Treaty - An agreement or contract between two or more nations or sovereigns, formally signed by commissioners properly authorized, and solemnly ratified by the several sovereigns or the supreme power of each state. ~ FindLaw.comHow Bush intends to bypass Congress on the treaty commitment with Iraq he intends to impose on the United States is a lesson in just how meaningless the Constitution has become.
He [the President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur ~ Article 2, Section 2, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution
We don't anticipate now that these negotiations will lead to the status of a formal treaty which would then bring us to formal negotiations or formal inputs from the Congress. ~ White House adviser Douglas Lute
It doesn't take a law degree to know that a detailed, long-term military and economic commitment between sovereign nations is a treaty. While the Founding Fathers did not anticipate future presidents practicing staggering semantic twists to avoid saying the word "treaty," a duck by any other name is still a duck and this agreement will still be a treaty.
The troops will be made hostage again to force Congress to fund the treaty even while they oppose it. Democratic leaders will be afraid to bring the matter to the Supreme Court because the actively partisan members (Roberts, Alito, Thomas, and Scalia) may well find a fifth vote to invalidate the Constitution in toto. The consequences of that is far worse than the deaths of a few hundred soldiers every year for a couple of decades and the annual loss several billion dollars to graft and corruption. Harry Reid will whine a bit but, in the end, he will role over again like a whipped puppy.
I shall wait in vain for any presidential candidate to say Bush ought to write the agreement in pencil because it will not last a day beyond the '08 election.
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