I've supported Hillary Clinton for the 2008 Democratic nomination, despite her votes on the 2003 AUMF and the recent vote on the status of Iran. With the newest step by the Bush administration, though, I think she has a chance to make up for those votes and more. Okay, Hillary, here's your chance to show that you really intend to put a leash on George Bush.
The current administration is suggesting that it can enter into a persistent status of forces agreement without Congressional approval. You need to stand up for Article I. There's no doubt that the President can unilaterally enter into an agreement which will be binding for the rest of his administration, but he has no authority to make an agreement which extends beyond the end of his administration and hold that it be binding on the United States of America.
You need to make that clear.
Senator Clinton, you, in particular, need to submit a Sense of the Senate Resolution reinforcing the fact that the current administration can not enter into permanent executive agreements with foreign powers, military or otherwise, without Senatorial approval, and, therefore, that any such agreement which purports to extend beyond the 20th of January, 2009 must be understood to not be binding upon the United States if the Senate fails to ratify it.
Yes, doing this will open you to claims that you're interfering with the President's power to negotiate. That simply isn't true, though; the President's power is deliberately constrained by the Constitution precisely to prevent this kind of Executive overreach.
Worse, though, in failing to do this, you will be tying the next President's hands; the opposition Republican party will be able to say that the US is "going back on its word" if the alleged agreement is not followed to the letter. Foreign powers, particularly dependent states like Iraq, need to be put on notice that the President does not unilaterally speak for the United States, and that he cannot, by himself, make a commitment for all the rest of us.
You must act now to untie the next President's hands -- and it must be you who acts.