Posted on 12/01/2008 12:52:16 PM PST by jeffo
Well, I had written to Senator Martinez ("R"-Florida) about the citizenship issue before the election. Today I got this mind-boggling response:
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Thank you for contacting me regarding President-Elect Obama's citizenship. I appreciate hearing from you and would like to respond to your concerns.
Like you, I believe that our federal government has the responsibility to make certain that the Constitution of the United States is not compromised. We must fight to uphold our Constitution through our courts and political processes.
Article II of the Constitution provides that "no Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President." The Constitution, however, does not specify how that qualification for office is to be enforced. As you may know, a voter recently raised this issue before a federal court in Pennsylvania. On October 24, 2008, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania released an order in the case of Berg v.Obama.In that case, the plaintiff, Phillip Berg, raised the same issue that your letter raises regarding proof of the President-Elect's birthplace. Through his lawsuit, Mr. Berg sought to compel President-Elect Obama to produce a certified copy of his birth certificate.
The District Court dismissed Mr. Berg's suit and held that the question of Obama's citizenship is not a matter for a court to decide. The court further noted that voters, not courts, should decide whether a particular presidential candidate is qualified to hold office.
Presidential candidates are vetted by voters at least twice - first in the primary elections and again in the general election. President-Elect Obama won the Democratic Party's nomination after one of the most fiercely contested presidential primaries in American history. And, he has now been duly elected by the majority of voters in the United States. Throughout both the primary and general election, concerns about Mr. Obama's birthplace were raised. The voters have made clear their view that Mr. Obama meets the qualifications to hold the office of President.
After he is sworn into office, Mr. Obama will be our nation's President and I intend to bestow upon him the honor and respect due any man who holds that Office. Yet, I am certain that there will be times when I will disagree and oppose President Obama's policies. When that happens, you can be assured that I will pursue vigorously what I believe to be in the best interest of Florida and the nation.
I thank you for sharing your views with me and will keep your concerns in mind. If you have additional questions or comments, please contact me. For more information about issues and activities important to Florida, please sign up for my weekly newsletter at http://martinez.senate.gov.
Sincerely,
Mel Martinez United States Senator
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OK, so the fact that he won the election makes him qualified. Amazing
The Constitution never was written for the government, it was written for the people. Don’r count on ANY politician to respect it, most of them see it as an impediment to their plans.
Leave out the word "CONSTITUTIONAL" and that's all correct. The Constitution is silent on the requirement for natural born citizenship. But the law when BHO II was born did require the Citizen parent to be at least 19 in order for the child, if born abroad, to be a "Citizen at birth"
What exactly is Martinez supposed to do? Force the issue in the United States Senate, where the Democrats control the vote by 10 votes?
If you can’t get a single federal judge to intervene, why should he make a fool of himself?
Unless you are saying that Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia are in on the conspiracy. That’s tin-foil hat stuff.
There is one helluva difference between being ‘vetted’ twice through a primary and general election, during which time no authentic proof of birth/citizenship was proffered, and whether or not this particular candidate was, in fact, a natural born citizen of the United States.
This is the dunce who W put in as head of the RNC, who alienated the base by then putting its imprimatur on the amnesty bill offered by McCain/Kennedy, et al. The GOP/RNC has not yet recovered and managed to lose badly in the two successive elections. Thanks, Mel.
Dear Senator Martinez,
If you call a tail a leg; how many legs does a dog have?
Four!
Calling a tail a leg does not make it a leg. Nor does voting for an illegal alien make him a citizen.
Fulfill your oath to defend the Constitution!
Furious,
We, The People
No conspiracy here. It’s out of our hands now, but I’m just sick of his defeatist attitude.
“Unless you are saying that Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia are in on the conspiracy. Thats tin-foil hat stuff.”
This may well be ‘tin foil hat stuff’ but the fact is that Justice Thomas has called for the matter to be brought to the SCOTUS Conference on 12/5/08, 10 days before the meeting of the electoral college. Those proceedings are confidential, we will only hear if the Court chooses to proceed or not.
If four Justices agree that the matter should be taken up by the court, they can demand that an authentic birth certificate be produced to determine once and for all this birth certificate question. I can’t imagine why Obama has not made it available before now. It should not be a big deal.
I am in the camp that thinks there will not be 4 Justices who will seek to proceed. But, I do think that the matter should be taken up by the court if for no other reason than to achieve an absolute resolution of the matter. Winning his party’s nomination and the general election neither proves or disproves Obama’s status as a natural born citizen.
Did you really expect him to say anything different?
I can agree with them on that point. We were the ones that put them in office.
The question is: Will he spit or will he swallow?
It has been in my FRiend.
He's already made a fool of himself by asserting that public opinion is all that's necessary to meet constitutional requirements. The outrage over Martinez's letter can and should exist apart from the merits of the Obama BC issue. Martinez's rationale is flat out frightening.
That’s not the same kind of immigration. That’s political refuge. Surely Martinez, and everybody else in Florida, should be able to make that vital distinction.
You are 100% correct in your first sentence.
As far as your third sentence goes, time will tell but I do not expect any opposition.
We have no leadership.And last but not least, 98% of the American public now prefer to live as slaves rather than free men and women.
We are in for a rough ride.
There are better odds on the sun rising in the west and setting in the east than the Democrat Party Electors not casting their votes for the messiah a/k/a obama.
You are correct in your assessment. We are screwed, worse than anyone can comprehend.
There, fixed it.
History has shown that every once in a while things get so bad that the only way things can be fixed is in a violent revolution.
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