(New Amsterdam News) — If there are any side effects or residue left from a straining battle over his possible removal from office, Rep. Charles Rangel did a good job concealing them. What wasn’t hidden was his objection to the Obama administration as it joined a coalition in an attack on Libya last week.
“What needs to be done at this point is a call by the president or the vice president for a special session of Congress to inform us and to ask our position on this matter,” Rangel said during a press briefing Monday afternoon at the State Office Building.
“Obama is going along with past presidents and the United Nations, which is 90 percent [influenced by] the U.S. At the end of the day we pay the price physically and financially.”
Rangel was outraged that President Barack Obama agreed to launch an attack on Libya without consulting Congress, thereby repeating a pattern of previous presidents, including Harry Truman in Korea, Lyndon Baines Johnson in Vietnam and George W. Bush in Iraq. “When they say we should get rid of Gaddafi, who is the ‘we’”? Rangel continued. “Yes, we should have compassion for the rebels, but should we have a number of sleepless nights worrying about getting rid of Gaddafi? I don’t like the idea of his being taken out.”
Note: Rangel posted this story on his official Congressional website.