The GOP Gimmicks-R-Us Shop: Opening Day of Congress

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Nobody, and I mean nobody, does gimmicks as much as the GOP.

The GOP Gimmicks-R-Us shop has Two new rules will give Constitution a starring role in GOP-controlled House for opening day of the 112th Congress:

When Republicans take over the House [this] week, they will do something that apparently has never been done before in the chamber's 221-year history:

They will read the Constitution aloud.

And then they will require that every new bill contain a statement by the lawmaker who wrote it citing the constitutional authority to enact the proposed legislation.

Call it the tea party-ization of Congress.

Oh dear God. Where to begin?

First of all, which version of the Constitution do these Tea-Publicans intend to read aloud?

The original text for the "originalists"? — you know, the one that institutionalized slavery and counted slaves as three-fifths of a person for purposes of the census and authorized Congress to levy taxes on such property (slaves)?

Or the Constitution as amended? — including the post-Civil War amendments (13, 14, 15) which ended institutionalized slavery and established birthright citizenship — something these very same Tea-Publicans will seek to eliminate in this Congress through legislative fiat rather than the requisite constitutional amendment process.

The amended text also includes the 16th Amendment which authorized the federal income tax, and the 17th Amendment which provides for the direct election of senators — two Amendments the Tea-Publicans are also opposed to and want to eliminate.

And how about the Bill of Rights? — you know, the first ten Amendments to the Constitution? Where was all this conservative angst when the Bush-Cheney regime was eviscerating the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Amendments with warrantless "sneak peak" letter searches under the PATRIOT Act, warrantless data mining spying on electronic communications of American citizens, indefinite detention and extraordinary rendition of American ctizens designated solely by "W" as enemy combatants without any charges filed, access to the courts and a lawyer denied, and no speedy trial? And let's never forget "W" authorized unlawful torture, and the suspension of the ancient writ of habeas corpus enshrined in the Constitution.

These same Tea-Publicans defended these abominations and were willing to sacrifice these sacred constitutional freedoms for a false sense of security in W's "war on terrorism." They may read the Constitution but they do not comprehend the words they read. They simply substitute their political ideology for the words of the document and eviscerate the Constitution.

I agree with Kevin Gutzman, history professor at Western Connecticut State University:

"I think it's entirely cosmetic"… This is the way the establishment handles grass-roots movements," he added. "They humor people who are not expert or not fully cognizant. And then once they've humored them and those people go away, it's right back to business as usual. It looks like this will be business as usual – except for the half-hour or however long it takes to read the Constitution out loud."

This is just a gimmick. It is for consumption by the television audience of FAUX News.

As for the "constitutional authority" rule, this is a no-brainer. It is covered by Article I, Section 8 under both the preamble to "provide for the common defense and general welfare," and the Necessary and Proper Clause, sometimes called the “coefficient” or “elastic” clause. This is an enlargement, not a constriction, of the powers expressly granted to Congress. Is this really necessary to cite Article I, Section 8 in the language of every bill?

Where was the angst of these conservatives for specific constitutional authority when they abdicated their constitutional authority under Article I, Section 8 "to declare war" to "W" and ceded to him the right to decide whether and when to take this country to war? Or when both "W" and the Republican Congress suspended the writ of habeas corpus by executive and legislative fiat in violation of Article 1, Section 9?

Don't speak to me of conservatives as "constitutionalists." They have sought and continue to seek to undermine fundamental constitutional principles at every opportunity. This gimmick, this publicity stunt by Tea-Publicans, mocks the very Constitution that they claim to honor.