spokesman Josh Earnest said that:

“The U.S. is at war with ISIL in the same way the U.S. is at war with al Qaeda.”  

Rear Admiral John Kirby said:

“This is not the Iraq war of 2002, but make no mistake we know we are at war with ISIL, in the same way we are and war and continue to be at war with al Qaeda and its affiliates.”

The problem is that George W. Bush asked for and received congressional authorization to wage war against al Qaeda.  That legislation is very specific and it most definitely did not include ISIL or ISIS.  Obama didn’t even bother to get some lawyer to pretend he has this authority.  He just decided we are sort of at war and he didn’t think it necessary to consult congress.

Some in the liberal left are trying, desperately, to blame Republicans for not stepping up to the plate and declaring war.  Following is from the New York Times:

The cowardice in Congress, never to be underestimated, is outrageous. Some lawmakers have made it known that they would rather not face a war authorization vote shortly before midterm elections, saying they’d rather sit on the fence for a while to see whether an expanded military campaign starts looking like a success story or a debacle. By avoiding responsibility, they allow President Obama free rein to set a dangerous precedent that will last well past this particular military campaign.

Mr. Obama, who has spent much of his presidency seeking to wean the United States off a perpetual state of war, is now putting forward unjustifiable interpretations of the executive branch’s authority to use military force without explicit approval from Congress.

The New York Times is making a desperate attempt to blame congress for not protecting Obama from himself.  That is absurd.  Congress has no duty or authority to take over the role of Commander in Chief from the President.  For better or worse, in this case worse, Obama is President of the United States.  If he asks congress for authority, they have a right and a duty to react responsibly to that request.  Congress cannot and should not just declare war because Obama is too stupid to ask.  They also should not authorize military action not requested by the President.

Republicans realize that Obama is self-destructing and is taking the Democratic Party down with him.  They will vote to give him the funds to bomb ISIS/ISIL and perhaps to arm the Syrian rebels, but other than that they will just get out of the way.  There is an old rule in politics that says when your opponent is self-destructing don’t get in the way.  That has never been truer than now.

We are in uncharted waters.  No President in our nation’s history has been this stupid.  It almost seems as though Obama is daring Republicans to impeach him in the hope that Republicans would snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  But Republicans are not going to do anything.  ISIS/ISIL is not exactly an imminent threat.  The bombing already being conducted by Obama will slow them down long enough to get past the election.  There is little incentive for Republicans to deal with this right now.

Almost anything is possible.  Democrats are probably in panic mode.  This is approaching the worst case scenario for them.  The New York Times editorial is hard to ignore. Both Democrats and Republicans realize that Obama is a serious problem.  Neither has a clue on what to do about it.

TDM