How do you know when a leftist is lying? His lips are moving.
OK, I know, that’s the oldest political joke in the world. But it happens to be true.
For leftists like Barack Obama, dishonesty is as fundamental and essential to their machinations as photosynthesis is to flora. Does anyone believe that Obama could have been elected President of the United States if he had truthfully told the voters that he intended to have government control their health care, that he would impede any effort to stop gas prices from sky-rocketing, that he would quadruple the deficit and nearly double the national debt, that he would steal over one trillion dollars from our kids to redistribute to his labor union backers as political payback, that he would tour the world bowing to kings and dictators to apologize for America’s “arrogance,” that he would be openly hostile to our closest allies, that he would appoint numerous unaccountable “czars” who would have actual power over American citizens to do things like regulate how much they can be paid, that he would sue border states that try to control borders that he refuses to control himself, and on and on and on?
Leftists understand even better than conservatives that America is a conservative country. Conservatives win elections by running as conservatives, but they lose reelection when they fail to govern as conservatives. Leftists win elections by running as conservatives, but they lose reelection when they govern as leftists.
And just as flora survive secure in the knowledge that they can rely on the sun to rise every morning to foster their photosynthesis, leftists thrive secure in the knowledge that they can rely on their loyal “news” media to report the news from their dishonest perspective. See, e.g., these comments by the Chairman of the Associated Press Board showering Obama with praise. The enthusiastic assistance by the “news” media is specifically why leftists manage to fool enough voters to win governing majorities even though only one out of five Americans actually shares their philosophy and an outright majority oppose it.
Leftists like Obama have become so accustomed to not being held accountable for their dishonesty that they brazenly say whatever advances their agenda with no fear of recourse or consequences. Now that Obama is in full campaign mode, this has become a daily occurrence. Obama is so comfortable that the “news” media are willing participants in his reelection campaign that he has even gone so far as to instruct them on how to report on him and his policies.
But today, something extraordinary happened: Obama was called out.
No, of course not by the “news” media. It was by three judges of a United States Court of Appeals.
Yesterday, Obama was giving one of his brazenly dishonest speeches, and he stated that if the U.S. Supreme Court declares ObamaCare’s individual mandate to be unconstitutional, that decision “would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.” (Obama didn’t mention that the law passed only after two Democrat senators were bribed with hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.)
Of course, courts have had the universally-recognized power to strike down laws as unconstitutional since Chief Justice John Marshall authored the Marbury v. Madison opinion 209 years ago. As a former constitutional law professor, Obama undoubtedly knew that when he delivered yesterday’s speech. As I said – brazenly dishonest.
But then, this is the same Barack Obama whose brazenly dishonest characterization of the Supreme Court’s campaign finance decision a couple of years ago in his State of the Union Address caused a shocked Justice Samuel Alito to reflexively mouth the words, “Not true.”
Well, today, three judges of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had enough and called Obama out for his dishonest attacks on the judiciary. When a Justice Department lawyer appeared at a hearing to argue a motion dealing with an unrelated portion of the ObamaCare bill, Judge Jerry Smith cut her off and asked, “Does the Department of Justice recognize that federal courts have the authority in appropriate circumstances to strike federal statutes because of one or more constitutional infirmities?” The Justice Department attorney answered “yes.”
But the court wasn’t done. Judge Smith continued:
“I’m referring to statements by the president in the past few days to the effect, and I’m sure you’ve heard about them, that it is somehow inappropriate for what he termed ‘unelected’ judges to strike acts of Congress that have enjoyed — he was referring to, of course, Obamacare — to what he termed broad consensus in majorities in both houses of Congress.
“I would like to have from you by noon on Thursday — that’s about 48 hours from now — a letter stating what is the position of the Attorney General and the Department of Justice, in regard to the recent statements by the president. What is the authority of the federal courts in this regard in terms of judicial review?
“I want to be sure you’re telling us that the Attorney General and the Department of Justice do recognize the authority of the federal courts, through unelected judges, to strike acts of Congress or portions thereof in appropriate cases.”
The Court then specified that the letter is to be at least three pages single-spaced and must specifically address the statements by the president about the power of the courts to engage in judicial review.
There is over 200 years of precedent for the Supreme Court to strike down unconstitutional laws like ObamaCare.
What is truly “unprecedented” is for a President of the United States to make comments about the judiciary that are so brazenly dishonest that a unanimous three-judge panel of a federal appeals court orders the Attorney General of the United States to address and, presumably, refute the president’s statements in writing.
But then, I am unaware of any President since Franklin Delano Roosevelt who was so brazen in attacking and attempting to discredit the judiciary. FDR failed then, and, fortunately for an American people who cannot rely on the “news” media to hold a leftist president accountable, it appears that the courts are not going to take it from President Barack Obama today.
