The GOP legislature has become a "rubber stamp for whatever a president tells them to do," one senator said after a failed vote on the Iran war this week. WASHINGTON – In ducking a vote on authorizing war against Iran this week, Congress ceded its constitutional responsibilities yet again, some lawmakers warned, empowering current and future presidents to launch large wars unilaterally, in a major break with the nation’s founding principles. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said that