Thursday, March 13, 2014

Presidential Prevarications

It seems that to be a good politician one needs to be a master of prevarication.

It is difficult to become President of the United States without some distortions, equivocations, deceptions, fabrications or outright lies along the way.

A BeeLine reader recently sent me this in an email on Famous Presidential Prevarications which I thought was pretty telling.

Famous Presidential Lies 
Written by, To The Point News


LBJ: 
·  We were attacked (in the Gulf of Tonkin )

Nixon:
·  I am not a crook

GHW Bush:
·  Read my lips - No New Taxes

Clinton:
·  I did not have sex with that woman... Miss Lewinski

GW Bush:
·  Iraq has weapons of mass destruction

Obama:
·  I will have the most transparent administration in history.
·  The stimulus will fund shovel-ready jobs.
·  I am focused like a laser on creating jobs.
·  The IRS is not targeting anyone.
·  It was a spontaneous riot about a movie.
·  If I had a son.
·  I will put an end to the type of politics that "breeds division, conflict and cynicism".
·  You didn't build that!
·  I will restore trust in Government.
·  The Cambridge cops acted stupidly.
·  The public will have 5 days to look at every bill that lands on my desk
·  It's not my red line - it is the world's red line.
·  Whistle blowers will be protected in my administration. 
·  We got back every dime we used to rescue the banks and auto companies, with interest.
·  I am not spying on American citizens.
·  Obama Care will be good for America .
·  You can keep your family doctor.
·  Premiums will be lowered by $2500.
·  If you like it, you can keep your current healthcare plan.
·  It's just like shopping at Amazon.
·  I knew nothing about "Fast and Furious" gunrunning to Mexican drug cartels.
·  I knew nothing about IRS targeting conservative groups.
·  I knew nothing about what happened in Benghazi .
·  I have never known my uncle from Kenya who is in the country illegally and that was arrested and told to leave the country over 20 years ago.
·  And, I have never lived with that uncle.  He finally admitted (12-05-2013) that he DID know his uncle and that he DID live with him.

And the biggest one of all:
·  "I, Barrack Hussein Obama, pledge to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America ."

I believe we have a winner!


Speaking of the last item on the list, I found it interesting that President Obama recently stated that he will veto the House bill passed today ("Enforce the Law Act") that is designed to push back against President's Obama unilateral acts intended to selectively enforce and circumvent the law.  We have seen this time and again by President Obama on issues such as immigration, marriage, and welfare rules, not to mention his signature legislative "achievement", Obamacare.  That law itself has been ignored, delayed or deferred over 20 times.

I must say that it takes an extraordinary amount of chutzpah for the President of the United States to state that he will veto a bill that merely seeks to get him to do his job.   If the law were to pass the Senate (highly unlikely with Harry Reid in charge right now but who knows comes January, 2015?) and the President actually vetoed the law we may find ourselves face to face with a real life constitutional crisis.

And all of this brought to us by a former "Professor of Constitutional Law" at the University of Chicago?  That is pretty scary indeed.

Another liberal constitutional professor of law, Jonathan Turley of George Washington University, recently related his concerns to the House Judiciary Committee and urged Congress to reign in the power grab from the Executive Branch.  It does seem that there are few liberals left who believe in the Constitution and the rule of law.


“I believe we are now at a constitutional tipping point in our system,” Turley, who teaches law at George Washington University, said. “It’s a dangerous point for our system to be in, and I believe that your response has to begin before this president leaves office. No one in our system goes it alone.”
Turley noted that while he agrees with the president on most of his policies, it still “does not alter the fact that I believe the means he is doing is wrong” and that the continued acceleration of executive power can be “a dangerous change in our system.”
Turley flatly rejected the Obama administration’s reason for using more executive powers, which the president claims is a gridlocked Congress. “It is simply untrue that we’re living in very different or unprecedented times. The framers lived in these times,” Turley said, noting that back then Congress used the Alien and Sedition Act to arrest opponents and Thomas Jefferson referred to his opponents as the “reign of witches.”
“This is not a different political time, and it shouldn’t be used as an excuse for extra-constitutional action,” Turley warned.

If you have not looked at the Constitution of the United States in awhile let me remind you of what it says.

Article I, Section 1. (the very first thing mentioned after the preamble)

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. 

What about the President?  His duties are outlined in Article II (that comes after I) and his dealings with Congress are more specifically referred to in Section 3 of that Article.

Article II, Section 3.

He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States. (my emphasis)


It is pretty simple.

The President can report information to Congress. He may convene and adjourn the legislative bodies. And he can recommend measures that he judges to be necessary and expedient that should be passed into law. That's it.  He has no authority or discretion to write his own laws or ignore laws on the books.

Once a law is passed he must faithfully execute the laws. That is his duty under the Constitution.

Which brings us to ...

Article II, Section 4.

The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

Is this where we are heading with this President? I certainly hope not. However, who knows when you look at everything else that he has said and done ( or not done) over the last five years.

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