[Salon] An Intellectual Dead Zone: Congress | Capitol Hill Citizens - Guest Post by Bruce Fein

An Intellectual Dead Zone: Congress By Bruce Fein* Congress has become an intellectual dead zone confirmed, among other things, by the customary blather reported in the Congressional Record. There is no cerebral activity or curiosity there with one exception. Scheming for re-election for the sake of re-election. Their intellectual universe extends no further. Members struggle to know the three branches of the federal government. A Senator identified them as the House, Senate, and executive. A House Member also received a failing grade in blurting, "If we work our butts off to make sure that we take back all three chambers of Congress — Uh, rather all three chambers of government: the presidency, the Senate, and the House." An incumbent Congressman informed me that discussing the Constitution with colleagues is like reading Shakespeare to cows. The late Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) chronically fretted over congressional dumbness. Congress has defunded its own in-house think tank, the Office of Technology Assessment, three decades ago. I can’t think of a single Representative or Senator who could hold a candle to the likes of predecessors James Madison, John Qunicy Adams, Joseph Story, Henry Clay, or Daniel Webster. Many would fail the citizenship test required for naturalization. Most have not read a serious book in years if not decades. None have a mastery of the Constitution they are sworn to preserve and defend. Their respective staffs are characteristically in their salad days unlearned in the ways of power. Most legislation is drafted by lobbyists or the executive branch. A small minority of Members know the contents of the bills they are voting on. Hearings have dwindled into sideshows and occasionally carnivals. None were held to examine the stupendous folly of expending more than $300 million every day for twenty (20) successive years in Afghanistan to return a grislier and more misogynistic version of Taliban. All the lights were flashing on the dashboard year after year with no one paying attention. Instead, Congress is scrutinizing errors in the withdrawal of combat troops under President Joe Biden for partisan advantage. In the manner of flip-flopper in chief John Kerry on the Iraq war, former President Donald Trump boated on twitter of his forcing Biden’s hand on Afghanistan until he somersaulted “I started the process, all the troops are coming home, they (Biden) couldn’t stop the process. 21 years is enough. They (Biden) couldn’t stop the process, they (Biden) wanted to but couldn’t stop the process.” Members are generally clueless about their own constitutional prerogatives. I once asked a freshman Member about resorting to the inherent contempt powers of Congress, unanimously affirmed by the Supreme Court in McGrain v. Daugherty (1927), to compel compliance with congressional subpoenas or fact indefinite detention. The Member’s eyes glazed over as if I had asked him about quantum mechanics. Congress has similarly surrendered the war power, the treaty power, legislative power, and the spending power to the White House ignorant of their constitutional authorities. They are mesmerized by the words in Article 2, section 2: “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.” Alexander Hamilton explained in Federalist 69 the de minimis power associated with that provision “The President is to be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States. In this respect his authority would be nominally the same with that of the king of Great Britain, but in substance much inferior to it. It would amount to nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the military and naval forces, as first General and admiral of the Confederacy; while that of the British king extends to the DECLARING of war and to the RAISING and REGULATING of fleets and armies, all which, by the Constitution under consideration, would appertain to the legislature.” Notwithstanding Hamilton, who was present at the creation, Senator John McCain (R-AR) audaciously and mendaciously maintained centuries later that Congress has no "right to declare peace," and bugled: "[T]he fact is that the President of the United States is given the responsibility, the most grave responsibility of sending into harm's way our greatest national treasure, our young men and women." Those ill-conceived words conflict with the congressional decision to end the Vietnam War by prohibiting the expenditure of any funds of the United States to conduct combat operations in Indochina after August 15, 1973. P.L. 93-50, sections 304 and 307. Communicating serious ideas to a Member and expecting a substantive response is a triumph of hope over experience. Silence is the norm. Even an AI generated answer is the exception. Congress is responsible for its own intellectual death. It has neglected to create a Congressional University to instruct Members and staff in the Constitution and the history of the waning of congressional power. Congress has created and funded the National Defense University, the Army War College, the Navy War College, and the Air Force War College. Why not a university for itself. Congress is too important to the Constitution’s separation of powers to be left to intellectual dunces. *Bruce Fein was associate deputy attorney general under President Reagan, research director of the Joint Congressional Committee on Covert Arms Sales to Iran, and is author of Congressional Surrender and Presidential Overreach.