I hadn't heard about that little snippet. Who did this? When?
Believe it or not, Obama was one of the sponsors.
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/04/11/clinton-obama-agree-mccains-a-natural-born-citizen/
Not reported here is that Obama tried, and failed to insert a blanket statement that would have applied to other people. I haven't been able to find a cite to that again. I'll follow-up if I do.
I've looked through the record of Senate Resolution 511, and can find no record of a failed amendment. I don't know if Thomas (The Library of Congress' system) records those. This resolution specifically addresses John McCain.
The same senator submitted S 2678, which makes an outright statement, but it's limited to `Any person born to any citizen of the United States while serving in the active or reserve components of the United States Armed Forces'. That's actually pretty broad, when you think about it. But, this bill was left pending in committee.
The part about the Dems urging that naturalized citizens be allowed to be president is way back on this thread, I believe.
When McCain was challenged as to his eligibility, he produced his birth certificate, all the information relating to his parents and place of birth, etc. At that point, the Dems (or the Senate committee looking into this) “declared” him eligible, something they had no control over in any case; but at the same time, they tried to slip a clause into the bill opening the Presidency to naturalized citizens. This was spotted by the GOP Senators and taken out. It would have been a moot point anyway, since they would have had to amend the Constitution, something beyond the power of Congress acting by itself, but it might have given them some kind of flimsy legal precedent.
I’ll try to find the post - IIRC, I responded to it.
Here it is: Post #1477 on this thread, by arrogantsob (his description, not mine!).
His post contains all the details on the Dems’ attempt to legitimize naturalized citizens for the Presidency. As arrogantsob says, it’s like the dog that didn’t bark (a reference to a famous Sherlock Holmes story).
“The fact that the Dems tried to slip language permitting a naturalized citizen to be President into another resolution of theirs”
“I hadn’t heard about that little snippet. Who did this? When?”
Here is a link to an article regarding the start of the bill process: Http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/02/29/obama_backs_law_to_ensure_mcca.HTML
Here is a link to what actually passed in the senate:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c110:3:./temp/~c110NWBMFt::