Saturday, December 10, 2016
How will McGahn view his new role? Service as White House counsel is not a quest to unearth clever legal loopholes. It requires viewing public office as a public trust, where officeholders aspire to the highest ethical standards, regardless of what they think they might get away with.
In this Washpo advertorial, FEC Commissioner Weintraub explains why McGahn is an excellent choice for White House counsel, and she herself is unfit to hold public office. Here's the key:
It is the role of commissioners to enforce laws adopted by Congress, unless and until they are struck down by the courts. But McGahn substituted his own view of the Constitution. As he once boasted, “I’m not enforcing the law as Congress passed it. I plead guilty as charged.”
This is an admission of dereliction of duty by Weintraub. Every government employee, every lawyer and soldier, swears to uphold the constitution.
Nothing in that oath says to wait years or centuries until the courts have acted.
Courts only take the cases brought to them, and even then cases take a long time to resolve, but government censorship of political speech, of the sort Weintraub excels at, does immediate and irreparable harm to First Amendment interests.
She's not just asleep at the wheel, she's proud of it.
Under the separation of powers, courts have in important role in resolving legitimate disagreements about what the constitution requires. But courts cannot possibly hope to do the job of defending the constitution if congress and millions of bureaucrats like Weintraub ignore their promise to respect and follow the constitution. The FEC is a quasi-independent agency, and Trump cannot simply replace her. But the Democratic leadership can and should, or show theemselves to be as moraally bankrupt as she is. Three cheers for Don MacGhan. Trump is well served to have him as counsel. Frankly, during his campaign, I regarded Mr. Trump as a clown. But his choices of staff so far suggest he may be a genuine constitutional conservative, of the sort we haven't seen since Reagan. Reagan had contradictions of his own, and his actions didn't always match the rhetoric. trump worries me on many levels, but at this point I view him with guarded optimism.
In this Washpo advertorial, FEC Commissioner Weintraub explains why McGahn is an excellent choice for White House counsel, and she herself is unfit to hold public office. Here's the key:
It is the role of commissioners to enforce laws adopted by Congress, unless and until they are struck down by the courts. But McGahn substituted his own view of the Constitution. As he once boasted, “I’m not enforcing the law as Congress passed it. I plead guilty as charged.”
This is an admission of dereliction of duty by Weintraub. Every government employee, every lawyer and soldier, swears to uphold the constitution.
Nothing in that oath says to wait years or centuries until the courts have acted.
Courts only take the cases brought to them, and even then cases take a long time to resolve, but government censorship of political speech, of the sort Weintraub excels at, does immediate and irreparable harm to First Amendment interests.
She's not just asleep at the wheel, she's proud of it.
Under the separation of powers, courts have in important role in resolving legitimate disagreements about what the constitution requires. But courts cannot possibly hope to do the job of defending the constitution if congress and millions of bureaucrats like Weintraub ignore their promise to respect and follow the constitution. The FEC is a quasi-independent agency, and Trump cannot simply replace her. But the Democratic leadership can and should, or show theemselves to be as moraally bankrupt as she is. Three cheers for Don MacGhan. Trump is well served to have him as counsel. Frankly, during his campaign, I regarded Mr. Trump as a clown. But his choices of staff so far suggest he may be a genuine constitutional conservative, of the sort we haven't seen since Reagan. Reagan had contradictions of his own, and his actions didn't always match the rhetoric. trump worries me on many levels, but at this point I view him with guarded optimism.
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