Daily Archives: October 3, 2003

arnold’s Amendment

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Thank goodness these constitutional amendments have a high approval bar and usually take a while to get the necessary state ratifications:

Now, as Austrian-born Arnold Schwarzenegger chases the governorship of the most populous state, the House and Senate are weighing proposals for a constitutional amendment that would allow a naturalized citizen to become president. But Schwarzenegger’s candidacy is only a side issue in the debate.
The question turns on whether a decision by the framers of the Constitution more than 200 years ago remains relevant in today’s more inclusive America, one in which the foreign-born population is at an all-time high.

Arnold should be old, frail and limp by the time this gets its final vote.
The proposed amendment does have bipartisan support:

Conservatives such as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and liberals such as Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) favor opening the presidency to immigrants. Hatch’s bill would allow people who have been citizens at least 20 years to hold the office, while Frank is supporting a House bill with a 35-year citizenship requirement.
“I think it’s a mistake to have that in the Constitution,” Frank said of the current limitation. “It’s reflective of a double standard that somehow immigrants aren’t fully equal with people born here.”

It is reflective of a standard and I don’t thank it is any more problematic a standard then the age limitations. The debate should be interesting and I think I will start out with the conservative position that this isn’t broken so we don’t need to fix it.
On the other hand what a delicious thought: watching how his rightside supporters respond to arnold’s behaviour as president. I suspect he’d make clinton look like an innocent.
Via Body and Soul.
Oh, and go over to Skippy’s to see ‘a movie poster for ah’nold’s latest flick.’