Quote of the Day

Via Andrew Sullivan, from an 1848 letter Abraham Lincoln wrote a colleague who was arguing that the President could initiate war with Mexico without congressional approval-

"Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure. Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power in this respect, after having given him so much as you propose. If to-day he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, — 'I see no probability of the British invading us;' but he will say to you, 'Be silent: I see it, if you don't.'

The provision of the Constitution giving the war making power to Congress was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons: Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This our convention understood to be the most oppressive of all kingly oppressions, and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us. But your view destroys the whole matter, and places our President where kings have always stood."

And quoting Pete Seeger, "Well, I'm not going to point any moral; I'll leave that for yourself."

On a related note, I posted a link yesterday with a look at how the 'axis of evil' line made it into the 2002 State of the Union (it was to obscure Bush's specific intentions toward Iraq). Here's some similar background about how the infamous '16 words' about Iraq and uranium made it into the 2003 State of the Union (when they knew it was bullshit). There's not enough ink to properly document the sordid history of the Iraq war. And as Stephen Colbert mocked Monday night the punishment seemingly decided for all of this is none.

Back in the present, the polls are in... 63% want Congress to legislate a timetable for withdrawal. That's 12% higher than those who support merely passing a non-binding resolution condemning escalation. Sounds about right. Speaker Pelosi's speech yesterday, though, seemed to hint that she views such resolutions as just the beginning.

Finally, a leaked GOP memo reveals their escalation debate strategy... change the subject.

[UPDATE: Right-wing 'journalists' post their own Lincoln quote... except they made it up.]