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Rant

Now Democrats Want a Literal Reading of the Constitution.

Posted 25 months ago|8 comments|838 views

TAGS

Tea Party , Robert Mendez , Constitution , Senator recall , democrats

Written by

Harshaw

The Tea Party has put the country on notice that they are not going anywhere. New Jersey Members of the group have started to a recall campaign for Senator Robert Mendez who is New Jersey's Junior Senator.

Robert Mendez took the issue to a lower court who ruled that the residents are allowed to collect and file the 1.3 million signatures needed. Senator Mendez is now appealing to the NJ Supreme Court on the grounds that it is unconstitutional.

New Jersey's Constitution clearly states that they can recall a sitting US Senator. Mendez however is stating that read literally the US Constitution does explicitly state that a US Senator can be removed by way of a recall.

So there you have it. The Democrats will be the new champions of our right to bear arms, the Health Care Bill will most likely be repealed at the behest of the Democrats as they showcase their new found love of the Constitution in it's original, unaltered form.

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karrezza
Puyallup, WA

25 months ago: Hey , what a dumb blog you wrote.. you quote no sources for your information, you do not even quote the U.S. Constitution or New Jersey's state Constitution.
I found nowhere that supports what you said they said about the constitution.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/031... Try that article, or that one..
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/04...

what has that got about bearing arms or the Health Care Bill?

They want to recall him cuz he votes on spending $$ for jobs and improving things? Shocking!!

Your Teabags have been steeped too many times and are running weak. Good luck getting 1.8 million signatures in New Jersey! They cant even get 1000 to show up at a time to rallies!!

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Harshaw

25 months ago: For the Statute see:

http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/lawsconstit...

From your linked article which is the statement I was using as my grounds for discussion. My lack of link is only because it is so widely available, and I was not attempting to give a detailed rundown of the legal jargon.

"The senator has called the recall a "political stunt." He maintains the lack of any recall provision in the U.S. Constitution means his term is for six years and U.S. senators are not subject to recall by voters. His term is up in 2012."

So he is saying what i said he is doing which is taking a literal view of the consitition, versus the usual liberal "living view" of the constitution. Since, as he states the Constitution does not literally state that a Senator can be recalled, it is therefore stating "silently" that a recall is illegal so therefore the state of NJ cannot supersede it with it's own law.

Do you follow?

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JAK Gladney
Saint Albans, WV

25 months ago: I find it interesting that conservatives, following the Schwarzenegger example, hate all things progressive...until it comes to the recall process, a holdover from the Progressive (capital "P") Era. Or, now a small, vocal minority can undo the will of the majority, as expressed in free democratic elections, with a Progressive Era relic. It's a fine way to subvert that process in traditional one-party strongholds where groups like the Tea Party--a minority of a minority--will never have the numbers to win office. Cynical, and fundamentally undemocratic, but useful.

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Harshaw

25 months ago: How is it undemocratic? They collect the signatures, and election is held and either the person being recalled wins or he doesn't.

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scotmanster

25 months ago: @Jak

"will of the majority, as expressed in free democratic elections"

Last I knew out election system was based on electoral votes not the votes of each and every citizen like a true democracy.

We are a Republic. Each state has a certain amount of electoral votes some have more some have less. A state with a high population can have less electoral votes than a larger state with a lower population. So you see the will of the majority is not as clear as you portend it to be. We are not a majority or mob rule Nation.

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scotmanster

25 months ago: Each state votes for their own representatives it certainly does not always express the will of the majority when half of the people do not vote to begin with. You can twist logic all you want and say the tea party movement is small but the biggest factor is like Harshaw stated in another article that most can relate to one issue or another they put out on the table.

As to recalling the Senator if they get enough signatures then they do have the right to hold another election. Just becuase it is not used frequently does not mean it is fair. If it is in the Constitution then it is their right. That is what is called the balance of power between the people and the state.

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markbyrn

Moderator

25 months ago: Amazingly this dimbulbed Senator has played right into the hands of teabaggers by using the courts to block their publicity stunt. As noted in the court ruling:

"There is, and there will be, no necessity for our courts to resolve this difficult constitutional issue if the Committee's petition drive fails to collect the necessary, approximately, 1,300,000 signatures. Pending that possible eventuality, we see no urgent reason to now decide the question of invalidity or validity with finality. All we need to decide, as we have done, is whether there is a sufficient basis for the Committee to proceed with its initiative and for the Secretary of State to perform her ministerial function."

In hockey and soccer, it's called an own goal and the junior Senator delivered one for the teabaggers.

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JAK Gladney
Saint Albans, WV

25 months ago: "Last I knew out election system was based on electoral votes not the votes of each and every citizen like a true democracy."

You're speaking of the difference here between representative democracy and participatory democracy. The difficulties of a "true" participatory system are obvious, when delays, machine/voter error, and sheer logistical headaches in a country as large as the United States hamper the current system. As to the will of "one half" of the electorate that doesn't vote--despite streamlining their voting opportunity to a ridiculous extent, through absentee, early voting, "motor voter", etc.--I'm less than concerned.

But seriously: what's the point of holding these elections if, not even half way into their term, a small but motivated group of activists can unseat a sitting senator? It negates the coattail effect they may have enjoyed entering office: recall elections are like primaries--strictly for diehards, the passionate, people with an axe to grind. You're tilting the playing field outrageously in your favor, and it leads to a mob of single-issue crank politicians, riding the angry populist wave, into an office they would have never enjoyed if put under broader scrutiny.

Get out the vote during an election year. Stop relying on the courts and the deep corporate pockets that fund recall efforts to undo legitimate, free elections.

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