Saturday, February 7, 2015

Boehner Invites Bibi: a Big Boo-Boo?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Truth Revolt)
Speaker John Boehner should be praised not condemned for inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to a joint session of Congress.

Yet President Obama and his diminished Democratic Party in Congress are offended, livid even that the Speaker would bypass the President and invite another head of state to speak to Congress.

The President does not understand the separation of powers, and the initial supremacy of Congress in the passage of laws and appropriation of funds.

The Speaker of the House, fresh off of near defeated from his caucus, has moved to the right. Respecting the conservative opposition (growing stronger), he appointed Louie Gohmert of Texas to a plumb committee assignment. He then lectured the President on the twenty-two times when he rejected his current executive amnesty as a viable policy.

The House has cut funding the Department of Homeland Security after February 2015, and even now the US Senate is debating the bill. Stalling from Democrats is imperiling the basic funding for the department. Does the President and his party want to risk the nation's security so brazenly?

The Republican Congress is not playing nice anymore, but standing up to the unlawful President, and their assertion of power extends to a respectful invitation for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress.

Yet the chutzpah of deeply marginalized Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi requires a ready response:

"It's out of the ordinary that the Speaker would decide that he would be inviting people to a joint session without any bipartisan consultation" Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press conference.

Is this true?

In 2011, the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard thanked every member at the joint session, including the Congress she addressed, for the invitation. Everyone was recognized. Before that, the previous prime minister, John Howard, defied global fears and voiced the two countries' solidarity to protect each other and defeat world-wide terrorism.

The Democratic Party's sense of offense regarding the Speaker of the House not asking the President' permission is appalling: trite at best, and arrogant at its worst.

As if Democrats have any right to complain. . .

President Obama has routinely "gone it alone" against Congress, from shoving Obamacare down the Congress and the country's collective throats. He has unilaterally removed, ignored, and changed key portions of his law without Congressional review and oversight. Democrats broke every rule in the parliamentary manual, steam-rolling principled opposition on key amendments and policies.

The President also usurped his military authority in pursuing military operations in Libya against Moammar Ghaddafi, and then tried to extend combat into Syria. Liberal Democrats like retired Congressman Dennis Kucinich suggested that Obama be impeached if he went that far.

The Supreme Court has struck down the Obama Administration's executive power grabs twenty-two times, and a majority of the states are suing the President for his blatant non-enforcement of our country's immigration laws.

The Speaker of the House if flexing some muscle, reminding the President that the Congress is the initial, primary seat of power in Washington, and in the country, not the executive. The Constitution begins "We the People", not "Me the President", and the American people are directly represented by Congress.

Speaker Boehner's bold invite is political theater at its best: instructive and entertaining, arresting and convincing. Boehner is unifying his caucus, establishing respect and honor at home and abroad. More importantly, he demonstrates that Congress is governing, and takes militant Islam, Islamic terrorism, and the ISIS Caliphate. Why our President refuses to honor the United States' one stable ally in the Middle East exposes nothing but questions, particularly toward the chief executive, who will not lead, but only falls back in the face of pressure to score political points with a long-ago disillusioned leftist base.

To make the President's perception worse, the Republican Congress also invited Pope Francis to address the Congress. Now Democrats are ecstatic. What's the difference? The Democratic Party has a deep, anti-Israeli contingent among its ranks, now fully exposed, and inexcusable. Republicans are the mature adults in Washington, taking global Terrorism seriously, demanding long-term sanctions and military plans to take down ISIS. Most importantly, they recognize who the United States’ truest friends, and invited their head of state to speak to them in political unity, all within one month of his intense reelection campaign.

Boehner's inviting Bibi was no boo-boo, but a brilliant move.

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