Trump’s threat deserves swift kick

How dare you, Mr. President, from your Twittering perch in distant Washington, threaten a senator from Alaska — or any senator — with damage to her state's share of public interests because she voted not your views but her own carefully considered views on a matter of concern to Alaskans.

Apparently you think that Alaskans are so attuned to top-down dictatorial styles of government that they will punish Sen. Lisa Murkowski at the polls at your direction. So we are back to war with the Interior Department, though this time, it has more reality to it than President Obama's environmental battles.

Think again, Sen. Dan Sullivan, about your response in implied backing of President Trump and the damage to the Alaska public implied from his threat. Shouldn't you be objecting to his infringement on senatorial rights and duties? Why don't you tell him instead that it is no business of any president to threaten any member of the Senate by any means aimed at a public interest beneficial to the senator's constituents. Don't you think federal overreach applies to Trumpian threats?

[Democrats urge investigations into Trump efforts to pressure Murkowski on health care]

Whether Trump is aware of it or not, Senator, his daily comedy show is developing a direction. You may not want still to be riding the Trump coattails as he slides toward a wreck of his party and person in impeachment proceedings.

This amateur president may not notice it, but by abandoning standard forms of discourse he is moving the country toward constitutional change to accommodate his unique personality. Apart from drama outbursts like his need for First Amendment revision to control the nasty, lying press, and his recent attack on the equal protection clause in tweeting those with sexual identity issues out of the armed forces — apparently in an attempt to gather congressional funding support for his wall — his coziness with Putin has introduced another constitutional shift.

Congress has just enacted a law that makes anti-Russian sanctions a permanent part of American law. The general constitutional framework makes the president the foreign policy manager with the advice and consent of the Senate. The House has a remaining influence in appropriations and, though undernourished, through the war power. But the Founding Fathers and those who have followed in articulating the constitutional framework to America's international power have recognized that negotiating with other nations is a complex activity — one that does not lend itself to drawn-out considerations drawing all members of Congress to the table.

[Murkowski talks sensible health-care stand; Sullivan doesn't]

Foreign affairs requires quick judgments and subtle understanding of relationships among nations. If any other person was president, that understanding would support the relative freedom of the president, the secretary of state and the Foreign Service to do right by the panoply of U.S. interests. But mistrust of Trump is near universal. A rarely so-united Congress has moved to take this sanction power away from the president, permanently freezing an aspect of Russian-American interests where flexibility is a normal tool of diplomacy in something-for-something trades. When, in the complexity of congressional life, are you ever going to get an amendment to reallocate control of American foreign policy power? President Trump may appropriately veto this enactment now on his desk, but the votes for an override are overwhelming.

The extraordinary nature of this congressional exercise of power also illustrates the near unanimity of another unexpressed congressional opinion: that the Trump Dynasty is short-lived. It is not really a matter of debate. Donald Trump is a character of television pseudo-drama: commonly childish and vain, extraordinarily impulsive, profoundly ignorant and incompetent in the administration of government. America is experiencing a bad cold but it will likely be over, sooner than later, if it doesn't become pneumonia.

The secretary of interior is reported as apparently echoing the president's threat to Alaska. Just because he is a Republican is no reason not to kick his butt. Your foot should be up there too, Sen. Sullivan.

John Havelock is a former Alaska attorney general and former White House Fellow. He lives in Anchorage.

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