At a time when Emanuel should have been immersed in helping Obama craft a successful White House operation, he was engaged in discussions with Gov. Rod Blagojevich on how to find a successor to his congressional seat who would act as a seat warmer if he decided to return to the House in a few years. Emanuel believes he's on track to become successor to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and that's why he wanted a seat warmer replacement. This is all claimed in a Sun-Times report today. Emanuel's efforts provoked this taped response from the Governor: "Days after Emanuel and Blagojevich spoke about Emanuel's seat, the governor is overheard telling aides on secret wiretaps he wanted Emanuel 'to get the word today,' about raising money for the governor and that when '[Emanuel] asks me for the Fifth CD thing, I want it to be in his head.'"
If you're Obama, do you want a White House Chief of Staff whose primary concern right after you've just entrusted him with this major responsibility in your administration is to ensure he will some day become Speaker of the House? Can you trust that he will be giving advice and carrying out his duties in a manner that will be in your best interest and not his? Isn't it possible that Emanuel's early conversations with the governor opened the door just a little anyway for quid pro quo discussions? Today's story in the Sun-Times just didn't appear out of nowhere. Somebody leaked this to the reporter. Perhaps Team Obama is trying to send a message to Emanuel, who is now on a long-planned trip to Africa, that he should just stay in the House and pursue his Speaker ambitions. Interestingly, Emanuel has yet to resign his seat. Maybe he's having doubts about whether he will survive until January 20, 2009.
5 comments:
Each and every member of Congress should be notified that he or she is personally liable (can be sued) for his or her own failure, or the same in conspiracy with other members, to perform what is a ministerial and constitutional duty, that is, to require and/or insist that Presidential electoral votes only be counted for candidates who are “natural born citizens” under Article II of the United States Constitution, the failure of which creates a cause of action for deprivation of claimants’ constitutional rights (as allowed under the Bivens case) against employees of the Federal Government, in this case, to a lawful President and Commander in Chief, and therefore, for deprivation of adequate continuation of the United States as a Constitutional Republic. The constitutionally tortious conduct is not subject to congressional immunity and would be the jettison of Article II of the Constitution by failure to stop and/or object to the counting of electoral votes for Barack H. Obama who has admitted that at the time of his birth his father was a Kenyan/British citizen and not a citizen of the United States of America.
Hard charging Rahm charged right into a buzz saw. I don't think the guy was as corrupt as Blago (who is?) but he's rapidly a hinderance. Odds are climbing that he will be thrown under a bus a la Wright.
Ted, your post is mis-guided in several respects:
1) It has nothing to do with the subject of this article: Rahm Emanuel's alleged discussions with Blago re his replacement in Congress;
2) Bivens dealt with a personal interest protected by the Fourth Amendment - the freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. To the contrary, Federal Courts have held that there is no personal interest implicated in Article Two's natural born requirement - an individual taxpayer and voter has no standing to bring such a claim - and the Supreme Court has refused to hear challanges to those holdings.
3) Even assuming Bivens applied to Article Two's natural born requirement, which it does not, Bivens set forth an affirmative defense to such an action in the federal officer's good faith belief in the validity of the action. Each and every member of Congress has such a good faith belief, based upon Obama's birth in Hawaii and the utter lack of any precedent for the notion that those with dual citizenship at birth are excluded from the definition of natural born. In fact, under your theory, Congressmen would be subject to greater exposure to liability for opposing the counting of electoral votes for Obama which are plaedged to him. Of course, as there is no such liability, the discussion is academic.
An omitted quote from the Sun-Times article: "But Emanuel isn't accused of promising something in return." [for an interim appointment to his seat]. Nor does anything in the article imply that this was Emanuel's 'primary concern'. Of course it would not be out of the ordinary for an outgoing Congressman to discuss his replacement with the Governor, and such a conversation would not take much time away from Emanuel's duties as Cheif of Staff. The only reason this story is of any interest is Blago's statements re the Senate seat. It is for this reason that the transition team has been forthright regarding the discussions between Emanuel and the Governor by releasing a full report of them.
I can see that the radical right will be pushing this issue to the grave with all their energy. Give it up, the man was elected and will be the president.
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