Mitch bringing a purse to another gunfight

Yesterday, I got an email from Harry Reid’s personal prison girlfriend, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, moaning with fake outrage over Bambi’s illegal and invalid non-recess appointments, statements to the effect of this sort of thing shouldn’t be allowed. The letter asked me to sign a petition in order to send Obama a message, and to demand no more executive power grabs.

Really, Mitch? Shouldn’t be allowed? There’s no shouldn’t be allowed when the president makes 4 recess appointments when the Senate is not in recess. It’s NOT allowed. Here’s a message you could send the emperor-in-diapers: no more executive power grabs, STARTING WITH THIS ONE. There’s no next time. That’s like saying, “Hey mister, next time you rape my daughter, I’m gonna have something pretty strong to say about it.” No. There’s no discussion, no strong words, and there’s certainly no need to get all your friends to sign a petition. There’s no next time; you spill his guts and you do it today, because it’s not allowed this time. The only message you send is to his surviving family members, and to society, that some things are simply not allowed.

This affront to the plain language of the Constitution is so egregious that it’s worth going to war over, live or die. Particularly because this is just the newest outrage in an ever-emboldened administration that has not the slightest respect for the rule of law, much less consent of the governed. Obama has shown that he will go as far as you let him. If we let him get away with this, then it will start to get very serious, very quickly from here on out.

Over the last year or two, Mitch has delivered a number of strongly worded messages: we’re not going to allow the Democrats to raise the debt ceiling without deep spending cuts; we’re not going to stand for a de facto moratorium on Gulf drilling; we’re not going to allow the EPA to implement Cap-and-Trade by fiat. Uh huh. Yes, you keep hitting them with that purse, Alice, and eventually they’ll get the message. You know how to send that message? Not with some stupid online petition, which is probably attached to a fund raising website. You send it growing a pair of balls.

It’s very possible that early in this administration, a rolled up newspaper smacked across the mouth might have kept them in line. Now it’s far, far past the time when demanding decent behavior is practical. You have to brutally, boldly take action. And if you die, you die. You swore an Oath to 310 million people that you would protect and defend the Constitution, not swing a purse at the bad guy who takes a match to it. I’d say it was your move.

I don’t think I know every weapon in the available arsenal of the Senate Minority Leader with a 47 head count. But I know you have to put the purse down and look for things that go boom. At this point, I don’t really care what is practical, what is wholly supported by the law or by precedent, or what helps or hurts the electoral prospects of anybody. You have a job that you swore an Oath to do. So here’s the kinds of things that come to mind for me.

• Shut down all Senate business, every single iota of it, until the invalid apppointments are rescinded. Specirfically pass a resolution (in the House anyway) stating that these appointments are considered legally null and void in every possible way. Get in front of mics every day of every week, and tell the public why you are doing it and why it is so important. Be sure to generously use that word INVALID. It is a simple word, but packed with authority and meaning.
• If it’s legal (or even if it’s not), send that Senate Sergeant at Arms (or the House guy) over to wherever these 4 clowns are officed, eject them from their offices, padlock their offices and declare that the seating of these people in that office will be considered in Contempt of Congress.
• Whatever you can defund, do it. Now. Wherever you can cause checks to not be written, do it. Collateral damage, when it comes to unionized government employees, frankly does not hurt my feelings all that much.
• While you are doing that, file that emergency injunction with the Supreme Court, to order the executive branch to cease and desist on those appointments. I dont believe that crap about standing requiring that the first ruling by an invalid NRLB commissioner “harm” somebody. Use just a tiny bit of intellectual power. The Senate has standing, in that they are “harmed” when an express violation of a clearly stated Article of the Constitution denies the Senate their right to Advise and Consent to a nominee, when not in recess. Is there no precedent for that? Establish one. Already been tried? Try it again, and force SCOTUS to tell America that Bambi can openly flout the Constitution, and not even the Senate can stop him, on a technicality.
• If results are not immediate, then you start playing hard ball. Impeachment is actually designed for exactly this kind of thing, when a president has completely fogotten that his powers are not plenary. The fact that you think it is political suicide is not my problem. The fact that the impeachment trial will not succeed is also not my problem. The fact that you think it will cost us huge in the election is both wrong and not my problem. You swore an Oath.

But maybe it won’t come down to impeachment if you make your stand by shutting down the Senate.

So, my question to you, Mitch, is this. Are you a public servant or not? Is there ever a time, in your estimation, that defending the Constitution is more important than comity, or than your own personal ends? I guarantee that the 4,977 soldiers we’ve lost so far in Iraq and Afghanistan did not give their lives so Bambi could stomp on the Constitution and you would stand there and register your protest.

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I know that many of you reading this will react by saying “you can’t do that” or “not tenable”, or some other objection based on political calculation. Fine, you be you. So, what imperial act will be that final straw for you? What if they cheat on the election? What if, right in front of people, they cart in boxloads of ballots, and count them? What if they cheat by 5 million votes? What if they “deem passed” cap and trade, or card check? Take over the energy industry? Sieze our 401k’s? (and there’s been serious talk about that) If we dont stop this now, and I mean refuse delivery, then very quickly this will descend to a point where our choices are between serfdom, a real revolution, or secession.

I really do understand that in the immediate term, we might not be able to unseat these 4 invalid appointees. But to not try is to surrender. We’ve done enough of that, and that is how we got where we are. If the American people punish us for digging in and fighting for the right thing here, then so be it. We lose our country one way or the other, don’t we? But better to go out like the Alamo than to surrender and survive to see the Republic end. I am personally persuaded that if we go big and go loud in this fight, the American people will, contrary to Beltway logic, go huge for us in the 2012 elections, from top to bottom. Media twisting, spinning, and bleating cannot defeat a bold stand on this matter.