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Tue 4 Sep 2007 19:44
by Kevin McGehee
83° and cloudy
in Coweta County, GA
[Courting Disaster]
[Get Offa My Lawn!]
[Here's Your Sign]
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I can’t believe I’m going to endorse something Bill Clinton said, but he just happens to be right.
Dave: “Now there was a discussion last week, and there is I guess a greater discussion, and there’s some confusion, and maybe I’m the only one confused about the eligibility of a man who has been elected twice as President to possibly be named later on the ticket as Vice President. Constitutionally speaking, can that happen?”
Clinton: “I don’t believe so. There are some people who believe it can, and they have contorted readings of the amendment, the 22nd Amendment. But I believe as a matter of general interpretation, you’re supposed to read all the Constitution including all the Amendments as if they were written almost on the same day at the same moment, so they’re consistent with one another. And the Constitution says the qualifications for Vice President are the same as those for President. Now you can read that to mean ‘to serve,’ not ‘to run for.’ But I just don’t believe it’s consistent with the spirit of the Constitution for someone who’s been President twice to be elected Vice President. I just don’t think it’s Constitutional. I don’t think it’s right and I wouldn’t want to do that. I’d want to do whatever I could do to be of highest and best use for her, but there are lots of wonderful people out there, including all the people that are running this time would be good Vice Presidents. And, that’s just not in the cards.” » Drudge Flash: WJC Says No VP for HRC
As for the thing from 2004 I linked above, here was my conclusion:
The 12th Amendment includes the following: “But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.” Any reasonable person would interpret this, in conjunction with the 22nd Amendment, as meaning that since Bill Clinton has been elected twice to the presidency, and is therefore constitutionally ineligible to be elected to the presidency again, he is also constitutionally ineligible to be elected Vice President.
This may be the first time in history that anything relating to a Clinton was interpreted by one of them using the standard of reasonableness.
Properly.
Good on you, Bill. Imagine the trouble you could have avoided if you’d been that reasonable when you were actually president.
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