Sen. Mitch McConnell vows to violate the Constitution hard and repeatedly

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

In a previous post, I gave you the expert analyis of the 14th Amendment by law professor Jack Balkin at the Balkinization blog.  Under What Circumstances Can The President Ignore the Debt Ceiling?:

The Fourteenth Amendment imposes a constitutional duty on both the President and Congress not to act in such a way as to bring the validity of the public debt into question. As I have explained in previous posts, the purpose of section 4 was to prevent the political branches from holding the validity of the public debt hostage as part of a political threat or in order to exact political revenge.

I believe that section 4 was designed to prevent what the Republican leaders of Congress are currently doing. Members of Congress should stop trying to use the risk of default to hold the country hostage in order to win concessions on ordinary matters of politics. The should simply increase the debt ceiling to match appropriations that Congress has already made. Then they should have negotiations about taxes and federal spending.

The "Septuagenarian Ninja Turtle" Mitch McConnell took a victory lap on Tuesday and vowed to violate the Constitution hard and repeatedly in the future. McConnell vows to hold debt ceiling hostage again:

This afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) confirmed […] that Republicans will hold the debt ceiling hostage in the future, saying, this debate “set the template for the future”:

MCCONNELL: It set the template for the future. In the future, Neil, no president—in the near future, maybe in the distant future—is going to be able to get the debt ceiling increased without a re-ignition of the same discussion of how do we cut spending and get America headed in the right direction. I expect the next president, whoever that is, is going to be asking us to raise the debt ceiling again in 2013, so we’ll be doing it all over.

What do we do with a senator who openly vows to violate the Constitution of the United States in breach of his oath of office? The best we can do is subject him to public scorn and ridicule and to make it clear that his disregard for the Constitution and the rule of law will not be tolerated by the American people.