Value Judgment: Hatch, Baked

Value Judgment is a daily weblog written by two independent voters on the eastern seaboard of the United States. VJ will focus on the 2004 U.S. Presidential campaigns, including strategy, tactics, and substance. The authors supported Howard Dean in the Democratic primary. Accordingly, his activities will be a prominent topic on this site.

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October 7, 2003

Hatch, Baked

Good grief. Orrin Hatch is sometimes a principled, sensible Republican Senator, but more often he's just a wildly partisan nut:

Via Political Wire:

The Salt Lake Tribune: Put past to rest, Hatch says of Arnold

"If he gets the chance, he's not going to be a namby-pamby out there," said Hatch. "I think you're going to find there's going to be some new leadership that a lot of other people might emulate in this society."

I'd love to hear him elaborate on that...

Hatch has introduced a resolution to amend the Constitution's ban on non-American-born presidents by allowing people who have been U.S. citizens for at least 20 years to be elected to the White House. While the measure was not introduced with Schwarzenegger in mind, Hatch said the Austrian-born superstar would be a perfect example of why the constitutional amendment is needed.

"If Arnold Schwarzenegger turns out to be the greatest governor of California, which I hope he will, if he turns out to be a tremendous leader and he proves to everybody in this country that he's totally dedicated to this country as an American ... we would be wrong not to give him that opportunity," said Hatch.

I'm willing to entertain the argument that we should allow non-native-born Americans to be President, but to use Schwarzenegger as the 'perfect example'? What is Hatch smoking?

Posted by V at October 7, 2003 01:39 PM

Comments

The only way I could even possibly get behind an amendment to change the non-native-born requirement is if there was a clock set in. That is, something that said: "And this amendment shall take effect 25 years from the date of its enactment." It's not so urgent that it needs to be done right away (there are plenty of native-born Americans to choose from) and this disallows anyone, like Hatch, trying to pass this with a specific person in mind.

As for Arnold -- he's a complete joke who should be arrested for assault and California will get what it deserves. Unfortunately, it will also have an impact on the rest of us indirectly.

This democracy is in big trouble. I'd rather not be dramatic, but I'm beginning to think the only hope for recovery is an emphatic victory by Dean in 2004. Anything else (close election and Dean wins, any of the other Dems who are uninterested in solving the systemic problems wins, or, god forbid, Bush wins) and we're doomed.

Posted by: J at October 7, 2003 01:56 PM