In a Fox News interview on Aug. 30, former Congressman Dennis Kucinich commented on the Syria situation. Kucinich is an Ohio Democrat, and former Congressman (1997 - 2013), re-elected with a large majority until Republican-initiated redistricting gouged his support base. He was also the 53rd mayor of Cleveland, Ohio and a candidate for US president. He has been a frequent guest commentator on the Fox News Channel this year.
Kucinich was asked, "Do you really think the president is risking impeachment by moving without Congressional approval against Syria?"
Kucinich responded: "Yes, and I'll tell you why: Because there is no imminent or actual threat to the United States of America. If there was, then people expect the president to defend us.
"Well, it's not 'I, the president;' it's 'We, the people of the United States' who formed the Constitution.
"Article 1, Section 8, (of the Constitution) says, "Only the Congress has the power to take this country to war."
"That's a fundamental principle, and if the president throws that away and disregards that, I think that there'll be consequences for him. That's why he has to go to Congress. The people through their directly-elected representatives have a right to be heard.
"If the people in the UK can be represented by their Parliament and Cameron agreed with the will of the people through their representatives, then why can't President Obama do the same thing?
It would seem that Joe Biden would agree, at least in theory. In this archived clip from a Hardball segment in Dec., 2007, Joe Biden was talking about impeaching George Bush. Will he hold Obama to the same standards?
Chris Matthews asked Biden, "You said that if the President of the United States had launched an attack on Iran without Congressional approval that would have been an impeachable offense. Do you want to review that comment you made? Well, how do you stand on that now?"
Biden replied, "Yes I do. I want to stand by the comment I made. The reason I made the comment was as a warning. I don't say those things lightly, Chris, you've known me for a long time. I was chairman of the judiciary committee for 17 years or its ranking member. I teach separation of powers and Constitutional law. This is something I know.
"So I got together and brought a group of Constitutional scholars together to write a piece that I'm going to deliver to the whole United State Senate pointing out the President has no Constitutional authority to take this nation to war against a county of 70 million people unless we're attacked or unless there is proof we are about to be attacked.
"And if he does, if he does, I would move to impeach him. The House obviously has to do that but I would lead an effort to impeach him. The reason for my doing that, I don't say it lightly, I don't say it lightly."
Would Biden say the same about Obama?
In 2008, Kucinich led the way to impeach Bush for a number of actions including manufacturing a false case for the war, violating U.S. and international law to invade Iraq, failing to provide troops with proper equipment, falsifying casualty reports for political purposes, and disregarding the Constitution. And he had led the way to impeach Cheney the year before. But few followed the Congressman's lead.
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