Rand Paul decides to admit he has no idea what the constitution says

[ksen]

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/foreign-policy-alters-contours-of-gop-race-116000.html

“I signed the letter to Iran, but you know what, the message I was sending was to you,” Paul told top administration officials at a Senate Foreign Relations hearing Wednesday. “The message was to President [Barack] Obama, that we want you to obey the law. We — we want you to understand the separation of powers.”

The libertarian-leaning senator’s deliberate and delicate framing of his position — he contended his support for the letter was predicated on the constitutionality of the president’s actions, rather than anything else — underscored a central fact of the emerging Republican nominating battle: Foreign policy and national security issues are altering the contours of the race on an almost weekly basis.

Hey Rand, protip: Executive Agreements are constitutional exercises of executive power.

 

[untermensche]

Paul is nothing but an ordinary pandering politician.

He is nothing new or different.

 

[SimpleDon]

At least he seems to have a better idea of why he signed the letter than almost president John McCain.

McCain's breathtaking defense of signing the Iran letter: "I sign lots of letters"

I saw the letter, I saw that it looked reasonable to me and I signed it, that’s all. I sign lots of letters.

McCain told Politico.

 

[Samhain]

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/foreign-policy-alters-contours-of-gop-race-116000.html

“I signed the letter to Iran, but you know what, the message I was sending was to you,” Paul told top administration officials at a Senate Foreign Relations hearing Wednesday. “The message was to President [Barack] Obama, that we want you to obey the law. We — we want you to understand the separation of powers.”

The libertarian-leaning senator’s deliberate and delicate framing of his position — he contended his support for the letter was predicated on the constitutionality of the president’s actions, rather than anything else — underscored a central fact of the emerging Republican nominating battle: Foreign policy and national security issues are altering the contours of the race on an almost weekly basis.

Hey Rand, protip: Executive Agreements are constitutional exercises of executive power.

Here's a different pro-tip: Rand Paul probably knows that the President is well within his authority. However, most Americans that would listen to Rand Paul do not. So you instead have your typical "shredding the Constitution" rubbish coming out of his mouth merely because his base will buy it and the media is either too incompetent or downright complicit in misleading the American public.

 

[SimpleDon]

I think that most of the Senators who signed the letter and certainly most of our resident conservatives/Libertarians/reactionaries don't realize the sole executive and the Congressional-executive agreements even exist. But in number they are far more of them than there are full treaties submitted to a 2/3rds vote in the Senate. Conservatives, et al, have read the Constitution at some point and assume that anything but a full treaty is illegal, not having any understanding of Constitutional law, the interpretation and application of the Constitution over a couple of hundred years or so.

The genius of the founding fathers who wrote the Constitution wasn't in what they put into the document in primary, fundamental laws, but in the marvelous ambiguity in the document that was required to get it ratified in the different states with vastly different and often competing interests. It is this ambiguity that has allowed the Constitution such a long life. It is subject to changing interpretations over the years, ones that have allowed the document to adapt to the changing world and to the changing times.

This is unsettling for our conservative friends who apparently need an anchor to hold on to and to believe in. Something like the ten commandments provide for the religious, laws supposedly handed down from god. They just can't accept the fact that the founding fathers weren't gods, they were politicians.

 

[untermensche]

I think that most of the Senators who signed the letter and certainly most of our resident conservatives/Libertarians/reactionaries don't realize the sole executive and the Congressional-executive agreements even exist. But in number they are far more of them than there are full treaties submitted to a 2/3rds vote in the Senate. Conservatives, et al, have read the Constitution at some point and assume that anything but a full treaty is illegal, not having any understanding of Constitutional law, the interpretation and application of the Constitution over a couple of hundred years or so.

The genius of the founding fathers who wrote the Constitution wasn't in what they put into the document in primary, fundamental laws, but in the marvelous ambiguity in the document that was required to get it ratified in the different states with vastly different and often competing interests. It is this ambiguity that has allowed the Constitution such a long life. It is subject to changing interpretations over the years, ones that have allowed the document to adapt to the changing world and to the changing times.

This is unsettling for our conservative friends who apparently need an anchor to hold on to and to believe in. Something like the ten commandments provide for the religious, laws supposedly handed down from god. They just can't accept the fact that the founding fathers weren't gods, they were politicians.

There were some geniuses in the founding fathers. But it was pure luck they settled on some things that have worked so far.

The document was written so THEY could run a government THEN. They were mainly protecting their wealth.

One of the smartest guys amongst them said a new one should be written every so often.