Norman Solomon: From the Grave, a Senator Exposes Bloody Hands on Capitol Hill

[babylonsister]

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/24869

From the Grave, a Senator Exposes Bloody Hands on Capitol Hill
Submitted by davidswanson on Thu, 2007-07-19 11:53. Congress

By Norman Solomon

snip//

A typical dash of media conventional wisdom had set him off. The moderator of the CBS program “Face the Nation,” journalist Peter Lisagor, told the guest: “Senator, the Constitution gives to the president of the United States the sole responsibility for the conduct of foreign policy.”

“Couldn’t be more wrong,” Morse shot back. “You couldn’t make a more unsound legal statement than the one you have just made. This is the promulgation of an old fallacy that foreign policy belongs to the president of the United States. That’s nonsense.”

Lisagor sounded a bit exasperated: “To whom does it belong, then, Senator?”

Again, Morse didn’t hesitate. “It belongs to the American people,” the senator fired back. And he added: “What I’m saying is -- under our Constitution all the president is, is the administrator of the people’s foreign policy, those are his prerogatives, and I’m pleading that the American people be given the facts about foreign policy --”

“You know, Senator, that the American people cannot formulate and execute foreign policy --”

“Why do you say that? Why, you’re a man of little faith in democracy if you make that kind of comment,” Morse retorted. “I have complete faith in the ability of the American people to follow the facts if you’ll give them. And my charge against my government is we’re not giving the American people the facts.”

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[JohnnyLib2]

1. For an oldtimer like me, these times are deja vu----without the courage.

and some of our current Senators would do well to see how history has dealt with folks like Sen. Morse. Rep. Murtha learned the lesson well.

Thanks for the catch, babylon sister.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. For those who don't know, Senator Wayne Morse was one of TWO

U.S. senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which authorized sending U.S. combat troops into Vietnam.

One of the heroes of American foreign policy, and guess who he lost to: Bob Packwood. :-(

He died in 1974, and at one of the anti-war protests I attended in Portland in 2003, someone was carrying a sign that said, "Wayne Morse, come on down!"