Lee Hamilton Speaks: When Congress Gave Away its Constitutional Rights?

Lee Hamilton takes on the relationship between the White House and Congress was quite powerful and for sure a wake call to all those of us who can see on a daily basis the rise of an imperial presidency and almost the total absence of independence and separation of the executive from the legislative branch.

If we take a closer look at this relationship we can see, we as a great nation not so much different from imperial and dictatorial nations where the legislatures branch of government over time became an extension of the executive branch. In the words of Mr. Hamilton, our Congress simply rolls over for the president and has been doing this since the days of President Johnson.

Here in the US we can say with some confidence we have two branches of government; the executive and the judiciary. The third branch which is the legislative branch simply disappeared over time and merged into the executive.

President Johnson lied to the nation and the US Congress just rolled over and handing the right to declare war to the president of the US in contradiction with Article 1 section 8 ( power of congress) of the US Constitution which gave the right to declare war to Congress but not to the president. I am sure the founding fathers were far sighted and knew much better the dangers of an imperial presidency.

The same is true of George Bush who lied and lied and lied over and over, and over, and made every one in his administration to lie about Iraq's weapons of mass destructions that the US Congress, Democrats before Republicans rolled over and gave the president a blank check to take this nation young men and women and put them in harms way to die so that he can satisfy his personal need for revenge. Tax payers will end up paying close to trillion dollars for this private war of George Bush. The Iraq war was never the people's war but the president and his Zionists and Neoconservative's war.

In the words of Lee Hamilton, members of Congress both the House and Senate forget the few words during the swearing in ceremony when they officially become the nation's representative, the people representative. When they raised their hands they" promise to protect and defend the Constitution of the United State" not the rights of the lobbyist, or the rights of their largest donors or the rights of friends and supporters, certainly not the president of the United States.

Our Congress to our sense of shame and disappointment and with no sense of shame or even any respect for the US Constitution have been and for over the last 50 years did not protect or defend the Constitution of the United States nor did they protect the rights and interests of our people. The US Congress simply votes for what is in their own personal interest and the interests of all those who gave them money, and all those who purchased part of their hearts and souls.

Declaration of War is the most important and most powerful rights that the US Constitution gave to our congress, since it involves the deaths of our citizens and soldiers and providing the financial needs to go to war. Now and for some times, the US Congress simply signs on what the executive branch sends to Capital Hill.

Of course and as written, by and far our US Constitution is perhaps the best governing instrument ever written by mankind. However the men and women of the US Congress have simply waived their right away as an equal branch of government, designed to provide a system of checks and balances. In these days there are NO checks and certainly there are NO balances.

The White House from the days of the late John Kennedy have become the site of an imperial presidency where people no matter how powerful or rich they are and members of congress all experience "awe and shock" when invited to the White House and in the presence of our emperor.

With the kind of funding needed for members of congress to get elected and with the power money plays in decisions and legislation and with a need to always have favors from an imperial presidency it is very unlikely that our Congress will ever again exercise its right and become the second branch of government, independent from and equal to the executive branch.

Thank you Mr. Hamilton for your presentation. For sure we do need a national commission such as the one you co-chaired on Iraq to look into how can we as people prompt our congress to take its duties and responsibilities seriously and become once again the second branch of government, separate and equal? Of course short of spinal surgery to implant an artificial backbone.