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Friday, April 22, 2011

Should Enforcing the Constitution and Protecting the Nation Be An Embarrassment?

Should Enforcing the Constitution and Protecting the Nation Be An Embarrassment?

By: Mario Apuzzo, Esq.
April 22, 2011

Oklahoma’s SB91, described as “Identity and citizenship - requiring proof of citizenship for candidates,” authored by Senators Brinkley, is now making its way through the Oklahoma legislature. See information on the bill here, http://www.oklegislature.gov/BillInfo.aspx?Bill=sb91. The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 34 yes to 10 no (4 votes were excluded). On April 6, 2011, it passed the House Rules Committee by a vote of 11 yes to 0 no.

“Here in Oklahoma, where Mr. Obama won just over a third of the vote in 2008 — one of his worst state losses — Senate Bill 91 passed last month with overwhelming and even bipartisan support. People in both parties said they were confident that the House would do the same by the deadline next week (the bill would have to return to the Senate for a procedural vote). Lawmakers said they assumed that Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican, would sign it.

A spokesman said Ms. Fallin would not comment until the bill was on her desk and she had a chance to review it.

Legislators backing credentials bills in other states are closely watching what happens here.

‘If one state passes, and the Obama administration basically ignores the requirement and does not qualify for the ballot in that state, that would send a very strong signal that we have a situation in the United States where someone who is not eligible is occupying the White House,’ said Mark Hatfield, a Republican state representative in Georgia whose own ballot bill failed to get through. If Oklahoma does not go forward, and an override of Ms. Brewer’s veto in Arizona does not materialize, Mr. Hatfield said, ‘then other states, including Georgia, have a duty to step up.’

Opponents of the birther bills say they are unnecessary and are designed to score political points more than safeguard democracy, certainly in Mr. Obama’s case.

Still, Democrats in Oklahoma were divided. For example, the minority floor leader in the House, Chuck Hoskin, said he would probably vote yes. Asked in an interview whether he was concerned about embarrassing the leader of his own party, Mr. Hoskin said he thought Mr. Obama’s failure to win over Oklahomans in 2008 was the real embarrassment.

But down the hall, an assistant Democratic floor leader in the House, Al McAffrey, said the bill was the embarrassment. ‘But this is Oklahoma — we embarrass ourselves all the time,’ he said. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/us/politics/22birthers.html?_r=2&hp.

What a sad state of affairs in America. Someone should ask these politicians when it became embarrassing for lawmakers to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, which is the oath of office that they all take. When did it become embarrassing to assure the integrity of the electoral process? When did it become embarrassing to restore the faith of the American people in knowing who their President is?

Was our media and Congress also too embarrassed to press Obama that he release to the public his documents showing who and what he is and to otherwise properly vet him during the 2008 presidential campaign? Were the courts too embarrassed to accept any one case in which Obama would have to produce discovery and conclusively show that he is a “natural born Citizen?” Did Arizona Governor Jan Brewer tell us that she was too embarrassed to sign the Arizona legislation that would have required presidential candidates to prove their citizenship when she said it was “a bridge too far?” Were our leaders also so embarrassed that they allowed a highly decorated military officer, LTC Terry Lakin, to be court-martialed and go to federal prison for exercising his sense of duty to protect the Constitution? And are our leaders now just too embarrassed to admit that they were simply too embarrassed to properly exercise their duties to the nation and to the American people and adequately deal with Obama?

Mario Apuzzo, Esq.
April 22, 2011
http://puzo1.blogspot.com/