Party officials hold way too much sway

David Broder’s Thursday column on the National War Powers Commission did an excellent job of tracing inception and history of the War Powers Act, but failed to grasp the real cause of our inability to chain this monster.

The real culprit lies in three hard realities of national politics:

1. No one who strives to national office arrives there without the blessing of the leadership of either the Democrat or Republican Party and that blessing is forthcoming only upon assurance of obedience to party dictates.

2. This makes the party leaders the real holders of power in government and those two leadership posts are constantly in competition.

3. Every action in either the White House or the Congress is a test of that power.

Our government was formed by people very wary of governments ruled by kings and determined that the president should not be such a figure. In this light there is no confusion about their intention regarding the authority to make important decisions like the making of war.

A War Powers Consultation Act requiring the president to conduct a powwow with key legislators before sending troops into combat will change nothing. Bush powwows all the time for show and then proceeds as he pleases, as intended from the start. It’s meaningless.

Trust is not the problem. The problem is that this power struggle that makes all legislation a test of party loyalty. Since lives are so often in the balance (for instance 4,116 American ones and counting in Iraq) this means our government is essentially in the hands of a few unelected, powerful people who don’t care how many people have to die for them to remain in control.

This is the problem. This is what we need to fix.

Harold R. Pettus

Everett