Rubio Presses to Give Obama OK to Oust Gadhafi

President Barack Obama has an unlikely ally for his Libya policy: Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. The conservative freshman even wants to ramp it up, as he wants Congress to approve a resolution authorizing Obama’s decision to attack Libya and giving him the authority to take out Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, The Hill reports.

Sen. Marco Rubio: Ousting Gadhafi "is in our national interes." (Getty Images Photo)

"I am writing to seek your support for bringing a bipartisan resolution to the Senate floor authorizing the president's decision to participate in allied military action in Libya," Rubio wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

In addition, the letter says, the resolution should stipulate that removing Gadhafi from power “is in our national interest and therefore should authorize the president to accomplish this goal. To that end, the resolution should urge the president to recognize the Interim Transitional National Council as the legitimate government in Libya."

Obama’s Libya policy has turned the usual political calculus on U.S. military intervention upside down. It was Obama and other liberal Democrats who criticized President George W. Bush for his war against Iraq. But now he’s following the lead of President George H.W. Bush, who launched the first Iraq war with a global coalition.

Some liberals are embracing Obama’s decision, although many Republicans who were supportive of George W. Bush’s military actions are skeptics this time around. And Republicans are the main ones worried about spending for military attacks this time around.

MSNBC commentator Joe Scarborough accuses liberals of hypocrisy. “How can the left call for the ouster of Muammar Gadhafi for the sin of killing hundreds of Libyans when it opposed the war waged against Saddam Hussein?” Scarborough wrote on Politico.