Impeached and convicted or not, the constitutional crisis would be draconian in the extreme. One possible solution would be for President Obama to resign in order to spare the country lots of turmoil. Then, or if President Obama were removed by the impeachment process, Vice President Biden would become the president, making Speaker Pelosi next in line. This might well be even worse than having President Obama remain in office. Alternatively, President Obama might simply remain in office, a much weakened "lame duck" president, quite probably facing an opposition Congress following the 2010 elections. That might well be the best possible outcome.
There is at least one other possibility, although it holds at best modest facial appeal. All of the laws enacted since 20 January might be attacked as invalid, because signed by a spurious president. Aside from the fact that these attacks would take a long time to make their tortured ways through the courts, they would, if successful, cause a big mess. What about appropriations bills? The Government needs funding. We may joke that it would be neat if the Government simply stopped, but realistically that would have some pretty undesirable consequences: the military needs to pay troops and even to feed and arm some of them. Could troops remain active in Iraq and elsewhere? Could they even be brought home? Perhaps they could hitchhike. Like it or not, the Government needs to function, and this requires such mundane things as electricity, salaries, aircraft fuel, and lots more, all of which costs money.
No matter what happens, President Obama will most likely remain in office at least until 20 January 2013. There is a useful teaching point in all of this, however. The "fourth estate," the press, let the country down very badly during the primaries and general election campaigns. Rather than pursue even tepidly the question of Candidate Obama's constitutional qualifications, the press grossly disparaged anyone who raised such questions and made sick jokes of the whole thing. That spectacle continues. If a valid Kenyan birth certificate were to surface, it might wake up the press; if that were not to do so, then nothing would.
There are a few things which might be done to avoid similar crises in the future. The states could require proof of constitutional qualification before any candidacy is certified. There are constitutional qualifications for all federal elected officials, and the constitutions of many states likely also specify qualifications for office. There is a move afoot to push for a federal law so providing. The political parties could impose requirements that prior to primaries, candidates make reasonable showings, under oath, of their constitutional qualifications. The Congress might some day pass legislation criminalizing the assumption of the presidency knowing that one is not constitutionally qualified. Maybe some day, another president might sign such legislation, making it the law of the land. Until now, these have been pipe dreams. Now, in the probably unlikely event that a valid Kenyan birth surfaces, there may be sufficient impetus.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Dave Nalle
Even if President Obama was born in Kenya, it's too late to do much about it.
We could stuff him back in the womb and try again...
But seriously, the entire "birther" controversy is basically manufactured by the media and the political left based on a few hardcore crazy people who they find it amusing to promote. No one on the serious political right takes clowns like Orly Taitz seriously.
Dave
2 - roger nowosielski
There were the nuts from the Right in the first place: and the Left just took advantage of it, but it did not "manufacture it."
3 - Ruvy
The "fourth estate," the press, let the country down very badly during the primaries and general election campaigns. Rather than pursue even tepidly the question of Candidate Obama's constitutional qualifications, the press grossly disparaged anyone who raised such questions and made sick jokes of the whole thing. That spectacle continues. If a valid Kenyan birth certificate were to surface, it might wake up the press; if that were not to do so, then nothing would.
It strikes me that the lines above could just as easily be applied to the both of you as to the salaried shmos who did all they could to suppress this story before last November in their paganistic bowing at the Obama idol in Washington.
And the lines still apply. If this certificate is indeed an honest one, as I believe it to be, then both of you refuse to wake up. At least someone with serious legal knoledge has attempted to investigate the possible outcomes of having a fraud, a spurious president, in the White House.
People who buy their heads in the sand and leave their derierres sticking up in the air with big round signs saying "kick me" deserve the hardest and nastiest kick that History and Reality can give them.
You have that coming to you gentlemen; you and all who agree with you. It will be richly deserved.
I repeat my prediction. This issue will grow, as did Watergate, and it weill be the issue that causes Obama to abandon the façade of democracy you have now and declare a dictatorship. He has already shown how much respect he has for truth in his behavior with respect to Honduras. He will trash your constitution and give you what you deserve for being stupid enough to nominate and elect him.
There is such a thing a criminal stupidity - and the two of you in your comments, Roger and Dave, are committing it.
4 - Ruvy
The line should read "People who bury their heads in the sand and leave their derierres sticking up in the air with big round signs saying "kick me" deserve the hardest and nastiest kick that History and Reality can give them."
And it's worth repeating because neither History nor Reality are very forgiving.
5 - handyguy
It's pretty shocking that an intelligent person like Mr. Miller would take birther claims seriously enough to write this [quite utterly useless] 4-page what-if.
This silliness has been debunked thoroughly enough for most people who possess brains. The 1961 newspaper clippings, the reassurances from Hawaii's state government [including the Republican governor] about the certificate itself are convincing.
Dave says voices on the left want to keep the 'controversy' alive. I think it's mostly cable-news opinion-heads who find it adds spice to their programs.
But for most of us:
Enough already.
6 - roger nowosielski
Who gives a shit, Handy? If they insist on making fools of themselves, let 'em.
7 - Christopher Rose
Ruvy,
Are you going to tell us why you think it is okay for you to comment on US matters whilst simultaneously thinking that nobody outside Israel can comment on events there? Not that anybody is paying attention to that, but it seems inconsistent...
8 - roger nowosielski
I happen to agree, Handy. Much ado about nothing. Perhaps the best that could be said for this article, it spares us a torturous reasoning process in the event some of the dimwits ever consider to escalate this, what I still regard as non-issue, to the level of impeachment.
As to the blame that's being affixed here on "the Fourth Estate," I think it's wrongheaded too. If anything, the Republican campaign ought to have raised a stink if Obama's "technical" qualification for the office of the president were seriously questioned. But it didn't, in no small measure, perhaps, because there were similar questions about McCain himself. And so, for all intents and purposes, it's a moot point by now - a live issue only for the die-hards.
Needless to say, the lunatic Republican contingent would be silent on the matter if Obama was more acceptable in their eyes. But enough said.
9 - Ruvy
If this certificate is indeed an honest one, as I believe it to be....
Apparently, I was punked on this document. But that does not mean that I do not think that Obama was born in Kenya. WorldNetDaily, which broke the news in the first place, has reported this certificate to be false.
Apparently, Kenya retained the status of a dominion for some months befor scrapping the governor-general and putting Jomo Kenyatta in as president. So, it was not a republic, which this document alleges.
10 - doug
Yeah. Why let facts get in the way of your beliefs
11 - roger nowosielski
So let's impeach him then and have Joe Biden serve the remainder of the term - although Hillary would be my first choice.
I have no problem with that.
12 - Baronius
This whole thing is ridiculous. Obama is a native-born American with documentation to prove it.
That being said, Roger, the first I ever heard of this was out of the Clinton and Paul camps. And Miller's speculation on the legal fallout is interesting. And Ruvy, I love ya, but you really could have earned some increased credibility around here by staying clear of the birther bandwagon.
13 - roger nowosielski
Well, I don't doubt it about the Clinton camp as she was in a dogfight with Obama. But she couldn't press the issue as a Democrat. If anything, the McCain camp ought to have done it if they thought it might stop Obama.
But since they didn't, it is a moot point. And yes, Miller did run up the gamut.
14 - Baronius
Obama is a Hawaiian. Roger, we don't often agree, so let's take a moment to bask in the harmony.
-- sigh --
15 - roger nowosielski
I am all for it, Baronius.
16 - handyguy
Roger sez:
Since they [the McCain campaign] didn't [make use of the birth certificate 'issue'], it is a moot point.
No, it was never a 'point' at all, Roger. Don't even give it that much cred. Pleez. It was always a tinfoil-hat-conspiracy-theory bit of wackiness.
17 - roger nowosielski
I don't, Handy. Just saying it's a moot point so I don't see why you keep on resurrecting it.
18 - handyguy
I count 7 comments by you on this thread, vs. 3 by me, including this one. How am I 'resurrecting' the issue? I commented mostly on how totally unnecessary Dan's article is.
19 - Bliffle
To the numerous 'birthers' I count among my friends and relatives, it is moot whether BHOs HI birth certificate is valid or not, since Hawaii is NOT actually a state!
That's right, any way you cut it BHO is NOT legally president of the USA!
It turns out, according to my sources, that this whole idea of Hawaiian statehood is a hoax created 60 years ago by a sinister character named "Steve Garret" who tricked a bunch of congressmen by having some Hula dancers wave their skirts in front of them. They say they have documents, proof positive, that this is true.
Once the truth is out it will blow the lid off this whole "Obama" conspiracy!
(BTW, I give no credit at all to the theory advanced by certain leftie fag commie limp-wrist pinko acquaintances of mine that Hawaiian statehood is moot since they have "incontrovertible proof" that Kenya IS a USA state! They dared me to prove it isn't true and I couldn't! Can you?)
20 - Clavos
No one has mentioned Dan(Miller)'s central and most important point about the whole thing:
So what?
21 - roger nowosielski
#18
My comments were no different in import.
22 - roger nowosielski
It's an awful long way to get around to saying that.
23 - Clavos
Well, compared to your Hemingwayesque prose, yes.
24 - WTF?
Humor from Bliffle?
WTF?
25 - roger nowosielski
I'm working on it, Clav. Not there yet.