The Obama administration deployed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to appeal to House Democrats not to tie the President’s hands when it comes to Libya when a House bill defunding the Libya operation comes to the floor as expected Friday.
The White House is leaning on Clinton to defend Obama’s decisions on the two war fronts Thursday — both the incremental Afghanistan withdrawal plan he announced Wednesday night and the controversial U.S. military action in Libya.
Clinton was grilled about Obama’s decision to drawdown 10,000 troops in Afghanistan by the end of the year and 33,000 by September 2012 at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Thursday morning. She then addressed the House Democratic caucus on Libya, according to an administration official.
For Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), one of the most ardent critics of military action in Libya and the Afghanistan war, Clinton’s message fell on deaf ears.
“She’s very clearly [talking to House Dems] to support the administration’s position,” he said. “There’s nothing new, there’s nothing new at all.”
A large swath of members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are upset about the military action in Libya at a time when the U.S. continues to spend billions of dollars in Afghanistan. They are also angry about the President’s failure to consult Congress before going to war with Libya, which critics consider a violation of the War Powers Act.
“I don’t think [Republicans] are playing politics with regard to Libya,” Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press conference Thursday. “I think they are expressing real concerns.”
Still, she pointed to remarks Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) had made in the past that the War Powers Act is not constitutional.
“So you’ll have to be the judge of that,” he said. “There are concerns in both parties about the War Powers act, etc. I believe the President has the latitude to do what he is doing, but I also always say more consulting is always good….”
Pelosi also said she is looking forward to hearing what Clinton has to say on Libya, but closed her weekly press conference with comments about Afghanistan.
The “good news” on Obama’s drawdown announcement, she said, was that the President is bringing the war in Afghanistan to an end. Many of us would like to see us go faster than the path was laid out–however, it may–with the proper progress — it may well be that we can have a quicker drawdown and a sooner resolution in the situation in Afghanistan.”
Pelosi said she visited Afghanistan in the Spring and for the first time saw “real progress” in training Afghan police and troops.
“For seven years, we had no progress and no plan,” she said. “I think it’s going in a positive direction. I hope the movement that it now has will bring our troops home sooner.”
When it comes to Obama’s plan on Afghanistan, Boehner said he is comfortable with its allowance for some flexibility based on generals’ opinions and what is taking place on the ground.
When it comes to Libya, however, he said President Obama has “failed to make his case for why we are engaged…and as a result, the American people and Congress have been left in the dark.”
Boehner plans to move forward with a vote on the House floor Friday that defund all military strikes and limit actions to supporting missions – from search and rescue, to aerial refueling, to intelligence.
Because he failed to consult Congress before deciding to launch military strikes, Obama has put lawmakers in a position of having to defend their Constitutional role in authorizing military action. Still, now that we are there, Boehner said, it’s important that NATO realize that we’re not going to do anything to pull out of the mission precipitously.
“This I primarily a fight between the Congress an the President abt his unwillingness to consult with us before he engaged,” Boehner said.
Igor Bobic contributed to this report.
