Wanker of the Day

Crazy Curt Weldon:

Media, PA — On Thursday, former Vice Admiral Joe Sestak, criticized Curt Weldon for his unconstitutional proposal to take away the Commander-in-Chief’s authority over our military strategy in Iraq and give it to the military. According to today’s Hill, “Weldon initially contemplated introducing his proposal as regular legislation, but opted instead for a sense of the House resolution after learning that legislation would conflict with the president’s constitutional war powers.”

“As someone who served in the military for 31 years, this latest proposal from Curt Weldon, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, shows his profound ignorance on military issues and American history,” Sestak said. “Curt Weldon ought to go back and read the Constitution. Every elementary school child knows the President is the Commander-in-Chief. Curt Weldon has failed to hold President Bush accountable for the mismanagement of the war and has backed Bush’s ‘stay the course’ policy every step of the way. But, now facing a tough election, he’s once again trying to play both sides of the issue just like he has with stem cell research, privatizing social security and increasing the minimum wage. Saying and doing anything to get re-elected is not leadership. We need to set a timetable for redeployment from Iraq by the end of 2007.”

In today’s Hill, US Senators from both sides of the aisle roundly criticized the unconstitutional nature of Weldon’s latest plan:

“Constitutionally, the president is the commander-in-chief,” said Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. “I don’t see a good reason to separate the chain of command from the president. I appreciate what Curt is trying to do, but it’s not a good idea.”

Sen. Jack Reed (R.I.), a Democrat on the Armed Services panel, raised constitutional questions.

“The Constitution clearly gives the president the authority as commander-in-chief to make that decision,” he said. “I don’t know how you get around the notion that the buck stops there in the White House.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), a Republican on the Armed Services panel, said that empowering generals with such decision-making authority risked “doing away with civilian control of the military. It would subvert civilian leadership of the military,” he said.