Rand Paul Slams Obama’s ‘Illegal’ War on ISIS, Chides Congress

Libertarian Republican Sen.
Rand Paul
reiterated his strong opposition to President Obama’s lawless
war against ISIS on Monday. He penned an op-ed for The Daily
Beast accusing Obama of subverting the Constitution, the War
Powers Act, and the Federalist Papers by bombing ISIS
absent Congressional authorization.

Paul saved his harshest criticisms for lawmakers of both parties
who only show an interest in holding the White House accountable
when it is occupied by a political enemy:

Where have those Democratic protectors of the constitutional
authority of Congress gone? Was it always just a partisan attack on
Republican presidents?

If not, when will Democrats—who so vociferously opposed a
Republican president’s extraconstitutional war-making powers—stand
up and oppose President Obama’s unconstitutional usurpation of
war-making powers?

Now that the Republicans have full power in Congress, they are
responsible for upholding the Constitution and pressing Obama for
proper war authorization, wrote Paul:

Conservatives have rightly decried President Obama’s
unconstitutional executive action on Obamacare—and his promises to
do the same with immigration. With both branches of Congress now
under Republican control, we should act to halt those power grabs,
too.

But conservatives can’t simply be angry at the president’s
lawlessness when they disagree with his policies. They should end
their conspicuous silence about the president’s usurpation of
Congress’ sole authority to declare war—even if (especially if)
they support going after ISIS, as I do.

It should be noted that Paul does ultimately support bombing
ISIS, just not without a legal justification. Is that position good
enough for war-weary libertarians and other skeptics?
It depends on whom you ask. Still, Paul unarguably
deserves credit for using his post-election perch to insult
interventionists on both sides of the aisle. As Paul writes, “If
ever there was too much bipartisanship, it would be the bipartisan
acceptance of unlimited presidential war-making power.”

I wonder if
Democrat Hillary Clinton—Paul’s likely rival in a presidential
showdown—would agree.

Read the op-ed
here.