ChrisWeigant.com

Archive of Articles in the "The Constitution" Category

What I Would Have Said To Eric Holder

[ Posted Wednesday, May 29th, 2013 – 17:29 UTC ]

Mister Attorney General, the reason I have such a problem with issuing warrants or subpoenas for news reporters is because I am aware of the history of the laws being used to do so. I have a hard time believing that you or your boss (a former constitutional professor) are completely unaware of these precedents in American history, but I haven't heard anyone else mentioning them, so I thought it fell to me to bring them up.

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Unpacking The Court

[ Posted Tuesday, May 28th, 2013 – 17:00 UTC ]

In one of their stunning (but regular) "up is down" leaps of illogic, the Republican Party is charging President Obama with "court-packing." In reality, they're just miffed that a Democrat is going to exercise his constitutional authority to appoint judges in the regular order of things. To call such actions "court-packing" is nothing short of laughable, to be blunt. In fact, the only hinkey business afoot is coming from Republicans themselves on the issue.

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Friday Talking Points [259] -- Pivoting To Other News

[ Posted Friday, May 24th, 2013 – 17:21 UTC ]

Some weeks, not much happens in political news, and other weeks it seems like almost too much happens. This was one of the latter types of week.

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Friday Talking Points [258] -- Scandalpalooza!

[ Posted Friday, May 17th, 2013 – 16:31 UTC ]

Things have gotten so bad in Washington that both pundits and Republicans are beginning to use the "N-word" to describe the president. No, no... not that N-word! Instead, Obama is now actively being compared to Nixon. This comparison is patently...

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Is It Time For Holder To Go?

[ Posted Wednesday, May 15th, 2013 – 16:05 UTC ]

Is it time for Attorney General Eric Holder to (as is frequently said in politics) "spend some more time with his family"?

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The IRS Scandal, and Hoover's Brutalist Legacy

[ Posted Monday, May 13th, 2013 – 17:29 UTC ]

The scandal currently unfolding at the Internal Revenue Service is actually being downplayed by some who feel that tax investigations into groups advocating an anti-tax attitude is more than justified on the face of it. Admittedly, all the facts are not yet in, but the scandal started when the IRS itself actually publicly admitted wrongdoing. So while there's a question of who knew about it (and who should be fired), the fact that scandalous behavior was happening isn't really even in question. Because it was, indeed, scandalous behavior. Any time a federal agency decides to intimidate those in the political arena in any way, large or small, it should be seen as a scandal by everyone -- no matter your political leanings. Because we've seen what happens when this sort of thing is allowed and encouraged, and it isn't a pretty sight.

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Playing "Decider" On Syria

[ Posted Monday, April 29th, 2013 – 16:38 UTC ]

We seem to be at one of those "decider" moments on the world stage. President Obama stated that use of chemical or biological weapons by the Assad regime in Syria would be a "red line" or a "game changer" and that America would respond to such use in unspecified ways, with serious consequences. The evidence is now in, and several intelligence agencies (in several countries) now say it is likely that Syria has indeed used such weapons, most likely the poison Sarin. This is the decision point Obama now faces.

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Friday Talking Points [255] -- Helium Brains

[ Posted Friday, April 26th, 2013 – 17:35 UTC ]

That was all a prelude to the breaking news today: "Congress moves at lightspeed, to fix a problem that would have hit them personally, as they take yet another weeklong vacation instead of doing the nation's business." Could've knocked me over with a feather. Ahem.

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They Deserve An Up-Or-Down Vote

[ Posted Wednesday, April 10th, 2013 – 17:07 UTC ]

Democrats seem to be showing slightly more enthusiasm these days for attacking the endless filibustering in the Senate by Republicans. If this truly is the beginning of a trend, it would be notable, but it's too early so far to say that it's going to gain political traction or not. We're still waiting for the votes to be counted, to put this another way. But while the glimmerings seen recently from Democrats may not be sustained, it's still worth pointing them out, if only to encourage such behavior among the party at large.

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Friday Talking Points [252] -- What The Media Missed

[ Posted Friday, April 5th, 2013 – 17:56 UTC ]

With that out of the way, we're going to take a quick overview of what the media considers the big stories of the week, and we're going to end up in the Talking Points section with all the stories you may have missed due to the media being distracted by this stuff, just for fun.

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