Bush Escalates War on Congress

This week, we're seeing Bush carry out escalations on all fronts. He is asserting his authority by ordering a 15% increase in troops (or, as Jon Stewart calls it, a "gratuity"). But I think the more important escalation was what happened immediately after his escalation speech: American troops attacked an Iranian Embassy in Iraq.

What's he doing here? First, he's saying and doing explicitly the opposite of what the Iraq Study Group recommended. Instead of engaging Iran with diplomacy, he's saying he'll engage them with fire power.

Second, he's saying to Congress that he's the Commander in Chief, and it doesn't really matter what they think because they granted him broad authority. Unless Congress cuts off funding, which he knows they'll never do, he's going to continue to conduct his war any way he's sees fit.

What Bush/Cheney might really want is to escalate their War with Congress--to push them into rescinding their declaration of war against Iraq. Then we really have a constitutional crisis, as Bush wouldn't have any authority to conduct the war, yet it would go on and on (presumably) until Congress actually did shut off the flow of money or the Supreme Court stepped in somehow.

If Congress didn't stop the flow of money, and it simultaneously rescinded the declaration, then we would have a situation when Bush/Cheney are acting explicitly illegally. Not that this has really stopped them in the past. But what happens then?

I think their brinkmanship with Congress is designed specifically to find out. Would there be an impeachment? A coup? A revolt? Who knows, maybe Bush thinks that's when the Second Coming will occur.

Bush has asserted that he has absolute power to do what he wants. Just because Congress, the American voting public, common sense, and everything else is against him, why should it be any different? That, to Bush and Cheney, is what power is all about. Forget about strengthening the presidency. This is about absolute power just for them.