Birth Certificate Bill To Be Introduced in Congress

Good idea.

If the Constitution states a requirement of office, someone must have the ability to enforce that requirement, or else it's a dead letter.

Although I haven't followed the cases carefully, the courts seem to be taking the position that no one in America has standing to challenge Obama's satisfaction of this requirement. And, I guess, that to the extent it's "verified," it's verified by the partisan electors and partisan Congress who ultimately validated Obama's election.

That won't do. Not only are these partisans, they're partisans behind a half-billion dollar campaign to get Obama elected. Somehow, I don't quite think they're neutral judges on the matter.

H.R. 1503. A bill to amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require the principal campaign committee of a candidate for election to the office of President to include with the committee's statement of organization a copy of the candidate's birth certificate, together with such other documentation as may be necessary to establish that the candidate meets the qualifications for eligibility to the Office of President under the Constitution; to the Committee on House Administration.

Will this pass Nancy Pelosi's House? Probably not. But I'll be curious to see the arguments marshaled against such a common-sense, innocuous requirement.

Assuming there are any arguments whatsoever, which there probably won't be -- Nancy Pelosi can kill this without offering a reason why.

I haven't reversed myself on Obama's underlying qualifications -- I'm sure* he's qualified -- but the Constitution imposes very few prerequisites on a would-be president, and we ought to take those seriously.

* Sure as in "beyond a reasonable doubt" sure, which prosecutors often note is not the same as "beyond any doubt, including unreasonable doubts."

But obviously some differ as to what is a "reasonable" and "unreasonable" doubt, and surely the doubts should be reduced to the lowest level possible, especially in a case -- like this one -- where doing so is so easy and routine.

I should also mention an outlook, a bias, that makes me assume Obama is qualified. That bias is Life doesn't work like that or, as detectives say after a woman is found murdered whose husband hated her, No one gets that lucky. I just have trouble believing in the Miracle Solution, the Silver Bullet, that just so happens to reverse the outcome of a bitterly-contested election we lost. It just seems a moral impossibility that after all that effort in a losing struggle, we could somehow "win" because of a piece of paper locked in a Hawaii office cabinet.

Obviously some people are more optimistic as regards bolt-from-the-blue changes in fortune. It's sort of hard to argue which POV is right.

posted by Ace at 01:23 PM

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