Political Tidbits

Carrie -

Gen. Hayden was confirmed in the Senate by a vote of 78-15.

As for your Constitutional concerns, could you please point me to the part of the Constitution that prohibits active duty officers from serving as Director, Central Intelligence?

According to Article II, Section 2, the President has the power to:

"by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments."

Hmm. No mention there.

Article III, Section 8 says:

"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;

To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;

To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;

To establish post offices and post roads;

To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;

To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;

To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;

To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;

To provide and maintain a navy;

To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;

To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;--And

To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof."

Nothing there, either.

Perhaps I, in my haste, have simply missed the part of the Constitution that would prohibit an appointment as Gen. Hayden's. If so, please show me where it is.

As far as I know (and stated in the Constitution as one of the powers of the President - see above) the President may, "nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States".

The President nominated Gen. Hayden, and the Senate gave their consent, 78-15.

Dear Derek

How was the Republican convention in San Antonio?

first person singular that is. and, d, approaching striaght "reporting" is what i think you meant. people who write opiion pieces can also be journalists. but, of course, we are none the three. so there's that.

generally, we only include disclaimers on our columnists' posts, as those are written from a first person perspective.

Why do you bother putting a disclaimer in front of some pieces on this site and not others? It's not like this (non-disclaimered) post even approaches straight journalism.

YES, it freaking bothers me that Dubya appointed an active duty military officer to run a civilian agency. It's a huge violation of separation of powers. Why? Because the CIA is subject to Congressional oversight. But an active duty military officer has to obey his chain of command. Since dude is a general, uh, there just aren't that many people above him - pretty much just the joint chiefs and the President. So if, just for example, someone above him told him to lie to Congress, he'd have to either do it or resign his commission. And unless someone caught him, we'd never know. Has *anyone* in Washington actually read the damn Constitution, or is it just we nerdy government majors?

Has anyone heard anything about how the landscaping, construction or especially the agricultural companies are going to be able to stay in business if illegals are made legal and they have to be paid minimum wage?