So, it turns out that the Obama administration was legally required to at least notify Congress before it actually traded Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban terrorist commanders*:
Lawmakers were not notified of the Guantanamo detainees’ transfer until after it occurred.
The law requires the defense secretary to notify relevant congressional committees at least 30 days before making any transfers of prisoners, to explain the reason and to provide assurances that those released would not be in a position to reengage in activities that could threaten the United States or its interests.
And remember all that nonsense that the Democrats used to spout off about how awful signing statements were? Yeah, you already knew that it was nonsense: but watch, and marvel, as the Left continues to studiously ignore their past rhetoric on the subject. Because that all was apparently just pillow talk, baby:
A senior administration official, agreeing to speak on the condition of anonymity to explain the timing of the congressional notification, acknowledged that the law was not followed. When he signed the law last year, Obama issued a signing statement contending that the notification requirement was an unconstitutional infringement on his powers as commander in chief and that he therefore could override it.
Whether or not you agree with Barack Obama or not on signing statements, there’s something peculiarly amusing in the way that he keeps casually forcing his strongest supporters to do the political equivalent of eat dog feces in public and then declare it to be the finest pate. I mean, not just the signing statements: this guy campaigned on closing Gitmo. Which Barack Obama still hasn’t done.
I know, I know: the Activist Left collectively has no shame, or self-regard. But it still burns them when we laugh and mock. So there you go.
(H/T: Hot Air Headlines)
Moe Lane (crosspost)
*It is my professional opinion that the Seventy-Two Hour Rule be put into effect before making any preliminary judgments on the story, history, or habits of Sgt. Bergdahl. If the current rumors are true, they will be verified in that time period; if false, they will typically collapse under their own weight in the same said time period. Either way, holding back and double-checking will do no harm.
I think that the argument that it was gone about incorrectly is distracting people from the more important argument that it was a bad precedent.
This is yet another, blatant, example of the fact that to the Left and Obama; law is meaningless. Nobody on the Left obeys the law or the Constitution, and they have contempt for those who do. If only one side follows the rules, guess which side loses.
Based on the evidence to date, and the total lack of other than occasional pro forma reaction from the supposed opposition party to any of the many Leftist violations of law [and this one in particular. Has anyone heard a word from the Institutional Republicans?]; why should Obama and his party believe that there will be any reaction if they suspend Article I, Section 2, Clause 2 and Article I, Section 3, Clause 1, and Article XVII, Clause 1, and Article XXII, Section 1 of the Constitution?
So long as they issue a presidential statement of some kind.
Folks, this is getting perilously close to the kind of rhetoric that the more exercised kind of Leftists spouted off about GWB and his supposed desire to set up a dictatorship. The grim reality here is that Barack Obama cannot effing wait to get out of office, like most Presidents at this point in the cycle; and he would be no more likely to get popular support for a dictatorship from his own party than GWB would have been to get popular support from his. Even assuming that the military was going to sit still and let the man ignore the US Constitution, which they would not and that’s pretty much the end of it right there anyway.
I am not telling people to zip the imminent dictatorship talk, but: I’ve seen this before. Twice, in fact: I dimly remember that there was a lot of loose talk about Clinton, too.
I actually don’t remember that kind of talk concerning Bill Clinton. I also don’t recall either Clinton or Bush abusing the powers of the executive branch anywhere close to how Obama has been.
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I’ll agree with you that Obama isn’t exactly popular with the military, but the mainstream media practically worship him.
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I think the reason the abuses of power have gotten so bad is because the mainstream media didn’t do it’s job to call out those in power concerning abuses of power.
There was talk about Clinton trying it.
It just died down very quickly.
I recall shooting down a few of the arguments myself. “Sure, he might like to, and is unethical enough that he might consider it. Then he’ll realize the military dislikes him rather intensely, and he’d need their imprimatur to pull it off.”
Didn’t we also have a Speaker of the House with some backbone, while Clinton was in office…
can we impeach this clown yet?
“President Joe Biden.”
give him something shiny to play with and we can ride out the next 2.5 years
Give him a rubix cube and it would probably take him that long to solve it. (Somewhat exagerating for effect.
I see no evidence that Biden would be a worse President.