John Bolton and John Yoo are at it back - but this time they are on the side of the constitution. For the last eight years, these two said the Executive Branch could do anything it wanted - but no more. Now, their man is out, the the Senate must exert its power. Of course, they are right that senate should uphold is power - no matter who is President - but these two speak with forked tongues and should not be taken a face value.

Like the wackiest of religious zealots who pick and choose select parts of religious texts, Yoo and Bolton select the parts of constitutional law that fit their momentary needs. They are not concerned with the long term health of the nation or our government but rather the temporal ends of the greedy fools who pay them.

The snake oil can be seen in their argument - the president should not be able to make or join an international treaty without 2/3 of vote in the senate (a president evidently is completely free to break treaties without even consulting the senate) but a simple majority vote would pose a serious challenge to American law and order.

This seems like a strong, clear statements until they admit that this has already been done for our numerous economic treaties. But they don't have a problem with those, only treaties that will have impact on:

Significant national-security commitments, or that purport to delegate lawmaking and enforcement functions to international organizations

Not only does this picking and choosing muddy their clear principles, economic treaties such as NAFTA delegate a great deal of law making and enforcement functions to international agencies. So why aren't Yoo and Bolton upset about them? Perhaps because they don't mind treaties that put more power in the hands of their corporate pay masters?

This makes me suspect that this entire argument is meant to keep the people of the US from expressing our desire to address climate change, poverty and war. Yoo and Bolton want to ensure that no international organization has a say in how much we pollute or who we bomb.

I would have more respect for them if they have the guts to come out in favor the oil and weapons companies that they work for. It is shame that these two people, who have done so much harm to our nation, continue to enjoy such high profile access to our nation's media. They might have changed tactics but not paymasters or perspectives.