Obama dismisses Libya ‘fuss’ in Congress as political game-playing

President Obama on Wednesday defiantly said he does not need to discuss the constitutionality of the War Powers Resolution because U.S. military involvement in Libya has not come to that point.

In his first press conference since March, Obama blasted Congress on a number of fronts, including the mounting criticism from Republicans and Democrats over Libya. The president said that “a lot of this fuss is politics.”

{mosads}The president defended his administration’s position that because there are no troops in harm’s way, the resolution does not apply. Obama also backed the mission’s goals and again called for Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi to step down.

“We have engaged in a limited operation to help a lot of people against one of the worst tyrants in the world,” Obama said. “Somebody who nobody should want to defend. We should be sending out a unified message to this guy that he should step down and give his people a fair chance to live their lives without fear. And this suddenly becomes the cause celebre for folks in Congress? Come on.”

The president welcomed the support in legislation proposed by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) authorizing the mission, but he intimated that he does not need it.

“If you look substantively at what we’ve done, we — we have done exactly what we said to do under a U.N. mandate and we have protected thousands of lives in the process.” Obama said. And as a consequence, a guy who was a state sponsor of terrorist operations against the United States of America is pinned down and the noose is tightening around him.”

The president flatly stated at one point: “Do I think that our actions in any way violate the War Powers Resolution? The answer is no.”

“So I don’t even have to get to the constitutional question,” Obama said.