Dems Should Watch Out For What They Wish
This is an essay the progressive pundits and Democratic congress men and women don’t want to hear. The two issues I am addressing is a warning, in one, and a solution that would defuse a sensitive racial canard in the other.
Issue No. 1 is a stampede to kill or modify the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster rule.
Let me say at the outset that even the most die-hard Republican with an ounce of honesty in his character would agree that this session of Senate Republicans have flagrantly abused the rule by threatening cloture on almost every piece of major legislation brought before the Senate. Let me also say that Majority Leader Harry Reid and his Democratic caucus have lacked the backbone to call the Republicans’ bluff by waiving Rule 12. That would force the filibuster sponsor to talk until he dropped as was the case during the Civil Rights debate of the 1960s when Southern Democrats filibustered for 43 days. The voters turned on them.
The best way to make my point is by telling a story. It is a story told in the book and movie “A Time To Kill.” The young attorney in his closing argument was defending his black client who shot and killed the two white rednecks accused of assaulting, raping, unsuccessfully lynching and throwing the man’s 10-year-old daughter 30 feet off a bridge and left to die.
Asking the jury to close their eyes, the attorney related all but one fact of the daughter’s ordeal. “Now,” he instructed, “consider this little child a white girl.” The jury verdict was not guilty.
The moral of the story for Democrats is what if the shoe was on the other foot.
From a practical sense, I fear the Democrats would do the same as we see the Republicans abusing the filibuster rule. Which means the Senate is destined to be dysfunctional until something sparks a revolution within the Senate’s millionaire’s club to stop this nonsense.
From a historical perspective, the growth of the filibuster as a political tool was not born with the Civil Rights movement but nurtured by Republicans after Democrats successfully killed the nomination of Robert Bork to a Supreme Court Justice post. Polarization became more pronounced when the Democrats opposed but lost to defeat the Justice Clarence Thomas nomination.
And in this session it spread from judicial nominations to all major legislation, in all 112 times compared to the low double digits the past three decades.
The Senate may be the greatest deliberating body of parliamentary excellence at the expense of up and down votes on legislation.
Issue No. 2 is the birther movement which progressive pundits love to thrash.
Let me say from the outset that much of the fuel feeding these zealots is the election of a black president. Now, there’s one thing I know and one thing I don’t know about this idiotic flap.
The Constitution requires a president to be at least age 35 and a natural born citizen. What I don’t know is any legislative requirement he submit his birth certificate to any federal agency. One would presume it would be required by the Federal Elections Commission.
If not, then let’s do it.
Birth certificate requirements are a common practice as every hockey mom well knows. They are required by schools and, most emphatically, the federal government to join the military or receive benefits from Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and federal housing allowances.
Were that the only reason the birther movement exists, I would agree with them. But, it’s not. Their entire argument is cloaked in fear, conspiracy theories and a steadfast refusal to accept the truth.
My case in point is the elderly white woman at a John McCain campaign rally in New Hampshire when she told the old war hero Obama “is an Arab.” McCain responded forcefully, “No, no, no” and walked away.
We can all walk away from this stupid fear mongering and defuse racial testiness by fulling the constitutional requirement to produce a birth certificate somewhere in the election process. Placing a copy of a birth certificate on a presidential web site is not enough.
See how far that gets you when signing up for a government program.
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Ridiculous. We can drop the “birther” issue without the submission of anything to anybody. It's stupid it's over. Bringing it up again and again is a joke in itself.
Fortunately, or unfortunately – however you want to look at it….the 'birther' issue is anything but stupid or over. You can wish, but wishing doesn't make it true.
The author seems to be more of a racist than those he is trying to call out for the very same offense. So, if Obama happened to be more than just 50% white, his NBC status could be questioned in good-faith with out it being based on racial issues? I don't get why people lump all of Obama's problems into the Racial category. Is it not possible to question someone's legitimacy over the fact that they might not be legitimate? Is it imperative for there has to be an underlying reason to question his legitimacy, other than his legitimacy?
I have no clue whether Obama is legitimately a NBC or not. However, there seems to be quite a bit of unknown facts about Obama, obscure and the fact that he has sealed records, makes me question. However, my questioning in and of itself is not enough for me to declare that he is not a NBC. He very well may be, but to date he has not put to rest a growing number of citizens who think otherwise. If he cared about this nation and bringing it back together, rather than deepening the divide, then he would go to any length to satisfy the citizenry of his legitimacy. He seems to show great arrogance and doesn't like to be questioned on anything. It would seem he has forgotten that he works FOR the people, not the other way around.
So was it racist when it was demanded to see McCains birth certificate? You people are amazing. You have set race relations back 30 yrs with all the bogus racists accusations. The only ones I ever hear talk about Obama's race are the liberals and democrats.
You liberals are just precious ! The way you dance around the 800 pound gorilla in the room – as it relates to the birth cert. issue.
Father_Time is a PERFECT example of what I'm talking about. The question is not whether obama has or does not have a birth cert. IRRELEVANT at this point. The big question is :
Why on EARTH would a sitting President commit so much time , money and political capital making sure NOBODY GET TO SEE IT ?
It's so illogical it screams. IT SCREAMS !!!!! Why? Why all the gymnastics to protect a stupid birth cert.? In the words of rahm emanuel – ” it's retarded” .
Also , why are dolts like Father_Time are so eager to drop this issue? In a word – somethings wrong here with our President. He's OBVIOUSLY hiding something. Who in their right mind could even think of arguing that obama should show the BC – and prove all these birthers to be the nutjobs the liberals claim? What a missed opportunity for the left eh?
I rest my case. — Jer
When a party in the minority advocates getting rid of the filibuster they can be taken as seriously looking towards better government, no majority party taking that position should be unless your a first class idiot.
That's not true… Any Democratic President is illegitimate as far as they are concerned, they would be going crazy no matter which of the Democratic contenders had won the primary & the election…
No the fact that Obama is African-American does not help, but ultimately it's irrelevant…
Father_Time,
The 'birther' question is an issue of the U.S. Constitution. If it is 'stupid' and 'over,' then the U.S. Constitution is also 'stupid' and 'over.' To some that may have no meaning, but to those of us who value liberty, it is of great importance.
Every day Obama spends in the White House is a strike against the rule of law and a step toward anarchy. By allowing Obama to continue to withhold his documents, our elected representatives and the Justice Department are aiding and abetting criminal fraud and they too should be prosecuted.
If our country is to survive, this horrible cancer on our government must be excised–and soon.
History is rife with the “shoe on the other foot”examples. The Republicans pushed through the term limits on the POTUS in reaction to FDR's multiple terms in office only to lament latter when Regan couldn't run for a third term. More recently if Dems had left the law alone allowing the Massachusetts governor select replacement Senators Tim Brown would not be the 41st vote.
I agree. How does this help solve any of the problems this country is facing? We are looking for solutions not more problems. Apparently, not a forte of the finger-pointing conservatives. This is our elected president- born in the USA, married to Michele Obama, graduate of Harvard and Columbia. I will no more ask for a birth certificate than I I would a marriage license, or copies of his degrees. If we must insist on records, let's note this “for the record”- we did not vote for him on the premise of any of those credentials! I will challenge any “hockey mom” in the country on this. I suggest that conservatives swallow their sorry prides over the loss of the election (it's been over a year) and find ways to work with the president to address the serious issues plaguing this country.
Meant Scott Brown.
We can drop the “birther” issue'
The duck and F_T on the same page.
Quite.
Quite.
Eliminate the lobby and this would happen. The likelihood of that happening is as likely as congress voting themselves a pay-cut
The is no gorilla in the room. Only a few people bringing this up that conservatives and liberals think are nuts. No media is carrying you water, no investigation, no expose`….nothing. If there was anything what-so-ever to this, it would have been taken to the limit months ago, if not years. It’s a dead issue. No issue could be more dead. You can scream and yell it out ten thousand times a day, and, it’s still a dead issue. You only make yourself look silly. You damage American conservatism by continuing this stupidity.
Quote: “No media is carrying you water, no investigation, no expose`..nothing.”.
Obama may? have taken this oath, “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Article II Section 1 of the Constitution
“No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”
Where is your outrage? Not one media outlet has carried this water, which is the outrage of the last 200 years. Go back to your Liberal siesta and leave the Constitution with those who can read and follow what it says.