Sense and Nonsense

Stewart Takes on the Enemy

If you're a fan of Jon Stewart and haven't seen his show recently (I only see these clips online), here are a couple you should watch.  Priceless.  In the first, he takes on the morons at CNBC; in the second, he takes on Rush Limbaugh.  Holy cow.

We'll Always Have Iowa

That's what Andrew Sullivan says, extolling the following YouTube video "that captures the real, epic, and eternal victory against Mordor that occurred in 2008. However bad it gets, we will always have Iowa."

All I can say is that as big a pain in the ass as Sullivan can be, he deserves credit for reminding us of this, perhaps the funniest video to come out of the 2008 campaign.  What a great way to usher in 2009.  Laugh until your sides hurt.

Step on that Leash

© Steve Sack
Click on cartoon to see larger version in pop-up window.

Bill Clinton is going to be a big problem in the coming months or years. See this article from Saturday's New York Times about the $200,000 fee Clinton pocketed for giving a speech in Kuala Lampur on behalf of a slippery Malaysian businessman. I hope the Obama White House clamps down hard on Bill Clinton's leash, so that the radius of his roaming range allows him to go no farther than, say, Hagerstown, Maryland.

Hillary as SOS

H.D.S. Greenway has a good op-ed piece in this morning's Globe about Hillary Clinton's prospects of success as Secretary of State.

Meanwhile, Jack Balkin makes the argument that there is a Constitutional hurdle to Hillary's taking the job. (I'm placing the whole text of his post here because the hyperlink to this post on Balkinization is broken.)

Hillary Clinton was elected to the Senate in 2006. A January 2008 executive order pursuant to a general cost of living adjustment statute increased the Secretary of State's salary (along with many other federal offices). January 2008 falls within the term for which Senator Clinton was elected. Her appointment to Secretary of State would also be during the time for which she was elected. The Secretary of State is a civil office under the Authority of the United States.

The Emoluments Clause (or Ineligibility Clause), Article I, § 6, cl. 2 provides:

No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time . . . .

Madison's notes on the provision (June 23, 1787) are here. They do nothing to help Senator Clinton's cause.

If Clinton's term had ended before her appointment as Secretary of State, there would be no problem. If the COLA had occurred during her first term (from 2000 to 2006) there would also be no problem. See the discussion in this OLC memo. Similarly, if Senator Clinton were appointed to a position created after 2012, when her term expires, there would be no problem. See this OLC memo. And finally, there might not be a problem if no particular salary had been assigned to the office. See this OLC memo.

There remains the question of whether Congress could simply reduce the salary of the Secretary of State to pre-2006 levels. This is the so-called "Saxbe Fix."

The Saxbe Fix has been tried before. The question is whether it should continue as a precedent when it is not consistent with the constitutional text. On this question, see the discussions here, and here.

My current view is that the fix doesn't work. The text says "shall have been encreased during such time [for which the Senator was elected]," which would seem to include cases where the salary was increased and then decreased during the Senator's term of office. The Saxbe Fix would work if the text had said "shall have had a net increase at the time of appointment." The purpose of the Clause is to prevent legislative corruption and the multiplication of new offices as sinecures or golden parachutes. The proposed Clinton appointment doesn't seem to violate the purposes of the Clause, but it does violate the text. So it isn't constitutional, even with the Saxbe Fix. I am willing to be convinced otherwise. But I am not there yet.

Hitch Nails It

Hard not to agree with him on this one.

Bringing You the Best of the Web

Our staff works tirelessly to bring you the best stuff out there.  Herewith:

Cheney Asks If He Can Be Secretary of Evil

The Clintons Are Incapable of Anything But High Drama

A Medley of Keith Olbermann's Outrage

(I like Keith's outrage, so this is traitorous of me.)

Getting Through Obama's Sifter

Like Me, Patricia Wald Wants to String Cheney & Bush by the Neck

More Proof (as if you needed it) that Richard Perle is Insane

(What the hell is wrong with these people?!)

Untrustworthy Clintons

Look at what Sullivan said today.  I wouldn't be a bit surprised.

I hope Obama is vigilant:

“You watch,” he said. “In a year, the Clintons will orchestrate a campaign to declare this a failed Presidency.”

They will if they can. Obama's most dangerous foe remains now who it has always been. And she's not a Republican.

"Slap in the Face"

That's what the phrase of the day was on Saturday from HillaryWorld.  See here. 

Hillary Fails to Swing

It's no surprise, but it's becoming more and more obvious that Hillary Clinton simply is not doing what she should to support Obama's candidacy.  She watches the pitches go by, not even bothering to swing at them.

The New York Times today reports on her "tepid" campaign appearances for Obama.  Hillary continues to nurse her grievance.  It's still all about her.  Classic Clinton.

Hillary Harridans, Oh My!

Oh, my, my, my, my, MY!

You know her. She's got wild eyes and rumpled hair. At some point she stopped caring about the stains on her blouse. She's hurt, angry, rejected, and she's willing to take the whole damn place down with her. She is Lady Macbeth. She is Jane Eyre deranged pyromaniac Bertha Mason. She is Cruella DeVil and the biblical Lilith. She is Snow White's wicked stepmother, Miss Havisham, and Emily Bronte's ghostly Catherine Earnshaw. She is the oldest literary type around—the bitter madwoman, hellbent on revenge and willing to act against her own interest to win some respect. And now, to hear the media tell it, she is a Hillary Holdout; she's a PUMA (Party Unity My Ass); and she belongs to 18 Million Voices.

See more.