Politiks As Usual: In The News 6/17/13

Environmental Advocates, Visitors Question Removal of BP Oil Cleaning Crews in Gulf

Plane Carrying George W. Bush Diverted After Smell of Smoke

ENDA and the Coming Wave of Lawsuits

Latest Liberal Talking Point: You're Obamaphobic

Obama: 'There Will Never Be a Substitute For' Fathers; Obama's DOJ: Children Don't Need Fathers

No Conservatives on Columbia School of Journalism Gay Marriage Panel 

TMI: John Stamos to Host Entire Show About ‘Losing Your Virginity’

Greenwald Slams Media for Backing Obama's Domestic Surveillance When They Opposed Bush's

Rubio: Obama's Inaction on Syria Led to 'Worst Possible Scenario'

Gender-Swapping 'Bathroom Bill' Passes Senate Committee in California

Obama’s ‘Social Innovation’ Slush Fund 

Politiks As Usual: In The News 10/29/12

National Polls vs. Ohio Polls: They Can’t Both Be Right

Why Is Obama So Nasty and Vulgar?

Creepy: Children Sing Obama's Negative Messaging in New Ad

High Court Weighs New Look at Voting Rights Law

The 'New Normal' Christianity?

Gallup: Obama's Job Approval Drops 7 Points in 3 Days

USA Today Surprised Chick-Fil-A Didn’t Suffer from ‘PR Nightmare’

AP Writers Claim Their 'Poll' Shows 'Majority Harbor Prejudice Against Blacks'

Hume: Mainstream Media ‘Remarkably Reticent’ to Pursue Benghazi Cover-Up, Burden Has ‘Fallen’ Onto Fox News

President Obama Leads Romney in Early Voting, Axelrod Says

Letter to Obama: Stop Attack on Ministries to Ex-‘Gays’

Clinton Asked for More Security in Benghazi, Obama Said No

Politiks As Usual: In The News 10/22/12

MSNBC's Matthews Claims it's Unconstitutional for Romney to Challenge Obama

Libya, Iran Likely to be Main Points of Contention in Final Debate

Mom of Slain Diplomat: 'My Son Is Not Very Optimal — He Is Very Dead'

Ten Common Sense Reasons to Vote Romney/Ryan

An Open Letter to Obama Voters 

Bill Clinton Thinks Americans Are ‘Impatient’ for Recovery

Lesbian Soldier Begins Sex-Change Process During Deployment to Afghanistan

TV’s ‘New Normal’ is Obama Ad with Punch Lines

Radio Crackdown: Australian Radio Jock Forced Into 'Factual Accuracy Training' on Global Warming

Male-Female Wage Gap a Myth

Obama Bagged Over $2 Million In Invalid Donations For September

Psst, Taxes Go Up in 2013 for 163 Million Workers

Hollywood Can Be a Lonely Place for Mitt Romney Supporters

If Obama Loses, Will Democrats Blame Racism?

Documents Show Chris Stevens Worried About Libya Security Threats, Al Qaeda Before Consulate Attack

FOXNews.com:

Across 166 pages of internal State Department documents -- released Friday by a pair of Republican congressmen pressing the Obama administration for more answers on the Benghazi terrorist attack -- slain U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and the security officers assigned to protect him repeatedly sounded alarms to their superiors in Washington about the intensifying lawlessness and violence in Eastern Libya, where Stevens ultimately died.

On Sept. 11 -- the day Stevens and three other Americans were killed -- the ambassador signed a three-page cable, labeled "sensitive," in which he noted "growing problems with security" in Benghazi and "growing frustration" on the part of local residents with Libyan police and security forces.  These forces the ambassador characterized as "too weak to keep the country secure."

In the document, Stevens also cited a meeting he had held two days earlier with local militia commanders.  These men boasted to Stevens of exercising "control" over the Libyan Armed Forces, and threatened that if the U.S.-backed candidate for prime minister were to prevail in Libya's internal political jockeying, "they would not continue to guarantee security in Benghazi."  '

Roughly a month earlier, Stevens had signed a two-page cable, also labeled "sensitive," that he entitled "The Guns of August: Security in Eastern Libya." Writing on Aug. 8, the ambassador noted that in just a few months' time, "Benghazi has moved from trepidation to euphoria and back as a series of violent incidents has dominated the political landscape." He added, "The individual incidents have been organized," a function of "the security vacuum that a diverse group of independent actors are exploiting for their own purposes."

"Islamist extremists are able to attack the Red Cross with relative impunity," Stevens cabled. "What we have seen are not random crimes of opportunity, but rather targeted and discriminate attacks." His final comment on the two-page document was: "Attackers are unlikely to be deterred until authorities are at least as capable."

By Sept. 4, Stevens' aides were reporting back to Washington on the "strong Revolutionary and Islamist sentiment" in the city.

Scarcely more than two months had passed since Stevens had notified the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and other agencies about a "recent increase in violent incidents," including "attacks against western interests." "Until the GOL (Government of Libya) is able to effectively deal with these key issues," Stevens wrote on June 25, "the violence is likely to continue and worsen."

After the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi had been damaged by an improvised explosive device, earlier that month, Stevens had reported to his superiors that an Islamist group had claimed credit for the attack, and in so doing, had "described the attack as targeting the Christians supervising the management of the consulate."

RELATED: NBC’s David Gregory Calls Obama Admin’s Libya Response ‘Sluggish, Sloppy, And Incoherent’

Stupid Obama Voters On Benghazi

 Revealing Politics went to the Ohio University campus to an Obama event on October 17th to find out what the President's supporters thought about the September 11 Benghazi attacks. Turns out they didn't think much, as most of the event attendees we interviewed had never even heard of it. 

HotAir.com:

I can’t resist this delicious piece of video from an Obama rally at a Ohio university from our friends at Revealing Politics. The way Kelly Maher tells it, this endeavor started innocently as a project to determine whether rank-and-file Obama supporters had bought the line about Benghazi being caused by a YouTube video. As you’ll see, none of them is even capable of buying a line. They don’t even know where their wallets are.

Amazing and dismaying, this inadvertent Jaywalking. As Kelly points out, this is a self-selected group of politically involved college students you’d assume would know more than the average college student. Yikes. What it looks like is a group of college students not even willing to watch The Daily Show to get their news. And, this is what makes me uncertain that a foreign-policy debate can change the dynamic of the race at this point, although more experienced pundits than I disagree.

RELATED: In Case You Need It: Obama, Benghazi and Terror

Barack Obama Throws Hillary Clinton Under The Bus, Makes Her 'Take Responsibility’ For Security Prior To Libya Attack

Mediaite.com:

On Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she takes responsibility for the deadly attack that took place in Benghazi, Libya. Not looking to point fingers, Clinton also ventured to offset the criticism the administration has received for its handling of the situation.

In an interview with CNN’s Elise Labott, Clinton said the buck stops with her. Clinton also said President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were not throwing the State Department under the bus.

Security decisions are the State Department’s arena, she said. And she heads it.

“I want to avoid some kind of political gotcha,” Clinton said.

She further went on to note that she wants to wait for an investigation before drawing any conclusions about intelligence surrounding the attack.

Addressing the White House response to the situation — which has received notable criticism for its changing narrative — Clinton said there’s always “confusion” in such situations. The information since the attack has changed, she added.

RELATED: Hillary: I take responsibility for Benghazi

Democrat Pollster To Megyn Kelly: Media Guilty Of ‘Corruption Of The First Order’ For Protecting Obama

Mediaite.com:

Former Democratic pollster Patrick Caddell appeared on Fox News Channel with Megyn Kelly on Monday to elaborate on a talk he gave recently in which he claimed that the media has today become “the enemy of the American people.” Caddell called the media’s deliberate downplaying of certain stories that could damage Barack Obama’s electoral prospects as “corruption of the first order.”

“We’re entering territory we have never entered before,” said Caddell. “We’ve never had a situation where the press has purposefully decided to pick up a narrative rom the White House to not tell people things that happened in order to support their overwhelming candidate for president, Barack Obama.”

“This isn’t about partisanship, this is about danger,” said Caddell. He equated the media to “Pravda,” a newspaper which was owned and operated by the state in the Soviet Union. Caddell went on to say that the problem of bias should be obvious citing how the story of the Libya attacks and subsequent mishandling of the response by the administration was not covered widely.

Megyn Kelly asked Caddell’s college, former Democratic pollster Doug Schoen, if the change of media bias was valid anymore given the proliferation of alternative sources of information. “Pat is right,” said Schoen. “There is a narrative that is being used to drive this campaign in a way that is effectively complicit with the Obama campaign.”

Caddell accused National Security Advisor Thomas Donnellan of orchestrating a media narrative around the Libya attacks – that they were caused by an offensive YouTube video online and that Mitt Romney’s response to the attacks was both premature and unseemly.

“He and David Plouffe sat there and said, ‘we have to protect he narrative we have,’” said Caddell.
Caddell slammed the Obama campaign for allowing the president to campaign in Las Vegas the day of the attacks in North Africa. Caddell said that his former boss, President Jimmy Carter, refused to make similar campaign appearances amid national security threats during the 1980 election. “Why isn’t the press saying anything,” asked Caddell.

Kelly asked Schoen if the media has crossed over into protecting the president rather than objectively reporting on the administration. Schoen said that, in combination with the stories about polls projecting Democratic turnout at 2008 levels, “the mainstream media appears to be facilitating a narrative” advanced the political operation in the White House. 

RELATED: Pat Caddell: Let’s face it, media bias has reached a new level of corruption

Politiks As Usual: In The News 10/1/12

Election Raises Stakes For Possible Supreme Court Vacancies

Some Illegal Immigrants May Get Drivers Licenses Under New California Law

The Media's Net Full Of Red Herrings

US Military Deaths In Afghanistan Hit 2,000

Romney Facing Make-or-Break Week With First Debate, Key Jobs Data

MSNBC's Toure Argues Put 2008 Aside; Only Re-electing Obama in 2012 Will Prove America Isn't Racist

And the Emmy-Winner is … Liberal Politics!

Liberal Websites Bash Steven Crowder for Not Having Pre-Marital Sex

Katie Couric Voted ‘The Worst Reporter in History of Man’

Meet Nickelodeon's Trash-Mouthed Misogynist Jason Biggs

Paul Ryan Calls For Eric Holder's Resignation Over Fast and Furious

As Race Stands, Obama Within Reach Of Second Term

WE ARE THE 91%: Only 9% of Americans Cooperate with Pollsters

Outrage: Obama Administration Want To Give Egypt $450 Million In Aid

In Libya, Security Was Lax Before Attack That Killed U.S. Ambassador, Officials Say

Report: US Knew Benghazi Raid Was a Terrorist Attack Within 24 Hours

Townhall.com:

For a full week following the deadly ambush at the US consulate in Benghazi, the Obama administration told the American public that the incident was triggered by a "spontaneous protest" over an anti-Islam video that spun out of hand.  They've equivocated over recent days, as the himself president has begun to hedge -- finally allowing that other forces may have had a hand in the destruction.  Today, national security correspondent Eli Lake has a bombshell exclusive in Newsweek/The Daily Beast that destroys the administration's official story and points to an intentional cover-up:

Within 24 hours of the 9-11 anniversary attack on the United States consulate in Benghazi, U.S. intelligence agencies had strong indications al Qaeda–affiliated operatives were behind the attack, and had even pinpointed the location of one of those attackers. Three separate U.S. intelligence officials who spoke to The Daily Beast said the early information was enough to show that the attack was planned and the work of al Qaeda affiliates operating in Eastern Libya. Nonetheless, it took until late last week for the White House and the administration to formally acknowledge that the Benghazi assault was a terrorist attack. On Sunday, Obama adviser Robert Gibbs explained the evolving narrative as a function of new information coming in quickly on the attacks. "We learned more information every single day about what happened,” Gibbs said on Fox News. “Nobody wants to get to the bottom of this faster than we do.”

The intelligence officials who spoke to The Daily Beast did so anonymously because they weren’t authorized to speak to the press. They said U.S. intelligence agencies developed leads on four of the participants of the attacks within 24 hours of the fire fight that took place mainly at an annex near the Benghazi consulate. For one of those individuals, the U.S. agencies were able to find his location after his use of social media. “We had two kinds of intelligence on one guy,” this official said. “We believe we had enough to target him.” Another U.S. intelligence official said, “There was very good information on this in the first 24 hours. These guys have a return address. There are camps of people and a wide variety of things we could do.”  A spokesman for the National Security Council declined to comment for the story. But another U.S. intelligence official said, “I can’t get into specific numbers but soon after the attack we had a pretty good beat on some individuals involved in the attack.”

RELATED: House Armed Services chair: Obama admin hiding truth on Libya until after election; Update: “Full explanation”?

Politiks As Usual: In The News 9/24/12

Eastern Germany: The Most Godless Place On Earth

Obama's Childlike Belief In The Money Tree

Chick-fil-A Sticks With Pro-Marriage Donations

Berkeley, CA Now Acknowledging Bisexuals

Romney Vows Major New Campaign Push Into Battleground States

Pelosi Fuming Over Romney 'Mute Button' Ad

Despite Having Ambassador's Journal That Suggests Otherwise, CNN Continues to Blame Anti-Islam Film For Attack in Libya

2012 Emmys Honor the Profane

Gallup: Only 8% of Americans Have 'Great Deal' of Trust in News Media--a New Low

Allen West: “Bin Laden Being Dead is Not Foreign Policy”

A Time for Truth, Not Word Games

Reince Priebus: Republicans Have ‘Specifics Coming Out Of Our Eyeballs’

Ann Coulter: Media’s New Tactic is To Act Like They’re ‘Shocked’ By ‘Perfectly Appropriate’ Criticisms Of Obama

Mediaite.com:

Audio of reporters coordinating questions ahead of a press conference by Mitt Romney on Wednesday continues to cause a stir. Conservative commentator Ann Coulter appeared on Fox & Friends on Thursday where she said this incident is reflective of how journalists will handle the campaign until November. She said that the media’s new tactic is to act outraged by Romney’s critiques of President Barack Obama no matter how appropriate those criticisms are.

Steve Doocy played the clip for Coulter and asked, “What do you think was happening there?”

“What many of us suspected was happening,” Coulter replied. “How could all these reporters independently come up with so many boneheaded questions?”

“It was the same question,” said Brian Kilmeade. Coulter agreed and said that the media ignored the behavior of the Obama administration – which she says lead to the death of the U.S. ambassador to Libya – and opted to focus on Romney’s criticisms of the president.

“The media’s technique now is to play a perfectly appropriate answer from Mitt Romney, and then to come back to them, the hosts, and act like they’re shocked,” said Coulter.

Gretchen Carlson asked Coulter why those reporters would ask the same question of Romney six times. Coulter said that this technique will be reversed when they are interviewing President Obama, and they will ask him questions like, “How hard is it dealing with these Republicans?”

Coulter went on to criticize the Obama administration for accepting that an anti-Islam movie made in the U.S. in June would ignite the deadly attacks on U.S. embassies on Tuesday. Coulter called the movie a pretext for the attacks.

RELATED: Romney Offends the Pundits

The Insane Leftist Questions Mitt Romney Faced at Libya Presser

NationalReview.com:

So if a presidential candidate gives remarks about a foreign-policy crisis, you’d be forgiven for thinking that in the Q&A held immediately afterward, reporters would ask him about . . . foreign policy. But when Mitt Romney took questions today after talking about the situation in Libya and Egypt, the dominant theme of the questions was all about process and politics. Here are the seven questions asked:

1.  Reporter brings up that Romney had a “toughly worded statement last night,” and asks, “Do you regret the tone at all given what we know now?”

2. “Do you think, though, coming so soon after the events really had unfolded over night was appropriate, to be weighing in on this as this crisis was unfolding in real time?” Follow-up: “What did the White House do wrong then, Gov. Romney, if they put out a statement saying they disagreed with it?”

3. “The world is watching. Isn’t this itself a mixed signal when you criticize the administration at a time that Americans are being killed? Shouldn’t politics stop for this?”

4. “Some people have said that you jumped the gun a little bit in putting that statement out last night and that you should have waited until more details were available. Do you regret having that statement come out so early before we learned about all of the things that were happening?” 

5. “If you had known last night that the ambassador had died, and obviously, I’m gathering you did not know . . . if you had known that the ambassador had died, would you have issued such a strongly-issued statement?”

6. Reporter comments that Romney is running on his “economic know-how and private sector experience,” and adds, “but now that foreign policy and the situation in the Middle East has been thrust into the presidential campaign, can you talk about why specifically you think you are better qualified than President Obama to handle these issues?”

7. “How specifically, Governor Romney, would a President Romney have handled this situation differently than President Obama did? You spoke out before midnight, when all the facts weren’t known. How would you have handled this differently than the president did?”

Only the last question even addressed what Romney would have done if he was in office. None of the questions asked Romney to give details or be more specific about what he thinks the United States should do going forward.

I’ve long been critical of how few press conferences Romney has held, both in the primary and in the general election. Sure, the media can be biased. But 1) I think it’s good for a presidential candidates to be available to the press, to be subject to tough questions, and to be asked about a variety of matters; and 2) I think that a Republican candidate should prove he can deftly handle biased questions — it’s not fair, but it’s the reality of what he will face as president day after day.

But today’s press conference was really an example of how the media sometimes just doesn’t deserve that access. Let political consultants talk about the timing and tone of the statement. The candidate should be grilled on policy, on issues, on what he thinks is the right course going forward, not politics and strategy.

RELATED: Romney Adviser Takes Andrea Mitchell To Task For Focus On Romney’s Libya Statement Over Obama’s Inaction

Herman Cain's Disastrous Interview On Libya

More red meat for the loons out there who've long thought of Cain and his campaign as a joke. What the Left won't admit, however, is that many conservatives (most notably Bill O'Reilly) out there weren't taking Cain seriously before all the sexual harassment allegations came about:

Since becoming the GOP frontrunner, Herman Cain has had to deal with a far greater degree of scrutiny. For the last two weeks, the media has taken a much closer look at allegations of sexual harassment that have dogged his campaign of late, but the more challenging questions have focused on Cain’s readiness for the office of commander in chief. Take, for example, his recent interview with the editorial board at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, in which a seemingly easy question about the Obama administration’s handling of the uprising in Libya threw the GOP presidential candidate for a Rick Perry-esque loop.


Cain’s detractors have consistently dismissed the former restaurant industry executive and motivational speaker, claiming that he is not a serious candidate. The homespun and folksy manner in which he speaks on the campaign trail may have resonated with a disenfranchised Tea Party base, but in the context of actual foreign policy, Cain’s critics see banal and oversimplified explanations. The brain freeze exhibited in the clip below evokes that of Rick Perry’s notorious debate gaffe from last week, though this was in a far less public setting.


If a working knowledge of current foreign policy is a prerequisite to be taken seriously as a presidential candidate, then the following video suggests that Cain is, in fact, not ready for prime time. If his presidential run somehow gets derailed, however, he can still hold on to his dream of becoming the Secretary of Defense.


Watch the cringeworthy segment below, courtesy of Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

RELATED:  Brutal: Cain blanks on Libya, supports collective bargaining for public employee unions

Bernie Goldberg To Bill O’Reilly: 2012 Obama Media Bias Will Be So Subtle Voters ‘Will Not Even Catch It’

Mediaite.com:

With the 2012 elections fast approaching and the economy in a state of flailing paralysis, Bill O’Reilly took a look tonight at how the media is responding to the Obama Administration’s first tenure. With some in the media arguing that the President has little control over the economy, Bernie Goldberg told the Factor host this came off as yet another example of bias, and one which warned the next wave of pro-Obama fervor in the media would be significantly less feverish.


Goldberg, who wrote a book about the media’s relationship with the 2008 Obama campaign entitled “A Slobbering Love Affair,” did not expect that level of infatuation this time around. “If they slobber all over him this time as much as they did last night, the media and the President will have to get a room.” Unlike Sen. John Kerry or Michael Dukakis, Goldberg argued that President Obama “was a historic figure, and they fell in love with him.”


On comments by David Gregory that the President didn’t have much control over the economy, Goldberg gave Gregory the benefit of the doubt on bias, but told O’Reilly that it still “sounds like here’s another liberal journalist saying ‘don’t blame Barack Obama.’” He did concluded, however, that overt bias was not to be found in the press anymore this election cycle, and it would look much more like Gregory’s statements: “the bias… will be subtle, sometimes the audience will not even catch it.”


Goldberg also discussed the coverage of Muammar Gaddafi‘s death, which he found appropriate, though objected to “gratuitous” visuals of the dictator’s corpse.

The Five Hosts Wonder How A Nobel Peace Prize-Winning President Ended Up Killing So Many With Drones

Mediaite.com:

Today on The Five, Eric Bolling (taking a page from one of Drudge’s more inspired headlines) asked Greg Gutfeld if he was surprised that a Nobel Peace Prize-winning president had killed so many people with Predator drones. A debate over President Obama and President Bush’s dictator-toppling tactics and the reactions to them followed.


While it wasn’t the United States or one of our missiles that took out the Libyan dictator, Fox News had discovered that a drone was sent into the nation some time before his capture. Bolling had a problem with how the media was responding to Obama’s foreign policy.


“Does no one else find the hypocrisy here?…You have Gitmo and [terrorists] go through the military trial and, if found guilty, then you process accordingly. But that’s not ok. That’s just too harsh, it’s terrible because of the water boarding and whatnot. But here it’s swift justice. It’s ‘drone, baby, drone.’ It’s 09 mm in the streets of Tripoli but somehow that seems to be ok.”


On the other hand, though, Gutfeld (who, by the way, was really on his game with the funny here) claimed we had to give Obama credit for his record with taking these people out, saying it was “a flip flop but a good flip flop” from his campaign image.

RELATED: Hillary on Qaddafi: “We came, we saw, he died”

Muammar Gaddafi Dead: CNN Airs More Al Jazeera Footage Of Gaddafi’s Corpse

Mediaite.com:

This afternoon on CNN, Wolf Blitzer presented video, via Al Jazeera, of a deceased Muammar Gaddafi and asked his panelists to weigh in with their thoughts.


One of the panelists offered a translation of the video, which relayed that Gaddafi’s death was to be expected given that he ignored his people’s cries for freedom and democracy. She wondered how things might have turned out had there been regime reform in Libya, rather than an entire regime overhaul. The panel then wondered how such changes would impact countries beyond Libya, extending as far as, say, North Korea or China.

RELATED: President Obama On Gaddafi’s Death: “This Is A Momentous Day In The History Of Libya”

Politiks As Usual: In The News 9/12/11

Mommar Gadhafi's Son Flees Libya, Arrives In Niger

Two Presidents, Two Approaches To War On Terror

Obama To Sell Out Israel With Rogue Palestinian State

Of Course Social Security Is A Ponzi Scheme

Networks Ignore Religion Ban At Ground Zero Ceremony

How Do You Lose The President's Uncle?

Andrew Sullivan's Atlantic Error

All The Wrong 9-11 Lessons

Did Gay Activism Play A Role In The Murder Of Lawrence King?

Paul Krugman, Sociopath

Ex-FBI Agent's Book Says Dysfunction Led To 9/11

Defining 'Fair' In Obama's 'Paying A Fair Share' Rhetoric

Obama Getting Close To One Million Deportations

Ten Reasons Why Obama Should Be Ashamed

Politiks As Usual: In The News 9/5/11

Obama, Romney To Unveil Jobs Plans As Congress Returns

Part-Timers Pose Biggest Threat To Unemployed 

America's Uncle Omar Problem

Illegal Aliens Received Billions In Tax Credits Last Year

Marco Rubio's Courageous Speech

MTV's Missing 'Pants'

Ten Ways That Liberals Deny Reality 

Defiant Gadhafi Vows Long Guerilla War 

The Too Black, Too White Presidency 

Nation Suffering From Obama-Induced Irregularity

What The Left Doesn't Understand About Obama

Politiks As Usual: In The News 8/22/11

Libya On The Brink: Gadhafi Regime Appears To 'Crumble'

U.S. Will Never Default on Debt, Biden Says During China Visit

Obama Showing Blacks How Big Government Failed Them

Same-Sex Marriage Moving Toward The Mainstream

Lefty Hypocrites Level Gay Slurs

Networks Blame British Riots On Poverty, Ignore Moral, Economic Failure Of Welfare State

Chris Matthews Connects 9/11 To Bush's August 2001 Vacation

PETA Launches Porn Site

Every Single One: The Politicized Hiring of Eric Holder’s Employment Section

House Rebukes Obama's War In Libya

The hypocrisy and lack of outrage by liberals on this one is outstanding:

Challenging presidential power, a defiant U.S. House voted overwhelmingly Friday to deny President Barack Obama the authority to wage war against Libya. But Republicans fell short in an effort to actually cut off funds for the operation in a constitutional showdown reflecting both political differences and unease over American involvement.


In a repudiation of their commander in chief, House members rejected a measure to authorize the Libya mission for a year while prohibiting U.S. ground forces in the North African nation, a resolution Obama had said he would welcome.


The vote was 295-123 with 70 Democrats abandoning the president just one day after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had made an unusual appeal to rank-and-file members. A Senate committee is to consider the same resolution next Tuesday and is expected to support it, raising the prospect of conflicting messages from Congress.


Friday's votes showed lawmakers' concerns about an open-ended U.S. commitment to a civil war between Moammar Gadhafi and rebel forces looking to oust him — as well as growing weariness among Americans with drawn-out conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.


In addition, the resounding number rejecting the authority resolution was a clear sign of anger toward the president for failing to seek congressional consent for the operation within 60 days, as stated in the 1973 War Powers Resolution. Republicans and Democrats argued that an arrogant Obama had run roughshod over the Constitution, ignoring the authority of the legislative branch that the founding fathers had insisted has the power to declare war.