and we re a long ways away from that being a position of power and authority in libya so that gives us time to identify who they are and whether we want to work with them. in your opinion how does al qaeda use situations like this to their advantage? if there s one thing al qaeda is, ed, they are opportunistic. when they see a situation of instability they will look at it and determine whether or not there is a way to exploit it. you know, to the west we have al qaeda and the islamic group which still has a strong presence in the south, in algeria and somewhat in morocco. it is certainly possible elements of aqim might move into libya to try and take advantage of the situation. think about it. gadhafi is not going to rely on al qaeda. okay? the rebels who are secular in nature are not going to align themselves with al qaeda. so unless the situation truly implodes and al qaeda can take
states congress when they clearly had time to do it. they could have asked congress to hold up before we left for a recess. they didn t do that. so do you think that president obama and the white house decided not to go to the congress because he might not have gotten support for this? i don t know. i mean, all i know is he didn t come to congress. i want you to know, ed, i ll be bringing up, when congress returns, an amendment to the continuing resolution that will seek to strike any funding for the activities u.s. activities in libya. so you re going to go to the money. but what else could be done? are you willing to say, stop this operation? would you advocate a vote in congress that would pull back this activity involved in the no fly zone? well, if you cut off funds it s over. and that s what i m going to seek to do. there will be a number of other members who i m sure are going to be joining me. we just notified members tonight about this. but this is in the general
about president obama s military commitment in libya. reasonable people can disagree on the merits but that doesn t mean that all the disagreement is reasonable. which of course brings us to the republican party. yes, many of them have rediscovered constitutional limits on presidential powers since president obama was elected. you about party that steam rolled america into two wars has suddenly discovered a barrage of reasons to oppose a democratic president s military action. house speaker john boehner put out a statement, having it both ways. he said the united states has, quote, a moral obligation to stand with those who seek freedom and oppression. from oppression. but then he said before the president takes further military action to do just that, he has to do a better job of telling us how the mission will be achieved. senator richard luger complained last week about the costs, the risks, and the republican senator concerned wrote, quote, the uncertain reception in the arab stree
gingrich who called the air strikes opportunistic amateurism. and said that there are vastly bigger threats to the united states. well, here s what he said two weeks ago. what would you do about libya? exercise a no fly zone this evening. they re confused about getting rid of gadhafi. this is a moment to get rid of him. do it. with me tonight laura flanders host of free speech tv and editor of the new book at the tea party. good evening and good to have you with us. good evening. explain mr. gingrich. a little flip flop here. i m not sure it s explainable. the republicans want it every which way but any way that makes sense. i ve been watching fox this evening and trying to make sense of it myself. some say the action was too fast. some say it was too slow. others say there was too much consultation with the u.n. and other countries. others say there wasn t enough consultation with them. i mean, i think the point here, oh, and there is that poll that shows 75% even of tea
the constitution grants congress the power to declare war but president obama did not go to congress before ordering air strikes in libya. instead, he went to the united nations. republican congressman ron paul calls the united states involvement, quote, an act of war. many presidents especially since 1945 have gone on their own and have not asked for proper authority from the congress and we have been fighting wars that are undeclared. it s rather insulting to the american people that this authority comes from the united nations and not the congress. to that point the president is getting heat from both sides of the aisle. here is democratic senator jim webb of virginia. we have not put this issue in front of the american people in any meaningful way. the president is in rio and congress is out of session. another democratic senator was more pointed in his remarks