Craven Congress.

• Author: Hightower, Jim
• Position: The Lowdown - Column

Message to George W: Contact Earth if your spaceship ever comes near our planet.

We've known for quite a while that the President is way, way out there, circling around in his own happy little orbit far beyond the gravitational pull of reality. But, good grief, his recent declamation of "success" for his Iraq War took the meaning of delusional to new heights.

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On the fifth anniversary of this debacle, Bush gave a speech hailing his invasion as a "remarkable display of military effectiveness," while also asserting that his Iraq policy "has opened the door to a major strategic victory."

Hmmm.

Four thousand Americans dead, many thousands more maimed (and deprived of adequate veterans' care), a dollar cost that will reach into the trillions, a devastated and broken society in Iraq, a gross stain on America's reputation, an energized enemy that makes our country more vulnerable to terrorists, an exhausted U.S. military, an Iraqi army that can't (or won't) secure its own country, and an Iraqi government that is dysfunctional and perpetually dependent on American largesse.

Way to go, George.

Last month, I saw a bumper sticker in Colorado that offered this urgent plea: "Save America: Put Bush in a Straitjacket." That is, of course, what Congress should do, at least politically, if not literally. But the legislative branch has failed us, cravenly acquiescing to (and even sanctioning) a Bush-Cheney regime that has been using its own war whoops as a cover for shredding our Constitution and imposing an imperial executive.

On issues of huge import--such as war funding, torture, domestic spying, and yes, impeachment--our Congress critters have been weaker than Canadian hot sauce. Not only have they been going along with obvious executive excess but they've also been merrily giving away their own constitutional powers.

Take "the Fence," the wall being built along 700 miles of our border with Mexico. This thing is monstrous, but even more monstrous is the unprecedented dictatorial authority that Congress handed to the Homeland Security czar to erect it. In 2005, our legislators gave carte blanche to Czar Chertoff to overrule...