Republican Backlash Against Imperial Presidency

Amidst a congressional effort to check presidential power gone awry, President Bush and Vice President Cheney tag teamed the Democratic led House by vehemently criticizing their passage of a timetable for redeploying troops from Iraq’s civil war.

Democratic leaders are pushing for an exit sooner rather than later with latest polls showing 63% of the American public wanting all troops home by the end of 2008. The Democratic passed bill calls for the redeployment of troops from Iraq by September 2008 or sooner if the Iraq government does not meet certain criteria.

President Bush called the bill partisan, and Vice President Cheney labeled it a retreat that would undermine our troops and embolden terrorists. This is coming from the same two that got us where we are today. The American public will no longer follow the President and Vice President down their rabbit hole where they remain hunkered down refusing to crawl out and face reality.

Republicans are growing increasingly concerned as well. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska) has even gone so far as to mention impeachment as an option if nothing else works to extricate the President from his rabbit hole. Perhaps in time as political pressure mounts and scandal boils over, the dynamic presidential duo will come to their senses and realize there are limits on presidential power. Limits that are constitutional, legal, and precedented.