WASHINGTON, April 5 (Reuters) - As leading U.S. senators discuss whether Congress should retroactively approve military operations in Libya, the Senate on Tuesday sidestepped a chance to reassert the war powers of Congress. The Senate blocked a vote on a proposal by Rand Paul, a freshman senator and Tea Party Republican, aimed at reaffirming the constitutional authority of Congress to declare war.
The problem with Paul's amendment, as seen by many members of the Democratic majority, was that it quoted then-Senator Barack Obama's words from 2007 in what appeared to be an attempt to embarrass the Democratic president.
Back in 2007, Senator Obama told the Boston Globe "the president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the (U.S.) nation."
Paul said he wanted the Senate to endorse Obama's past words and thus establish that the president had overreached in authorizing the U.S. action in Libya last month without first obtaining Congress' approval.
Paul's proposal was "too cute by half," declared Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein on Tuesday after she joined other senators in voting to table it, 90-10. Continued... af.reuters.com/article/en...r=2&virtualBrandChannel=0
