Nadler and the Constitution
Cortillaen sent us an email about Jerry “The Waddler” Nadler and some quotes about him in the Washington Post today. Nadler is feeling a bit insecure about Republicans reading the Constitution. He reminds me of a critic of Christianity who is a little bit afraid of being judged for his sins;
“They are reading it like a sacred text,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the outgoing chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, civil rights and civil liberties, who has studied and memorized the Constitution with talmudic intensity.
Nadler called the “ritualistic reading” on the floor “total nonsense” and “propaganda” intended to claim the document for Republicans. “You read the Torah, you read the Bible, you build a worship service around it,” said Nadler, who argued that the Founders were not “demigods” and that the document’s need for amendments to abolish slavery and other injustices showed it was “highly imperfect.”
“You are not supposed to worship your constitution. You are supposed to govern your government by it,” he said.
If the Democrats had only used the Constitution to “govern your government by it”, they wouldn’t be in this mess. They’ve twisted every little phrase so out of shape that it’s hardly recognizable in the halls of Congress, and lately in the White House.
These are the people who tried make rape interstate commerce. They find a right to privacy so women can murder their unborn children. They find a right to healthcare and determine that they can make people buy healthcare. And “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” means the government can take away guns whenever they want.
The Constitution was written to constrain government, the Bill of Rights were added to protect individual citizens from the excesses of government and the tyranny of the majority. It is revered by the People like a religion. It resides in a fortified chamber under the National Archives because the Constitution is the basis for our very existence.
It was written in a time when a nation’s authority resided in the body of a living king whose lineage was supposedly ordained by God. We had no king, no lineage and we were founded on the principle that all men derived their liberties from our Creator. The Constitution was written to protect those liberties.
The Constitution wasn’t perfect and hundreds of thousands have shed their blood to correct those shortcomings. That’s why we remember them in our daily lives – hundreds of thousands of saints who martyred themselves for a document. And continue to fall to maintain our reverence for it.
It’s Nadler’s problem if he feels he needs to disparage it and the people who still believe in it because of his own sins against the Constitution.
Category: Congress sucks, Liberals suck
Yeah, the Republicans are beacons of good governance and never do anything unconstitutional.
It seems as if mr. Nadler doesn’t want anyone to publicly read the Constitution out loud for the record and for people to see while watching CSPAN. Maybe that’s because it would shine the light on the fact that the President and Congress have been playing fast and loose with it over the last couple of years? I’m still waiting for him to be outraged that he and his cohorts were voting on and passing laws that they hadn’t even read. Some of the most important legislation in a generation and they couldn’t find the time to read it before passing it? Why wasn’t he upset about that? Maybe because he was one of those that just voted yea without giving it another thought?
You mean like the PATRIOT act? Oh, wait, that was a Republican congress which hastily passed that particular piece of legislation.
Houser, you get sent to Gitmo because of the Patriot act? anyone you know get sent to prison due to it? or just more whining?
How do you feel about FDR sending 120,000 Americans to detention camps due to their race? Exectutive Order 9066 were ANY of charged with being Disloyal Americans?
Odd… like the PA or hate it, the left has had 2 years to get rid of it… and yet, here it sits. How bad can it be since those clowns left it mostly intact?
Houser, your side is getting destroyed. Stop whining and get over it.
While the GOP has much to answer for and much to do to restore their position, between them and the fringe leftist “Housers” of the world, there wasn’t any choice.
We’re watching you, JB. Don’t screw it up this time.
…it’s a good thing the progressives that were elected in 2008 did something about that Patriot Act…no wait…
Houser this is not and Republican or Democrat fight. They are both getting away from the Constitution. We the people need to get these idiots back to working for us. We are not their slaves. Quit fighting the other side of your isle whatever it is and stand together as the American People. If you don’t do that you are a part of the problem.
Houser, The republicans and the democrats are equally responsible for the mess that we are in. All of them seem to think that they are making rules for us to follow but that they can ignore. All of them seem to get really mad if someone suggests that there are limits to the things they might do. That is the whole point of reading the constitution on the floor of the House. To remind those bozos that there are rules and to revisit what those rules are.
Duplicate post at the same minute…. <>
I appreciate the idea of Americans banding together to fight a common adversary (the political class who are stealing us all blind), but I have it on good authority that the fringe on both sides are not going to participate and the squishy middle is too worried they’re going to be called names and not get invited to their friends’ cookouts if they take a stand on anything of substance. So there you have it; an unfortunate stalemate which is facilitated and funded by the very people who are profiting from the situation.
it IS a sacred document to all those that have died defending it you JACKASS!!!
“That is the whole point of reading the constitution on the floor of the House. To remind those bozos that there are rules and to revisit what those rules are.”
I hate to break it to you, but the people doing the reading are the same bozos who have been breaking those rules. Nadler is a bozo too, that doesn’t mean that he isn’t right about this. It’s a cheap political stunt and since we are all vets here, I would think we would all see through, and disdain, this sort of bullshit.
Really, Houser? Why do you reckon we all raised our right hands and swore the same oath repeatedly at enlistment, promotion, etc? Were each of those “that sort of bullshit,” or are they each meant to be a reminder of basic principles?
It depends on who’s raising that hand. I served with some people who didn’t believe one word of our oath and couldn’t give a fuck less about anything but themselves, kind of like a politician. If the Army taught me anything, it’s that there’s a huge difference in what people say and what people do.
I had commanders and senior NCOs that talked a blue streak about “taking care of soldiers” but when it came to do just that they dropped the ball. Or I knew guys who knew every word of the Infantryman’s Creed but didn’t live it, and guys who could barely remember it, but knew what it meant to be a grunt.
If we’re going to judge our representatives in government it should be the same way we would judge anyone else, by actions not words. Reading the Constitution may seem like an action, but it’s really just more words in disguise.
Doesn’t reading the American Government equivalent of the Soldier’s Manual of Common Tasks seem like a pretty good place to start?
You know I didn’t think of that, I admit defeat. I’m sure that now that they’ve been reminded of a document they are already familiar with, that they will come together and fix things. Afterwards we can all fly off into a prosperous future on unicorns and gigantic butterflies.
I get the jaded sarcasm, but I think they have to start someplace. I also think it’s pretty obvious the last few congresses strayed progressively further from it. Pelosi’s failure to even consider that parts of Obamacare might be unconstitutional is a great example–does that sound like she’s “familiar with it?”
I don’t think it’s wrong to take the time to return to the commander’s intent. Then there’s no excuse for not following it.
Well, hell, Houser, that’s what was supposed to happen when Bobo was elected; right? All that hopey changey shit. In fact, after the mass orgasm in Denver, you would have thought the skittle farting unicorns were already circling the globe!
Sorry. Anonymous at #17 above is me. Just switched to an iPad.
Why do we have to drag the Skittle-shitting unicorns into this?
I don’t care if it’s an R or a D reading the Constitution aloud. Someone needs to do it, period. End of story.
Yes OT, this is clearly about my fealty to Obama, and not about the fact that this whole exercise is total bullshit. But go oe believing that this is going to make any difference. In a few years you’ll realize nothing has changed and then when someone else decides to read it, or maybe even the Federalist Papers, or Common Sense, you’ll pop wood again and be stupid enough to think that it’s not just the same old rhetoric.
Ha!! A lot you know. If you knew anything about me, you would know that I don’t hold allegiance to either party. However, I don’t view the reading of the Constitution, for the record, as a bad thing. I do notice that Bella Pelosi wouldn’t have read it from the floor of the house until after they voted on it, because they had to vote for it to know what’s in it.
You’re right in that both parties aren’t that swift, however, in a majority 2 party power system, I’ll take the lesser of 2 evils, that way we would die off, as a country, slower than the designs that Obama and Pelosi have for our country. If you have better ideas and solutions; I’m all ears.
Just remember to stay involved and keep an eye on your congress critters from now on out. This isn’t over by any means. It is going to take more election cycles and you staying on the front lines, keeping friends, family and neighbors informed before anything shows a measurable amount of improvement.
As for reading the Constitution? Hell, I’m all for it and then some.
You state our constitution is revered by the people like a religion. That is a pretty true statement. Our rights, as stated by the constitution are not given to us by the government or the men who wrote the document. Our rights were endowed to us by the Creator, which is something most on the left seem to have forgotten. They are not something to be taken away by the whims of a 21st century congress. They cannot take away that which God has given us.
As far as I’m concerned, I’m much happier when the Congress is busy doing something harmless, like reading the Constitution, instead of spending my kid’s and grandkid’s money on BS programs.
I think they should start every day with the Pledge of Allegiance too, just to remind them why they were sent to Washington to begin with.
Houser,
At the beginning of every NCODP, my Company’s NCO’s recite the NCO Creed. This is no different. It’s better to have standards that you strive to meet, rather than have no standards at all.