Gingrich slams Obama's unilateralist agenda

Commenting on a recent AP report that says President Obama has reached the conclusion that he no longer needs Congress to promote his political agenda and "may even benefit in his re-election campaign if lawmakers accomplish little in 2012", and has thus decided to press ahead in 2012 without congress, Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich suggested on Monday that the President should forgo his 2012 salary.

Mr. Gingrich was also perturbed by the AP's report that Obama plans to spend much of the year focusing his attention on winning a second term and keeping up a "robust domestic travel schedule and aggressive" fundraising campaign.

"For the president’s staff to announce that he’s now going to govern without congress? Well, that means he’s not going to govern," said Gingrich "He’s going to be a candidate for an entire year. He shouldn’t take his salary. He shouldn’t pretend he’s president because he’s just a candidate because he’s not doing the job of a president.”

“The comments I heard [on television] this morning were outrageously unconstitutional,” said Gingrich. “I hope the White House press core will go ask them: ‘Are they serious about this?’ As I understand it, they said they are going to try to govern without the Congress next year? That is technically impossible. This is like a kindergarten play. How are you going to pass appropriations bills? How are you going to deal with anything for 12 months? I looked at the TV this morning and thought, ‘These guys are just totally out of touch with reality.’” [source - Des Moines Register]

In June of 2009, in a post entitled, "Obama's Unilateral Foreign Policy, a far cry from Bush's Multilateral Approach", I noted via Reuters that the British government had expressed anger over the Obama administration's decision to release 4 Uighur detainees from Guantanamo bay into the Caribbean island of Bermuda, a British overseas territory - without the UK's consent.

The Guardian-UK reported that Britain's foreign secretary had an uneasy telephone conversation with the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, about why London was not told. A senior Labor MP accused the US of "riding roughshod" over British legal rights in pursuit of its own interests.

Incidentally, I noted in a different post - with regards to the 6 Uighurs that the Obama administration sent to the Island of Palau - that the White House promised to pay $85,000 for each prisoner Palau agreed to accept - all in a desperate attempt to fulfill Obama's campaign pledge to shut down the vital and much-needed Guantanamo Bay prison.

A 'Unilateralist' President, and a 'briber', indeed.

Appearing on the Daily Show in October of 2010, President Obama expressed his frustration with the prolonged health care debate that took place in congress, saying: "Look, I would love not to have a 60 vote requirement [in the senate], which is not in the constitution [and which would have allowed the President to quickly bring his health care mostrosity to fruition]... So there all kinds of things that happened during the course of these two years, in terms of process, that I'd like to see changed..."

Contrast that sentiment with an earlier statement from Obama in 2004:

"You need 60 votes to get something significant to happen," said then-Senator Obama, "which means that Democrats and Republicans have to ask the question: Do we have the will to move an American agenda forward, not a Democratic or Republican agenda forward."

In July of 2006, Obama told a crowd: "You know, one of the arguments that sometimes I get with my fellow progressives is this notion that we should function like Karl Rove, where we identify our core base, we throw them red meat [and] we get a 50 plus 1 victory...You see Karl Rove doesn't need a broad consensus because he doesn't believe in government! If we want to transform the country, though, that requires a sizable majority..."

Flip-flop.....

According to a CNN Opinion Research poll, that was conducted in March of 2010, while congress was debating Obamacare, 59 percent of American opposed the health care legislation. Just 39 percent said they favored the bill. Nevertheless, the President ignored the will of the American people and pressed forward with the legislation anyway.

A recent AP poll found approval for ObamaCare at a dismal 29% with 49% opposing it.

In truth, Obama has acted unilaterally on a host of issues, both foreign and domestic - unlike President Bush, who rarely acted alone without the consent of congress, or our allies abroad [contrary to candidate Obama's claims in 2008].

Indeed, Obama is the quintessential unilateralist, who governs unilaterally because he realizes that only he - and not his fellow countrymen [nor our allies abroad] - knows what's best, not only for the United States, but for the whole-wide-world - and the entire Universe......