CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, January 10, 2011

Reading the Constitution: Some were not happy

First of all, Americans are understandably shocked by the attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, her family, and those who came to hear her speak at a gathering outside a Tucson food store. The shooter, Jared Loughner (22) has a history of marijuana use and mental problems that got him booted from a local community college.

His peers say Loughner’s favorite books are the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and Mein Kampf by the founder of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, Adolf Hitler. Watch for the Sinistra Media’s attempts to paint Loughner as a right-wing nut; however, that is not the case. By all accounts, Loughner is simply a nut whose previous bizarre behaviors should have gotten him locked up long ago.

Meanwhile, last week’s reading of the U.S. Constitution in the U.S. House of Representatives caused some Democrats to have the vapors. A handful of Democrats, instead of celebrating the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery and made a guarantee of personal liberty for all the people of the United States, wanted the Constitution read as written originally by the Framers of the Constitution when slavery, back in that time, was not forbidden.

Former Speaker and now House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi, had no choice but to accept Speaker John Boehner’s offer that she, following his reading of the Preamble, read Article I which sets out the powers and the limits of the power of the Legislative Branch. Boehner’s idea for Republicans and Democrats to unite in a spirit of bi-partisanship by alternating in the reading was unanimously embraced by House Republicans; however, only reluctantly by a number of House Democrats who see the limits the Constitution places on government as a roadblock against their desire to do whatever the heck they wish to do.

Some House Democrats even refused to be present during the reading. Those Democrats, who objected to the reading of the U.S. Constitution, were joined in spirit by some members of the Sinistra Media. For example, leftist writer, Dahlia Lithwick, writing in the left-leaning Slate Magazine wrote, “The Constitution is always going to raise more questions than it answers and confound more readers than it comforts.”

Yes, those on the Left, who want to impose more and more government rules and regulations on the people, do question the Constitution and the Constitution does confound them more than it comforts them. Recall, the purpose of a written constitution is to place limits on what those who are in power can do to those who are not in power. No wonder the reading of the U.S. Constitution in the U.S. House of Representatives caused so much distress to its left-wing members.

One wonders how those who object to the reading of the U.S. Constitution are willing to take their Constitutionally-mandated oath of office. Here is the oath: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”

Later, a group of House Republicans introduced a bill on to rein in the various "czars" in the Obama administration. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and 28 other House Republicans introduced legislation to do away with the czars Mr. Obama has used to govern over the past two years. The Republicans complain the czars are doing almost cabinet-level work that should require Senate confirmation.

Strange things happen when government begins to operate under the rules laid out by a written constitution.

Nationally syndicated columnist, William Hamilton, was educated at the University of Oklahoma, the George Washington University, the U.S Naval War College, the University of Nebraska, and Harvard University.

©2010. William Hamilton.<.b>

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Email: william@central-view.com