Posted by
Jim Hunt on Friday, December 12, 2008 8:00:00 AM
In the last decade, more than any time in my life, it seems we have become a nation of whiners on all topics. Not surprisingly politics seems to attract the biggest and loudest whiners. MoveOn.org was founded to whine about the “persecution” of Bill Clinton. Democrats are still whining about the 2000 and 2004 elections. Now it’s the Republicans who are whining.
It is time for conservatives to suck it up and realize what when wrong and stop whining. It was conservatives who stuck their heads in the sand and stayed home on Election Day. Now we have soon to be President-elect Obama and Secretary of State Designee Clinton. There are people on the right still trying anything to prevent this from happening.
Article I Section 6 of the Constitution says “No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; …” President Bush signed an executive order increasing the salary of the Secretary of State in 2007. Therefore Senator Clinton is technically barred from that office. This situation has occurred before during the Taft, Nixon, Carter and Clinton administrations. There is a simple legal workaround known as the Saxbe fix, named after Senator William B. Saxbe who Nixon named as Attorney General. The fix is for Congress to reduce the salary back to the original level for the duration of the individual’s term of office. This was done for Secretary of State Philander Knox under William Taft, Attorney General Saxbe, Secretary of State Edmund Muskie under Carter, and Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen under Clinton. While legal scholars disagree over the legality of the fix, it has been considered a non-issue when it has been used.
The only exception was when President Reagan was considering naming Senator Orrin Hatch to the Supreme Court. The issue was raised and Hatch’s name was withdrawn from consideration. Of course the fact that the Supreme Court is a lifetime appointment may have also been a factor when it would lock his salary for life at the earlier level.
When the issue came up with Lloyd Bentsen the Saxbe fix was passed without objection and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush at the end of his term so Bentsen could take office immediately.
Today there are some Republicans trying to block Hillary Clinton’s nomination. Clearly the Saxbe fix addresses the concern of the founders expressed in Article I Section 6. This push to block her nomination is just bitter whining and should stop.
Similarly those on the right pushing the question of Obama’s birth certificate are now carrying things too far. It was certainly a legitimate question and it may not have been answered to everyone’s satisfaction (including mine). However, the Supreme Court has made its ruling and the question is now closed. It is time to move on (to coin a phrase).
Barack Obama will become the President and in all likelihood Hillary Clinton will be Secretary of State. It is now time for all Americans, and particularly principled conservatives, to accept the judgment of the voters and to be good citizens. That doesn’t mean we should support everything Obama does. But when he is right he deserves our support. When he is wrong we should stand up and say so, firmly and loudly. We need to get our own house in order, do everything we can to make sure the ship of state doesn’t become more damaged on the rocks than it already has, and focus on the present and future.
Our losses were self-inflicted. We pointed fingers and laughed at the whiners in 2000 and 2004. It is very unbecoming for us to be the whiners now. This is still the greatest country in the world, and we will survive the Obama administration and we will still be the Shining City on the Hill. It is up to us to maintain that shine, and we may have difficult years ahead, but freedom will prevail if we stand up and stop whining.
God Bless America