Monday, February 2, 2009

Bogus Lawsuit challenging Hillary

This is why I believe in a "living and breathing" Constitution that must change with the times, and stay relevant in a totally different society than it was intended for. Clearly Hillary Clinton should remain as Sec. of State. We can't be in the business of trying to apply hyper-technical rules that don't matter in any real sense. Hillary is losing millions of dollars by being in the pubic sector. She is essentially working for free because she loves this country. To disqualify Clinton because she voted for a Federal pay raise would "cutting off our nose to spite our face". Any new President should be given deference in choosing his cabinet so he can have as good a chance as possible to succeed. Were this a case where a nominee had either plotted to increase his future salary or some other purpose that coincided with the purpose of the constitutional prohibitions that would be fine, but in fact in today's world almost all of the high level government people who would be moving from the U.S. Senate to the Executive branch would either already have way more money than is in question or could go earn it easily.

Here's the story-

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is being challenged because:

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against newly sworn-in Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on behalf of U.S. Foreign Service Officer and State Department employee David C. Rodearmel, (Rodearmel v. Clinton, et al., (D. District of Columbia)). The lawsuit maintains that Mrs. Clinton is constitutionally ineligible to serve as Secretary of State and that Mr. Rodearmel cannot be forced to serve under the former U.S. Senator, as it would violate the oath he took as a Foreign Service Officer in 1991 to "support and defend" and "bear true faith and allegiance" to the Constitution of the United States.
Under the "Emoluments" or "Ineligibility" clause of the U.S. Constitution, no member of Congress can be appointed to a civilian position within the U.S. government if the "emoluments" of the position, such as the salary or benefits paid to whoever occupies the office, increased during the term for which the Senator or Representative was elected.

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