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Obama and Biden bode well for Constitution
Capital Times ^ | 11/20/2008 | John Nichols

Posted on 11/20/2008 4:27:30 PM PST by SJackson

President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden are supposedly very different pieces of the Democratic puzzle. Obama is the relative newcomer to Washington, the change agent. Biden is the senior "man of Washington," the old hand who can make change a reality. But Obama and Biden have one thing in common: They've both done stints as constitutional law professors. Obama taught at the University of Chicago Law School -- along with brilliant former jurist and liberal Congressman Abner Mikva -- while Biden has for many years taught at Widener Law School in Delaware.

This unique pairing intrigues New York Congressman Jerry Nadler. "(Isn't this) a change?" muses Nadler, who chairs the Constitution subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee. "After eight years of trashing the Constitution, we have an administration that actually respects the document."

Wisconsin Democrat Tammy Baldwin, a House Judiciary Committee member, says that "if we are not able to hold the current administration to account, then when this administration hands over its responsibilities and authorities to a President Obama and to a Vice President Biden, they will responsibly choose not to exercise some of the powers that we would argue were overreaches by this administration. I would hope, also, that they would choose to help us to renounce the activities -- torture and rendition, spying on American citizens without a warrant, outing CIA agents, whatever it is -- that have been identified as abuses. Given their grounding in constitutional law, they should be inclined to do that."

So maybe when a new president and vice president swear oaths to defend the Constitution, they might actually mean it?

"Exactly," says Baldwin.


TOPICS: Editorial; Politics/Elections; US: Delaware
KEYWORDS: 111th; abovemypaygrade; activistcourts; agenda; agitprop; america2point0; antiamericanism; barackobama; bho2008; constitution; constitutionallaw; constitutionisdead; cultureofcorruption; dnctalkingpoints; housejudiciary; iwasonly8yearsold; jerrynadler; joebiden; judicialtyranny; megabarfalert; obama; obamanation; obamatransitionfile; starkravingsocialism; tammybaldwin; unconstitutional
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Neither were Professors, as in tenured Professors, but that's no reason not to say they were.

I doubt either stays at Holiday Inn Express, but Joe takes the train to work and Barry smokes, so they are regular guys, for Professors.

I'm sure Tammy has had a job outside of government too. In fact, maybe she could be a law Professor, it's the fast track to the White House, and we've never had a gay or a female President.

1 posted on 11/20/2008 4:27:30 PM PST by SJackson
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To: SJackson
"After eight years of trashing the Constitution, we have an administration that actually respects the document." Too Funny
2 posted on 11/20/2008 4:29:07 PM PST by SkyDancer ("Talent Without Ambition Is Sad, Ambition Without Talent Is Worse")
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To: SJackson

Biden is dumber than a stone and wouldn’t know the Constitution if it hit him in the ass. His proclamation that we need to get Patriotic and pay more taxes is evidence of his lack of understanding.


3 posted on 11/20/2008 4:30:12 PM PST by mortal19440
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To: SJackson
>>>>> ... Obama and Biden have one thing in common: They've both done stints as liberal anti- constitutional law professors.

Corrected!

4 posted on 11/20/2008 4:31:56 PM PST by Reagan Man ("In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.")
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To: SJackson

Liberal idiots confusing the Communist Manifesto with the Constitution.


5 posted on 11/20/2008 4:32:44 PM PST by Always Right (Obama: more arrogant than Bill Clinton, more naive than Jimmy Carter, and more liberal than LBJ.)
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To: SJackson

Please remember to put “Barf Alert” on these postings.


6 posted on 11/20/2008 4:33:04 PM PST by oldbill
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To: SJackson

Anyone ever read much by professors of constitutional law? Not much actual respect for the Constitution there....


7 posted on 11/20/2008 4:33:53 PM PST by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus (Nihil utile nisi quod honestum - Marcus Tullius Cicero)
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To: SJackson

WTBA? (Where’s the Barf Alert?)


8 posted on 11/20/2008 4:33:59 PM PST by Weirdad (A Free Republic, not a "democracy" (mob rule))
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To: SJackson

His Constitutional Law Class was a joke by all accounts from the students. Why did Obama not write anything? How much did he practice law? Did he lie on application for the Bar Association saying he never used another name? The list of questions go on and on. He got the job because of Ayers Dad — next question about the so-called ‘genius!’


9 posted on 11/20/2008 4:34:56 PM PST by PhiKapMom ( BOOMER SOONER LetsGetThisRight.com RED STATE Oklahoma Republican)
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To: SJackson

During his debate with Palin, Biden couldn’t even correctly name the article of the Constitution that outlined the Executive Branch.


10 posted on 11/20/2008 4:35:26 PM PST by Yo-Yo
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To: Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

I took a Constitutional Law class in college. I read a lot about the penumbra and how the “living constitution” is needed to solve hard cases.


11 posted on 11/20/2008 4:36:46 PM PST by SMCC1
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To: SJackson

I guess you thought the “Barf Alert” was self evident. That anyone could think either of these guys respects the Constitution speaks to some sort of serious mental illness.


12 posted on 11/20/2008 4:37:24 PM PST by MileHi ( "It's coming down to patriots vs the politicians." - ovrtaxt)
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To: SJackson
So maybe when a new president and vice president swear oaths to defend the Constitution, they might actually mean it?

Really? Why should we expect him to defend a "negative charter"?

Poor deluded leftists.

13 posted on 11/20/2008 4:38:47 PM PST by skeeter (Its Barry's fault)
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To: SJackson
Photobucket
14 posted on 11/20/2008 4:39:00 PM PST by Eagle50AE (Pray for our Armed Forces.)
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To: SJackson

I must’ve missed the Barf Alert on this post.

And Barack Obama is such an expert on the Constitution that he can clearly see where the founding fathers were WRONG in not including judicial activism, social justice, and economic justice in our courts.

Wealth must be shared from the rich to the poor in our society and it is the government’s job to apportion that to the people.


15 posted on 11/20/2008 4:40:10 PM PST by weegee (Global Warming Change? Fight Global Socialist CHANGE.)
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To: SJackson

Hey, put the BARF alert on this crap, will ya!


16 posted on 11/20/2008 4:41:30 PM PST by Doc Savage ("Are you saying Jesus can't hit a curve ball? - Harris to Cerrano - Major League)
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To: SJackson
They respect it? I’m not even entirely sure Joe Biden knows it.
17 posted on 11/20/2008 4:41:39 PM PST by RichInOC (Obama/Biden '08: "We Are Not Ruled By Murderers, But Only--By Their Friends."--Rudyard Kipling)
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To: SkyDancer
"After eight years of trashing the Constitution, we have an administration that actually respects the document."

Obama has shown that he doesn't even get the Constitution. He has puclicly said that the lack of "positive rights" (i.e. what the government must do for you) vs. "negative rights" (what the government cannot do to you) is due to a "blind spot" among the founders. This statement betrays a profound lack of understanding -- both of the process by which the Constitution was created, and the purpose it sought to achieve.

Obama's words show he sees the Constitutional restraints on government power as an impediment to his agenda. Only a tyrant at heart would have such a view.

18 posted on 11/20/2008 4:42:34 PM PST by Maceman (If you're not getting a tax cut, you're getting a pay cut.)
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To: Eagle50AE

First they will go after the 2nd — the fuhrer has said as much.

The, the 1st — they will use a combination of the “fairness doctrine” and rampant Political correctness (anyone who DARES speak against the fuhrer is a racist and WILL be shut up and shut down).

After that, the 4th — your life will be an open book. NOT foreign terrorist phone calls, but ANYONE who speaks against the fuhrer.

This administration will kill the BOR as fast a humanly possible, with the MSM as a gleeful accessory every step along the way.


19 posted on 11/20/2008 4:43:21 PM PST by freedumb2003 (Der neuen Fuhrer: AKA the Murdering Messiah: Keep your power dry, folks)
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To: Weirdad; oldbill

If you need a barf alert for every article that might have tripe like this in it, you need to gird up your loins and strengthen up your chopper muscles.


20 posted on 11/20/2008 4:43:21 PM PST by Past Your Eyes (All points of view tolerated...as long as they agree with mine.)
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