That’s What I Call A Loophole…

In discussing legal possibilities vs. tradition vis a vis the Senate filibuster rules, Matthew Yglesias pens an interesting legal scenario.

After all, a lot of things are possible in our system. To the best of my understanding, nothing is stopping Rahm Emannuel from sauntering onto the floor of the Senate, murdering Republicans from states with Democratic governors in cold blood, having them replaced by new Democrats, and then getting a pardon from Barack Obama.

But that would obviously be a sharp break with the traditions of our government!

Indeed it would.

By the way, nobody mention this legal scenario to Glenn Beck. Let the man enjoy a good night’s sleep once in awhile.

FILED UNDER: Law and the Courts, US Politics, , , ,
Alex Knapp
About Alex Knapp
Alex Knapp is Associate Editor at Forbes for science and games. He was a longtime blogger elsewhere before joining the OTB team in June 2005 and contributed some 700 posts through January 2013. Follow him on Twitter @TheAlexKnapp.

Comments

  1. I doubt Glenn Beck ever sleeps well. He was the victim of severe medical malpractice back when he underwent hemorrhoid surgery. It seems doctors removed the Beck and left only the hemorrhoid.

  2. yetanotherjohn says:

    I suspect they will make it look like a mass suicide, the blogs will break the truth, the mainstream press will ignore it, the truth will eventually out and then Obama will pardon the killer.

  3. Zelsdorf Ragshaft III says:

    Reynolds you attack the messenger not the message. Prove Beck wrong. Good luck. I guess you have not noticed Obama’s crue of radicals. If you did just the slightest amount of research you would find these people unfit to work in our form of government. They do not have your best interest at heart. I wonder just how much money Obama is amassing with all the he has given away. The fool is going to the Climate Change siminar. This, after the revelation of East Anglia CRU debacle. Bad science make for good religion. Read the emails and the data before responding. Garbage in garbage out. To think these criminals were the scource for most the the data used to verilfy global warming. Gore should be inprisioned. Obama, Boxer, Waxman and Kerry tried for treason.

  4. peterh says:

    But that would obviously be a sharp break with the traditions of our government!

    Not that it wasn’t tried with anthrax…..but Dana Perino would never admit to that…..

  5. yetanotherjohn says:

    The more I think about the scenario, the more fascinating it becomes. It wouldn’t be as straight forward as described. They might tell the dupe that Obama would pardon him, but more likely they would ensure he wouldn’t survive the attempt. So assume that a half dozen GOP senators from states with democratic governors suddenly died (probably a couple of democrats from a state with a democratic governor and a senator from a state with a republican governor for cover, but just focus on the clear political shift).

    What would we do as a nation? We would likely see a shift in 2010 (if not then by 2012), but what would we do in the mean time. The scenario I am positing would provide enough evidence for those who want to believe that there was no conspiracy and for those who would want to believe that there was a conspiracy. The RCP shows Obama has already lost majority support and the poll break down shows that he has a majority of independents against him (and a majority of republicans).

    No matter how bad it is now, it could always be worse.

  6. Wayne says:

    Highly unlikely the country would stand by and just say “will that is the rule of law”. At a minimum almost all Democrats would lose in the next election and Obama would be impeach and remove from office. More likely Many Democrat Governors and Politicians would be killed in retaliation. Worst case would be an all out war.

  7. floyd says:

    Michael Reynolds;
    With friends like you… who needs enemas??

  8. Drew says:

    Was there a point to this post?

  9. floyd says:

    Wayne… You optimist you!

    What’s a few politicians more or less??
    Just think of all the instant “Statesmen” we would then have!

    Worst case, and most likely, would be that they would get away with it with the help of the apologist media!

    Wouldn’t that would be a sort of crazy Leftist Coo >>
    >>Coo, and by the party in power, no less![lol]

  10. UlyssesUnbound says:

    Going against my own rule of “never acknowledge Zelzdhorf…”

    Read the emails and the data before responding.

    I have. Have you? Where is the scandal?

  11. Totally off-topic, but I think I may have solved the Great Japanese Obama Bow Controversy.

    I was just with my daughter at her taekwondo. They have a picture of Obama with (I believe, hard to say since the dude’s in 3/4 shot) the SK prime minister. Obama throwing a pretty believable punch.

    So I used the Google:

    “Because Obama learned taekwondo when he was senator, a taekwondo uniform, a black belt and an honorary certificate will be presented to him as presidential gifts,” said spokesman Park Sun-Kyoo.

    Taekwondo has different-coloured belts to indicate skill levels, ranging from white for beginners to black for masters.

    Seoul officials said Obama had reached an intermediate and not a master’s level after years of practice

    .

    At my daughter’s taekwondo they bow about every 30 seconds, from the waist, and quite deep. The Japan bow would have been almost reflexive to a taekwondo student.

  12. G.A.Phillips says:

    I have. Have you? Where is the scandal?

    lolz,spoken like a true believer….I think I’ll go warm up my car for an hour or two in your honor and wile I’m doing that I’m gonna take many poops and use a whole roll of toilet paper to wipe my donkey, then make breakfast and poor the grease down the sink, then I’m gonna put my unwashed grass soup cans and coolaid bottles in my regular garbage, and before I go to work on thanksgiving to make my 8 bucks an hour for dumb *** liberal taxes I’m gonna turn all my TV on to fox news and leave them on all all day!!!!!

    who’s with me!?!?!

  13. UlyssesUnbound says:

    G.A.,

    While that was just an awfully clever response (when is scatalogical humor not clever?), you didn’t really answer my question, did you? Where is the scandal?

  14. G.A.Phillips says:

    G.A.,

    While that was just an awfully clever response (when is scatalogical humor not clever?), you didn’t really answer my question, did you? Where is the scandal?

    that part of the joke was about flushing the toilet(wasting water)and using toilet paper and (flushing it into the lake).And would if I thought it would matter.

    And saying and putting Poop and Donkey together, it’s a just a habit:)

  15. UlyssesUnbound says:

    G.A.,

    So…where is the scandal?