The Democrats Disregard The Constitution For Political Gain
How else can you explain the fact that today, they pushed through an unconstitutional rules change giving limited voting rights on the House floor to the chamber’s five nonstate delegates.Â
With the 226-191 vote, delegates representing the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa can cast ballots on amendments. The lawmakers, however, will not be allowed to vote on final passage of legislation. If the delegates’ votes decide the outcome of an amendment, the House immediately will vote again without the delegates’ participation.
Roy Blunt(R MO.) summed it up best: “Representation without taxation,”
RedState has this to say:
Watching the Democrats in the past few weeks is enough to make anyone wonder if the Democrats learned anything in their twelve year exile from Congressional power beyond the “known facts” of their inherent right to rule and Republican evilness.
In the past three-hundred fifty hours of the Democrats first one hundred hours, we have seen them scrap rules designed to prevent entrenched committee chairmen, rules designed to make it more difficult to raise taxes, place back in charge of committees men who caused the public outcries of the early nineties, and generally rub in the noses of the American people all those acts that caused the people to throw them out in 1994. One would not be surprised to soon learn about a check kiting scandal.
So it should come as no surprise that the Democrats are set to redo one of their worst acts — not because it is bad per se, but because it so manifestly flies in the face of the clear meaning of the Constitution that we must wonder if the Democrats really even care about the Constitution. Under a proposal put forward by Majority Leader Hoyer, the Democrats are set to allow delegates from American territories to vote on legislation on the floor of the House.
To quote Article 1, Section 2 of the United States Constitution,
The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several statesÂ
This is Con Law 101 — the word “state” has a peculiar and special meaning. Delegates from territories of the United States do not meet the qualifications to be a Representative.
The last time the Democrats tried this same maneuver, in 1993, the New York Times called it a “shameless political tyranny,” citing the same section of the Constitution we just cited for why it is a bad idea.
The Chicago Tribune called this action “a blatant end-run around the Constitution, which allows full voting status only to the representatives of the states.” USA Today said “the Democrats first order of business is a power grab that short-circuits the Constitution.”
Republicans should make every effort to kill this measure, as should Democrats who really take the Constitution seriously. Any Republican who votes for the measure should be repudiated by the Republican caucus. And we hope that the media that put principle above partisanship in 1993, will do so again. This measure must be defeated.
So much for honesty!
January 25, 2007 - 07:29 AM on January 25th, 2007
If the GOP had any spine, they’d take the Democrats to the Supreme Court on Contsitutional grounds and have this rule overturned premanently.
January 26, 2007 - 04:37 PM on January 26th, 2007
hell.. Bush does it as a matter of course.
What’s the biggie?:roll: