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GOP Reading of the Constitution: Do they even understand it themselves?
Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) will be leading off the reading of the Constitution to start the 112th congress and the GOP’s control of it. The republicans and their tea party base have been screaming about the Constitution ever since Obama took office, and how government today is suddenly “unconstitutional.” This drama they have planned is nothing but a sop to the tea party base.
All of these politically pious phonies signed onto the Patriot Act, which even a layman’s reading of it easily demonstrates that it is unconstitutional. They also happily rubber-stamped other actions of the Bush administration that made a mockery of habeas corpus and search and seizure laws that are the foundation of the Constitution, as it relates to the rights of citizens.
They also want every bill coming out of congress have as part of it a citation of the part of the constitution that is the basis for it. Supreme Court (in)justice Antonin Scalia recently said the Constitution doesn’t protect the rights of women, because it doesn’t “specifically say that in the document.” It also doesn’t say that corporations are persons, and yet that didn’t stop Scalia and his right wing brethren on the court from declaring that it is “constitutional”
The only conclusion you can come away with here is that the republicans want to reserve the “right” for them to say what is constitutional. They want to abuse the document itself for their own political purposes. This reading of it is their shot across the bow, to let us all know that only they will be the final arbiters of what is constitutional.
This is but two examples exposing the hypocrisy of this purely political stunt. But in this interview Lawrence O’Donnell totally exposes Goodlatte for the fraud and hypocrite he is on this issue.
If this is what we can expect for the next two years then, the democrats are going to have to fight hard to shove these idiots aside just to get the people’s business done, because the republicans focus will be on themselves.
All of these politically pious phonies signed onto the Patriot Act, which even a layman’s reading of it easily demonstrates that it is unconstitutional. They also happily rubber-stamped other actions of the Bush administration that made a mockery of habeas corpus and search and seizure laws that are the foundation of the Constitution, as it relates to the rights of citizens.
They also want every bill coming out of congress have as part of it a citation of the part of the constitution that is the basis for it. Supreme Court (in)justice Antonin Scalia recently said the Constitution doesn’t protect the rights of women, because it doesn’t “specifically say that in the document.” It also doesn’t say that corporations are persons, and yet that didn’t stop Scalia and his right wing brethren on the court from declaring that it is “constitutional”
The only conclusion you can come away with here is that the republicans want to reserve the “right” for them to say what is constitutional. They want to abuse the document itself for their own political purposes. This reading of it is their shot across the bow, to let us all know that only they will be the final arbiters of what is constitutional.
This is but two examples exposing the hypocrisy of this purely political stunt. But in this interview Lawrence O’Donnell totally exposes Goodlatte for the fraud and hypocrite he is on this issue.
If this is what we can expect for the next two years then, the democrats are going to have to fight hard to shove these idiots aside just to get the people’s business done, because the republicans focus will be on themselves.
Thanks, Clark!
I saw this.
Reminds of that clip we see over and over again of the Tea Partier holding up his personal copy of the Constiution, while calling it "The U.S.S. Constiution", apparently mistaking it for a battle ship.
They want to interpret the Constitution strictly--until it defeats their particular goals. Then they wiggle and worm around words and ideas that don't fit their agenda.
As Professor Akhil Reed Amar says,"Those who gave us the U.S. Constitution were the LIveral Democrats of their era. Those who were against the Constiution and supported the failed Articles of Confederation were the anti-Federalists. They were the conservatives of the time.
The TEa Party has it all backwards!!!