The day Sen. Byrd’s OpEd piece appeared in the Times, Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan read it into the Congressional Record, and Sen. Paul Sarbanes of Maryland underscored its implications in the Senate, pointing out that the resolution was “a major erosion of the role of the Congress with respect to the Nation going to war.”
Sen. Byrd noted that “a President can veto any change that Congress...might enact in order to overturn this law.”
Mr. Sarbanes: “(A)s long as he could keep the support of one-third--not of each House of the Congress but only one-third of one House, either a third of the Senators, plus one, or a third of the Members of the House of Representatives--he could negate congressional action that tried to pull back this war-making authority...”
Mr. Byrd: “It only takes a majority of both Houses to pass this resolution, but it would take two-thirds in the future if the President should attempt to veto a substitute piece of legislation by this Congress to abort what we are doing here today, to appeal it, to amend it. One-third plus one in either body could uphold the President's veto, and that legislation would not become law.
Sen. Hillary Clinton spoke next, thanking Sen. Byrd for “his passion and commitment to this body and to our Constitution” and expressing “appreciation for the way in which he has waged this battle on behalf of his convictions. It is a lesson to us all.”
Then she explained why she was voting “yes” on the resolution (full text in the link). “I support this resolution as being in the best interests of our Nation. A vote for it is not a vote to rush to war; it is a vote that puts awesome responsibility in the hands of our President. And we say to him: Use these powers wisely and as a last resort.”
(continued above)
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I am a primary editor of the website, LiberatedText dot org, which you referenced for the Hillary Clinton Senate Floor Speech regarding her vote for the Authorization of the Use of US Military Force in Iraq, on October 10, 2002.
One intention of the site's Congressional Records xhtml mark-ups is to provide through the liberal usage of inner links, directly linkable subsections. Sadly, almost everyone who has cited the Authorization of Force, failed to use this intentionally coded function, which added a fair amount of time to records web mark-up. It's obviously not your fault, but ours. Here is the direct link to H.R. Clinton's remarks you cited. The Authorization of Force has a publicly accessible Detailed TOC which exposes the vast majority of direct links available for citations. Liberated Text's Congressional Records currently also include The Senate commentary and Debate regarding the McCain anti-torture amendment on October 5, 2007, tit;ed "9 Senators of Shame, an ongoing attempt to document the Congressional Assault upon Habeas Corpus from the Clinton Administration to the Present, titled, "Terrorizing Habeas Corpus", a few misc records, and a soon to be published new project to mark-up the 2007 Congressional comments and debates regarding the Iraq War.
Thanks for the link, and I may be posting a comment regarding Google News in the appropriate place soon;
cheers,
--impietease.
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