Did the rapture really take place on May 21^st?  I was pretty sure that it would have made the news, at least Mark Levin or Rush Limbaugh would have devoted a segment to such a major story.  Maybe Weiner-gate is just a distraction.  Wait, my mother is still here with us and the Chicago Cubs are busy doing what they do best...whew, maybe there is yet time to repent.  Nonetheless The Hill quoted one congressional Democrat as saying that on Friday there was a "sign of the apocalypse."

Still, we should not blithely look past the frightening reality that far-left Democrat Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduced a resolution that gained significant Republican support including that of Tea Party favorite Michele Bachmann.  Times of crisis often create alliances between polar opposites, in World War II, F.D.R. and Joe Stalin teamed up to defeat Hitler.  Sorry, make that Winston Churchill and Joe Stalin; after all we are talking about polar opposites.

It seems that the crisis known as the Obama regime has actually brought people together.  Implacable enemies came together in a failed attempt to demand that Mr. Obama and his comrades be required to actually obey the law.

This was the case Friday as the House debated how to respond, belatedly, to President Obama's military intervention in Libya.  Kucinich's resolution, which would mandate an immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces absent congressional authorization, failed by a wide margin, 265-148, but it garnered more than one-third of the Republican conference.  Eighty-seven Republicans voted for the measure compared to 61 Democrats.

Minutes earlier, a strong majority of the House, including all but 10 Republicans, endorsed a milder rebuke of the president in the form of a non-binding resolution offered by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).  The Speaker's bill chastised Obama for having "failed to provide a compelling rationale" for the Libya mission, and it demanded that the president report back to Congress within 14 days with information on the operation's costs, goals, timeline and other matters.

O.K. start the clock, Mr. Obama has 14 days to comply.  What happened to the 60 day clock on Obama's unauthorized deployment of U.S. troops to Libya?  Speaker Boehner said that "He has a chance to get this right.  If he doesn't, Congress will exercise its constitutional authority and make it right."  Will Congress finally hold the Obama regime accountable for its actions?  I wish I was more optimistic.

Boehner and the Republican leadership had to scramble this week to head off Kucinich's resolution after they learned it might win enough votes to pass.  Believing than an immediate withdrawal measure would go "too far" and undermine U.S. allied in NATO, Boehner drafted his own proposal aimed at siphoning GOP votes from Kucinich's bill.

Among the Republicans voting for the Kucinich resolution were Ron Paul (Texas), Walter Jones (N.C.), Dave Camp (Michigan) and Michele Bachmann (Minnesota).  Although the measure failed, it is still significant as a bi-partisan expression of contempt for the lawless Obama regime and without the pressure of the Kucinich resolution Boehner may not have taken any action to check Obama's abuse of power.  This matter needs to be settled before the long anticipated Boehner/Obama golf summit later this month.

Wait, this just in...Dennis Kucinich and I are on the same side of an issue, the world really must coming to an end!

June 4, 2011

paboehmke@yahoo.com