Thursday, November 18, 2010

I Recall When New Jersey Was Sane

And Tea Party nutjobs weren't trying to recall Senators for the crime of being Democrats.  Luckily, New Jersey's highest court just told the teabaggers to go dunk themselves in the Hudson.

"The court finds that ... the federal Constitution does not allow states the power to recall U.S. Senators," Chief Justice Stuart Rabner wrote in a majority 4-2 opinion.

The Committee to Recall Robert Menendez, a group linked to the conservative Tea Party movement, wanted to recall the Democratic Senator because of his support for policies including healthcare and immigration reform and cap-and-trade legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

The committee sought permission from New Jersey's secretary of state to hold a popular vote on the recall effort. Their recall bid was earlier upheld by an appeals court but has now been reversed by the state's highest court.

The court's decision has been awaited by conservative activists seeking recall initiatives against elected members of the U.S. Congress in other states including Louisiana, North Dakota, and Colorado.

And the insanity of this is that Republicans want the option to immediately force a recall vote of any Senator they don't like, which is to say anyone to the left of Jim DeMint.  First it was take the vote of Senators away from the people by repealing the 17th Amendment, now they want to hold do-overs any time a Democrat wins, because that has to be suspect, and voting for legislation is a high enough crime to warrant removal from office based on the Tea-ranny of the Majority principle.

Luckily it seems this lunacy is being stopped cold.  Disagreeing with the Tea Party is not a friggin federal offense.

Yet.

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