On Thu, 01 Jul 2004 08:57:42 -0700, RainLover wrote:
How about Regan, et al, selling weapons to Iran illegally and then
taking the money and sending it down to Contras in South America to
fund a war that congress explicitly said was illegal to fund?

Actually, it wasn't illegal to sell weapons and spare parts to Iran. It was
against a previous administration's presidential policy directive, but an
administration has the unilateral right to change or waive such executive
orders. The President (and his administration acting in his name) has the
sole Constitutional right to conduct foreign policy.

It also wasn't illegal to fund the Contras. Congress expressly refused to
appropriate tax money for that purpose, but that's why the administration
didn't use tax money, and instead brokered the three cornered deal.
Refusing to appropriate money is an old Congressional trick used to
influence the behavior of the Executive, but Congressional funding is
only one source among many of funds.

Where trouble arose was that people lied to Congress about the deals.
This is always a problem when conducting foreign policy. Much of foreign
policy requires acting in secrecy, and Congress is known to be a sieve
when it comes to leaking secret information. So the tendency is to
withhold information from Congress. That's generally not in itself a crime,
but lying to Congress under oath when they directly ask you is a crime.
That's what actually got Ollie North, Poindexter, etc in trouble.

Gary