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
I actually see it as a counter-revolutionary war, one where we take back the country.
Nor will I.
Reference your post # 76:
Not to give you a short answer, but, yes.
Should Senator Martinez organize a sit-in in the Senate, so nobody can enter or leave the Chamber?
What is supposed to do?
Do you realize that the Democrats control the Senate and will just laugh ?
“Isn’t Leo Donofrio’s case against Obama based on the premise that he’s ineligible because his father is not a U.S. citizen?”
Yes, Obama’s father was Kenyan and a British subject at the time of Obama’s birth, which made Obama a British subject at birth.
“if that’s true, then do we need to retroactively impeach Chester Arthur, who was rumored to have been borne in Canada, and was, at birth, the son of an non-naturalized Irish immigrant father? Just curious.”
No, because Arthur was born in Vermont. And yes, his parents were Irish immigrants. However, Arthur was a citizen at the time of the signing of the Constitution,
and therefore was allowed per the Constitution to hold
the office of President. (As were our Founding Fathers.)
The Constitution states: “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; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”
Mel Martinez needs to retire.
Many of these ignorant STUPID-ASS VOTERS dont even know that DEMOCRATS HAVE CONTROLLED CONGRESS FOR THE LAST 2 YEARS!!!!!
I’m not convinced there’s anything to this birth certificate thing.
But “he was elected” is just as a dumb a response as Obama’s citing his “running a national campaign” as a qualification to be President.
And of course 90% of the public has never heard the allegations, a major flaw in Martinez’s (or his staffs’) “reasoning”.
He doesn’t look reelectable.
Are you serious?
Hey Mel, you IDOIT....what if 50.1% of the people voted in Schwartzenegger??? Would that be OK??? What a MORON Mel is!!
Just like lots in the so called republican party and current administration.
I’m with you on that!! We moved to Florida after Martinez was elected and will work within the Florida Republican Party to get a new, more conservative candidate for Senate next time around. These RINOs are destroying the party and country. And it needs to start with fresh blood and at the House and Senate level. I’d like to see a newly conservative Republican party since that is the best hope for near-term change.
These bozos don’t even read the Constitution anymore, and it’s pervasive through all branches of government. We couldn’t vote against a RINO for the House this year since Bill Young voted twice against the bailouts, but we are prepared to do so with any RINO here forward. I held my nose and voted for McCain because of Palin and the fact that the thought of an Obama presidency was horrifying.
Sounds like an admission that Martinez thinks Obama has an eligibility problem under the Constitution, to me.
Exactly. Here is how I interpret it:
The Repubs have known for a long time that this was brewing and have made a deliberate effort to stay out of it while all these independent actions work their way through. There is no other way to explain the absolute silence across the Republican Party and talk radio. Politically, this thing is radioactive and the media will try initially to shield themselves and Obama by blaming the hate-filled Repubs. They would play Limbaugh clips and talk about meanspirited this and that for hours on end. However, if its just crickets heard from the Repubs, all the easier is it is for John Q. Public to see the truth of the left's deception.
On the other hand, if constituents are burning up his phone line and its getting widespread enough for the senators and reps to fear that they are being perceived as non-responsive(or even naïve once the story breaks), then something has to be done to at least reach out to their voters, even though not with the words that they want to hear. I am sure that many of the congresscritters have this problem and the leaders got together and issued a standard form.
Everyone should take a step back and view it from another angle: Once through the fluff, Mel deferred to the interpretation of some Fed Circuit Ct. judge's opinion on an issue that is currently pending before the Supremes via Donofrio and the others. No one would ever honestly view Surrick's holding as the final authority when the Supreme Court has it set for conference in four days. What Mel and the others actually said is exactly what RNC will say when the scheisse hits the fan with Barry and his Birth Cert: "We defer to the Court."
This thing is starting to get more coverage at a time when it should be even easier for the MSM to ignore. Barry and his army of propagandists are desperate to distract the masses from seeing the facts and the very real media complicity so they are desperate to call the Repubs racists, extremists, etc. Well, when no public figure on the right is even talking about it they have nothing to distort. As far as inflicting maximum political damage goes, it is best to give the DNC the spotlite while all hell breaks lose.
If anything, this goes to show that many of the critter's constituent affairs liasons are very busy fielding these calls. I see this as a very good sign.
Mel just gave you the Goreism .... “No legal controlling authority” regarding Obama’s citizenship.
True, but You ain't seen nothing yet
I attribute no such motivation to Martinez. I merely note that, between the lines, he all but admits that there is a problem ... unintentionally, in my opinion. Martinez advocated undermining citizenship requirements before with amnesty, and he’s advocating it again. Just like McCain, just like Obama, just like Lindsay Graham, just like so many others who apparently envision some wonderful, transnational future for themselves. A self-styled citizen of the world invariably hates the Constitution. It’s an obstacle.
I've been expecting that old saw to be trotted out since this whole thing began. I guess I should know better by now, but I'm still surprised that it's coming from nominal Republicans.
He, like other Senators and representatives, can challenge the validity of the electoral votes cast for (former) Senator Obama, when the tally sheets from the states are opened by VP Cheney, presumably on January 6th. He can also organize such a challenge.
This is not really an issue:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2008/jun/27/obamas-birth-certificate-part-ii/
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html
rgb
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