Usamah “Sam” Husseini

These questions took place outside of the studios of ABC News in Washington, D.C. on January 7, 2007.

Transcript

[Note: David Obey is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.]

Sam Husseini: Why not withhold funds for a surge? The troops aren’t there.

Representative David Obey: Well the troops are gonna be there before we really have any opportunity to act on it number one and number two the president would simply veto it. So we would have spend not time — the President isn’t going to sign any legislation that cuts off funding for the troops.

SH: But, you have war making authority under the Constitution, you have the power of the purse and you’re telling us that you have nothing —

DO: The problem is the President is the Commander in Chief, he has the authority to expand operations and to move military units around. We will be faced with a reality. You can’t repeal a reality.

SH: But what happens if he just keeps waging the war and you can have all the hearings that you want, so how you going to affect what’s on the ground?

DO: I don’t think that the American people are going to let him keep waging the war. The President needs to understand that if he continues to wage the war — if he follows a — a so-called, ‘surge policy’ which, as I said, is really just an expansion and an intensification of the existing effort, that means that we will be stuck there for all of this presidency. If that happens, there will be disastrous results for his own party in the next election. I hope that pressure will force him to recognize that he’s got to have a major change in policy. This is an — we’ve got to have an active effort at persuasion going on here.

SH: So you are hoping that the political reality will dawn on him rather than looking at this as a Constitutional matter, as to what your Constitutional responsibilities are?

DO: I take no lectures from anybody on Constitutional responsibilities. I voted against going to war in the first place. But the fact is, there are certain realities that we have to face. We do not have a majority in the Senate, I don’t believe, to cut off funds, I don’t believe in futile efforts. I believe in doing things that will have some results.

SH: Have you declared war?

DO: Have I declared war? Of course not!

SH: Has Congress declared war? So why are we —

DO: The Congress took a duck, and what the Congress did under the previous Republican leadership was to take a duck and shove the responsibility off on the President which is why I voted against it.

SH: Was that Constitutional?

DO: Was it Constitutional?

SH: — to take that duck?

DO: Who knows, all I know –

SH: You’re just a member of Congress.

DO: I’m not a lawyer and I’m not a member of the Supreme Court, so lets just –

SH: (laughing)

DO: Lets quit playing word games. We are trying to do the best be can to persuade the President we need a strong change in policy and you don’t do that by engaging in futile gestures which the White House laughs at.

SH: He lost the election, he got rid of Rumsfeld. And now he’s talking about a surge –

DO: That’s correct and I think it’s wrong.

SH: So, what are you gonna do?

DO: I’ve already answered that question twice. It may not be an answer that suits you, but its my answer. You’ve got the right to ask a question and I’ve got the right to answer it my way.

SH: I’m saying that, beyond holding hearings, beyond hoping that the political realities dawn on him…He seems — if he seems impervious to that —

DO: [Opening each side of his jacket] Do you see a magic wand in this pocket? Or do you see a magic wand in this pocket?

SH: I see Constitutional powers.

DO: Not if you can’t pass it. We are not the Supreme Court, we don’t have the power to unilaterally do anything. What we are trying to do is persuade the President that he’s wrong and that’s the end of my comments on that. We can continue to chew this same rag all day, your questions are going to be the same and my answers are gonna be the same…

SH: No, my questions aren’t gonna be the same –why not go to the Supreme Court?

DO: How would you suggest we do that?

SH: You’re a member of Congress, I assume you have some sort of standing regarding war powers —

DO: Well, when you figure it out, send me a note and we’ll talk about it.