On The Fence

In the Persian Gulf two massive armies squared off across miles of desert sand as the Jan. 15 deadline for Iraq's withdrawal from Kuwait drew nearer. But with the world anxiously awaiting the outcome of this week's last-chance meeting between U.S. Secretary of State James Baker and Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz, a different battle was brewing back in Washington. This fight was over constitutional prerogatives and political power. The burning question at the center of it all: Could President Bush send U.S. troops into battle without congressional approval?

The showdown over that issue was surprisingly long in coming. Congress was in recess last August when Bush dispatched the first troops to Saudi Arabia, and the lawmakers had little to say in September and October when they were busy running for re-election. Only after the November elections, as Bush doubled U.S. troop strength and successfully pressed the U.N. to adopt its Jan. 15 ultimatum, did a few Senators and Representatives speak up. The urgency of participating in a major national decision finally came home last week as the 102nd Congress convened in Washington for the first time. Its members faced the challenge not only of injecting their voice into the process but also of deciding whether that voice should support or oppose the President's threat of imminent military action.

Asserting his constitutional role as Commander in Chief, George Bush has made it clear that he regards the decision to go to war as his alone. The debate that erupted in both chambers last week was a sure sign that after months of holding their fire, many of the 535 representatives of the American people disagreed not only with the President but with their own leadership on that question. Barely half an hour after the Senate's opening session was gaveled to order, Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin upset the plans of majority leader George Mitchell to delay a floor fight over U.S. policy. When Mitchell proposed to the chamber that no resolutions on the gulf should be submitted before Jan. 23 unless the leadership approved, Harkin leaped to his feet. War is "being talked about in coffee shops, in the workplace and in the homes," the Iowa Democrat declared. "Now is the time and here is the place to debate."

Harkin wanted to introduce a resolution co-sponsored by fellow Democrat Brock Adams of Washington that would prohibit Bush from attacking Iraqi forces without "explicit authorization" from Congress. Mitchell looked surprised and angry. Though for weeks he had been asserting in public that only Congress has the constitutional power to declare war, he was anxious to avoid a debate before the Jan. 9 meeting between Baker and Aziz in Geneva. "This is the place," he replied to Harkin, then added, "I don't think it's the time." But among the rank and file, the attitude was "If not now, when?"