What just happened in Congress in regards to our latest foreign intervention in Libya is a perfect example of everything that is wrong with Washington, D.C. It started when President Obama committed our military to war without bothering to get a declaration of war, or any authorization whatsoever, from Congress.

The Constitution specifies that Congress has the authority to declare war - not that recent presidents have been paying attention to the Constitution.The power of the executive branch has grown because the legislative branch is not interested in reigning in abuses of power from the other two branches.

Instead of guarding against the other two branches exercising more power than the Constitution gives them, Congress seems more interested in letting that power grow, so long as their party has a shot at controlling it.

A prior Congress voted in something called “The War Powers Act” which allowed a president to unilaterally commit American forces to war so long as hegot approval from Congress for the action up to 60 days afterward. Some constitutional scholars question if even the War Powers Act doesn’t give too much leeway to the executive branch. But so contemptuous was Obama of both Congress and the Constitution that he did not even bother asking for their permission, even after the fact. The 60 days have expired.

Dennis Kucinich is a liberal Democrat, but he also posses an idealism that has become rare and quaint within the beltway when it is no threat, and hated and detested when it is. Have you ever noticed how insiders from the two dominant political partiesget along with each other a lot better than they do with the outsiders from their own parties? Kucinich is an outsider in the Democratic Party.

Kucinich introduced astrongly-worded resolution which would inform Obama that he was in violation of the War Powers Act, and that he had 15 days to withdraw U.S. forces from the Libyan war. The measure was getting a lot of support. People are tired of borrowing money from the Chinese to stick our nose in more and more foreign wars where there are no good guys to back.

If things were left on course, the measure might have passed. That was when Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner stepped in. He pulled the Kucinich measure from consideration until the establishment could craft a weaker, purely symbolic, competitor bill.

Once that bill was crafted, Boehner allowed a vote on them both. Here is the game they play. They vote against the Kucinich measure, which actually had teeth and would have really changed policy, and vote for the Republican measure which was just symbolic and let Obama completely off the hook for violating the law (and the Constitution) with his actions in Libya. But the symbolicmeasure gives them the cover they need to go home and beat their chests to voters about how they “voted to condemn the president’s actions in Libya.” It’s a show. It’s pro wrestling.

The ones that really wanted to rebuke Obama are the 148 who voted for the Kucinich measure, and not just Boehner’s face-saving substitute.

All four Arkansas representatives were among those who voted for the empty symbolism measure that will allow Obama to continue to violate the law, while at the same time voting against the substantive measure backed by Kucinich. This shows that they don’t really want to do their duty to restrain the executive branch. But they do want to fool you into thinking that they do.

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Editor’s note: Mark Moore is the lead writer for an Internet blog on matters pertaining to Arkansas culture and government, Arkansas Watch, and on Tuesday nights is the host of an Internet-based radio program, Patriots on Watch. He can be reached through The Times at [email protected].

Opinion, Pages 4 on 06/08/2011