And the drumbeat goes on

As part of its continuing drumbeat for more war in the Middle East, the Bush Administration reportedly plans to designate Iran's so-called Revolutionary Guard, a significant part of its official, uniformed army, as a "terrorist organization". Intelligent minds over at DailyKos wonder whether, given the Bush Administration's track record of asserting unlimited "unitary executive" power over anything labelled "terrorist", this might be a prelude to launching Dick Cheney's longed-for invasion of Iran without seeking a Congressional declaration of war, as demanded by the Constitution, or even the kind of limp-wristed abdication of war-making authority that it bleated out in response to the Administration's 2003 demand to invade Iraq as a "response" to an attack masterminded by a Saudi Arabian radical holed up in Afghanistan.

One need not be a fan of the bigoted and obnoxious government of Iran to see this as troubling and potentially disastrous. Unfortunately, the Democratic leaders of the Congress, elected by the people on a wave of anti-war feeling, have foolishly abdicated their constitutional authority over this strutting popinjay of a Presidency and gone on vacation, trusting the Bush administration to behave itself in their absence. This is something like trusting a hyperactive toddler to look after himself for a few weeks in a warehouse full of nitroglycerine.