Robert Dold must have been sleeping when the Republicans opened Congress by reading from the Constitution (except for those parts that institutionalized racism). He certainly missed a thing or two when it comes to how our government operates.
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) called the “ritualistic reading” on the floor “total nonsense” and “propaganda” intended to claim the document for Republicans:
“You read the Torah, you read the Bible, you build a worship service around it,” said Nadler, who argued that the Founders were not “demigods” and that the document’s need for amendments to abolish slavery and other injustices showed it was “highly imperfect…. You are not supposed to worship your constitution. You are supposed to govern your government by it.”
Most of us know that under the Constitution, bills can only become law if passed by both houses of Congress. In February, Dold voted for H.R. 1, the government budget bill, which funds (and in many cases defunds) the government the way the Republicans would like to run it. But the bill was unlikely to pass the Senate in its current form. So on March 30, Dold voted for H.R. 1255, which says that if the Senate did not pass H.R. 1 by April 6, then H.R. 1 would become law.
Who knew that the Constitution could be amended so easily? In other words, if you can’t get the other House of Congress to agree to your bill, just pass a law to get around them. Of course, it didn’t occur to Dold and his Republican buddies that the Senate would never pass H.R. 1255, and thus H.R. 1255 itself would never become law.
Most Republicans voted for this travesty, although a few had the backbone to vote against it. But not our “independent” Robert Dold. What a waste of time! Almost as much of a time-waster as Dold’s efforts to require the Secretary of the Treasury to mint coins in commemoration of Ronald Reagan. Dold is one of only 39 co-sponsors of the Ronald Reagan Commemorative Coin Act of 2011. Doesn’t that make you proud?
–Tenth Dems