Who Needs Congressional Approval When You Have a "Multilateral Coalition?"

Jake Tapper interviewed both Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and asked was Libya an imminent threat to the U.S. and why wasn't Congress asked permission? Gates answered the first question with, "No, no," It was not — it was not a vital national interest to the United States, but it was an interest and it was an interest for all of the reasons Secretary Clinton talked about. The engagement of the Arabs, the engagement of the Europeans, the general humanitarian question that was at stake."

Clinton, on the other hand answered the second question hypocritically on behalf of President Obama with, “Well, we would welcome congressional support, but I don’t think that this kind of internationally authorized intervention where we are one of a number of countries participating to enforce a humanitarian mission is the kind of unilateral action that either I or President Obama was speaking of several years ago. I think that this had a limited time frame, a very clearly defined mission which we are in the process of fulfilling."

A limited time frame? The president has said it will take days or weeks, not months. But to Tapper's question of "Some NATO officials say this could be three months, but people in the Pentagon think it could be far longer than that. Do you think we’ll be gone by the end of the year? Will the mission be over by the end of the year?" Even Gates contradicted Obama and Clinton by saying, "I don’t think anybody knows the answer to that."

You figure Clinton and Gates would have compared notes before the interview.

I don't remember seeing anywhere in the Constitution that says, Sec. 4 (b): "The President shall provide such other information as the Congress may request in the fulfillment of its constitutional responsibilities with respect to committing the Nation to war and to the use of United States Armed Forces abroad...unless he has a multilateral coalition."

What was it that Vice-President (then Senator) Biden said about George W. Bush in regards to going to war without Congressional approval, "I want to make it clear to Bush that if he starts a war with Iran without congressional approval, I will make it my business to impeach him."

Under the War Resolution Act of 1973, Obama had 48 hours to inform Congress of committing forces to battle without their full approval. He failed to do so. And he's a constitutional "scholar," remember.

But everything is different when you're a Democrat.