If he is elected president, Mitt Romney will take an oath
to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution. Yet he has proudly
declared that he doesn’t believe in the Constitution—at least in the
clear and unambiguous language that the right to declare war belongs to
Congress.
The former Massachusetts governor already has embraced
discredited neoconservative nostrums about foreign policy. There
apparently is no war in which he does not want to intervene, including
Syria. He is particularly enthusiastic about the possibility of bombing
Iran.
Now he says he will not be bound by the Constitution. On CBS’s Face the Nation
he declared: “I don't believe at this stage, therefore, if I'm
president that we need to have a war powers approval or special
authorization for military force. The president has that capacity now.”
At least candidate Romney took a position this year. Back in 2008, he
said “You sit down with your attorneys and [they] tell you what you have
to do.” So much for reading the Constitution.
Presidents often have used the military without
legislative authority, but most such actions have been limited and many
had colorable congressional backing. Despite modern presidents who claim
the unilateral authority to bomb and invade other nations, many of
America’s strongest chief executives recognized Congress’s authority.
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