Mario Cuomo Conducts a Constitutional Clinic for Dems

He's still what being a Democrat is all about. Mario Cuomo has to re-educate the majority party about what our Constitution allows as far as presidential powers are concerned...and when it comes to war, the president should NEVER trump the congress.

In describing how that decision was made when the Constitution was created, Cuomo recalled, "This is what was said at the convention, and it's common sense: You give it to one man, he may be mad. He may be an egotist. He may be misguided. Or he might be stupid. And instead, you should give it to the congress."

Bush can be clinically diagnosed positive on all four counts.

Cuomo says what hasn't been said: Congress was too timid to handle the job of war, so they regrettably handed it off to Bush. Our leaders should be ashamed of themselves - and they'd better take Cuomo's words to heart before they give even more power to this dangerous little liar we call "the president."

Want more Cuomo? Watch our favorite Cuomo moment in the sun: His nomination speech for Bill Clinton in 1992, where George H.W. Bush was taken to the woodshed and never came out.
It's in four parts: 1  2  3  4

Comments

[Mark Richards]

Cuomo: "This is an opportunity for the Democrats to show real leadership. And the presidential candidates should lead the way. And if they don't then the question is going to be, well, when it comes to improvident war making, why are you any better than Bush?"

From last night's debate at Dartmouth:

RUSSERT: You were in the Senate, and you take credit for stopping the draft.

If you were a senator right now, what advice would you give your colleagues still in Congress about how they can stop the war, even though they don't have enough votes to stop a debate or to override a
veto? What should they do?

GRAVEL: Well, the first thing, you stop the debate by voting every single day on cloture. Every day. Twenty days, and you'll overcome cloture.

The president vetoes the law. It comes back to the Congress. And in the House at noon every single day you vote to override the president's veto. And in 40 days, the American people will have weighed in, put the pressure on those.

You tell me that the votes aren't there -- you go get them by the scruff of the neck, that's what you do. You make them vote.

RUSSERT: Senator, are you suggesting that these candidates suspend their campaigns, go back to Washington, and for 40 consecutive days vote on the war?

GRAVEL: If it stops the killing, my God, yes, do it.

And, Tim, you're really missing something. This is fantasy land. We are talking about ending the war. My God, we're just starting a war right today. There was a vote in the Senate today. Joe Lieberman, who authored the Iraq resolution, has offered another
resolution and it is essentially a fig leaf to let George Bush go to war with Iran.

I want to congratulate Biden for voting against it, Dodd for voting against it.

And I am ashamed of you, Hillary, for voting for it. You're not going to get another shot at this because what happens if this war ensues, we invade, and they're looking for an excuse to do it. And Obama was not even there to vote.

--

I DARE ANYONE to say that Mike Gravel is "crazy". HE WAS THE SANEST ONE ON THE PLATFORM!

The useless line up of Democrats we have in congress, led by that scrawny, whiny mouth Harry Reid are no match for a man who has lived to kick some ass and who has the balls to do it again.

We're in for more bush war, folks.

Perhaps before our national prison sentence of 8 years is up we can truly say, "That's All Folks!". The good news, should the maladministrator take to war once again, is that Democrats may not have much left to govern.

[Nancy]

I could not agree with you more Mark. Wonder what would happen if the media showed this clip as often as they showed Howard Dean's "scream"

[Nancy]

And Cuomo was awesome in this clip.