Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
according to the constitution
%uh according to the idea of checks and balances
%uh congress should be a co-equal branch
and %um should
%uh cherish its
constitutional responsibilities
and should at least to some degree serve to check or to counter balance the authority of
the president I think the reality is that especially since the end of world war two and the rise of the
sort of permanent national security crisis %uh in which we live
the congress in many respects has thrust authority at the president has has %uh abrogated its
own responsibilities especially on anything that relates to a national security %uh now
members of congress will of course be especially of the opposite party will be quick to throw
stones at a president who makes bad decisions
but criticism doesn't translate into a willingness
on the part of congress
to take responsibility
%uh to share in the responsibility for
things related to national security policy in particular i think the perfect example
of this is the congressional elections of two thousand six
%uh these these were elections that were going on at a time when the iraq war was going very
badly
%uh when the iraq war really was issue number one in the eyes of the american people the
democratic party said %uh elect us put us in power in the congress and we'll put an
end to this war the american people did %uh hand power in both the senate and the house to the democratic
party and the democratic party didn't
put an end to the iraq war on the contrary %uh with a lot of hand wringing and fumbling
around basically what the party did was to vote the money that president bush needed to
continue the iraq war and i think that is a
perfect example
of how the
imperial presidency survives in large part because the congress ends up being a tacit
collaborator %uh with the imperial president in allowing presidential authority to grow
too large
0:02:32.349,0:02:33.680