Bush Names Replacement for Harriet Miers

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 11:48am

Noah McCullough, 9-Year-Old Strict Constructionist

[Plum]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 11:56am

Oh my lord- is that a real screencap?

[Forester]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 12:21pm

What the hell is Constructionist? Something related to Intelligent Design?

[Plum]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 12:33pm

No. A strict constructionist is someone who believes that all constitutional decisions need to be based on a strictly literal interpretation of the text of the Constitution and its amendments. The problem, of course, is that those words are often unclear- it sounds like a nicely disciplined and clean way to work, but it's not real.

Updated On: 10/23/05 at 12:33 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 12:35pm

Favored by people who actually believe the world is in two shades: black or white. Right or wrong. Yer with us or yer agin us. They believe, in large part, that language, culture, and law does not evolve. In much the same way they believe the world was strictly constructed by an intelligent designer. And did not evolve.

[Forester]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 12:39pm

Got it. Thanks for the info. So, they would like to use 18th century as a basis to interpret the constitution. Did I get that right?

[Plum]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 12:39pm

Which is funny, considering how the very Founding Fathers who wrote and influenced the document were working from an Enlightenment perspective, which is very Darwinian in its insistence that man is always improving using rationality and science.

[Plum]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 12:42pm

Ah, now you're thinking of another division. There's historicists (that's not their name, but I don't remember what it really is) who want to look at every part of the constitution from when it was written- the Constitution and Bill of Rights in the 18th-century, the 14th Amendment in the Civil War era, etc.

Strict constructionists worship the text. Get the difference? The two schools of thought overlap, but aren't the same.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 1:44pm

Note the reference to Tom DeLay.

---

THE NEW YORK TIMES

At 9, He's Out Stumping for President's Social Security Plan

By GLEN JUSTICE (NYT) 572 words
Published: February 26, 2005

The battle over Social Security has been joined by an unusual lobbyist, a 9-year-old from Texas who has agreed to travel supporting President Bush's proposal.

The boy, Noah McCullough, made a splash with his encyclopedic command of presidential history, earning five appearances on the 'Tonight' show and some unusual experiences in the presidential campaign last year. He beat Howard Dean in a trivia contest at the Democratic National Convention and wrote for his local newspaper about his trip to see the inauguration.

'He's very patriotic and very Republican,' said Noah's mother, Donna McCullough, a former teacher and self-described Democrat. 'It's the way he was born.'

In a sign of how far groups go to carry their message on Social Security, Progress for America has signed up Noah, a fourth grader, as a volunteer spokesman. He starts on spring break from James Williams Elementary School in Katy, Tex.

Progress for America, which spent almost $45 million backing Mr. Bush last year, plans to lay out $20 million on Social Security this year. It has spent $1 million on television commercials and is working to send experts around the country. Among them are Thomas Saving, a trustee of the Social Security Trust Fund; Rosario Marin, a former United States treasurer; and one really, really young Republican. Noah will not be eligible to collect Social Security for nearly 60 years.

Noah will travel to a handful of states ahead of visits by the president and will go on radio programs, answer trivia questions and say a few words about Social Security. Though he is obviously not an expert (and not really a lobbyist, either), officials say the effort is a lighthearted way to underline Mr. Bush's message.

'What I want to tell people about Social Security is to not be afraid of the new plan,' Noah said. 'It may be a change, but it's a good change.'

The trip was a brainchild of Stuart Roy, a former aide to Representative Tom DeLay, Republican of Texas, who recently joined the DCI Group, a political consultancy here with ties to the Republican Party and Mr. Bush.

The firm is heavily involved in Progress for America's efforts. The president of the organization, Brian McCabe, is a partner at DCI, and the organization contracts with the firm. In the 2004 campaign, the Progress for America Voter Fund paid DCI about $800,000, records show. Mr. Roy knew Noah because the boy lives in suburban Houston, part of Mr. DeLay's district, and the House majority leader has met him. 'We'll have Noah there as the face of Social Security reform,' Mr. Roy said. 'It's about the next generation.'

Noah became interested in presidents as a 5-year-old after a mock election in kindergarten. Today, he has more than 3,000 books on presidential history. He campaigned for Mr. Bush, speaking to Republican groups and handing out bumper stickers. After 27 trips to the first President Bush's presidential library at Texas A&M University in College Station, he scored a meeting with the former president.

Noah plans to run for the White House in 2032 -- and he wants Social Security addressed before then.

'It will be bankrupt when I'm president,' he said.


At 9, He's Out Stumping for President's Social Security Plan

Updated On: 10/23/05 at 01:44 PM

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 2:30pm

**shudder**
I'm having visions of VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED....

[Lavieboheme3090]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 2:41pm

Wait quick question, now I took U.S. history last year, and seem to remember a little thing about being able to amend Constitution. Doesn’t that mean that it is flexible and was meant to evolve and change over time and that a true Constructionist would know about that?

or maybe I am just crazy

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 2:46pm

You're not crazy, LaVie. You're the hope for the future.

[Lavieboheme3090]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 2:47pm

*does a dance for the future*

[gavrochegirl]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 2:51pm

A kid working for Bush?

Wow.

Uh....um...well, just goes to show you that some kids are smarter than others?

*shrug*

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 2:53pm

Well, logically, it would support the argument that the consitution is a living and breathing document - it can be amended and modified.

The issue comes down to "judicial activism" - whether constitutional rights are expanded via an actual Amendment, which is not easy to do, or via judicial interpretation of the intent of the founding fathers.

The issue many conservatives have is that courts have read intent into various consitutional amendments, and that they have expanded the rights granted outside of the four corners of the document itself.

For example, there is no explicit Right to Privacy under the US Constituion, though there is under many state consitutions.

So, a Strict Constuctionist would only look to the actual words of the document, and not what the drafters may have intended given the current facts and circumstances. They do not expand the rigths and protections any farther than what was explictily stated at the time.

Which, to me personally, makes no sense because many of the issues and challenges we face today were not present at the time the Constitution was adopted. Also, certain Amendments, like the right to bear arms, were adopted specifically because of issues facing the colonies at that time. (the need for a well-armed militia was in part a motivation for the second amendment, as there was no official standing army).

It has been a few years since my Constitutional Law Class, and I am sure few others may want to clarify and expand . . .

[Plum]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 3:37pm

*cringe* Oh, lord. You have a cute face and learn some trivia and suddenly you're a Social Security expert. Why don't they hire Spelling Bee winners to stump for local races?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 3:40pm

Next, from the RNC.

[Plum]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 3:42pm

Hey, I was a geeky child. I could have been part of the second Clinton campaign.

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 10/23/05 at 3:47pm

I was just thinking that, I was a huge advocate in elementary school for Dukasis, maybe he should have put me in the campaign, I could have told him that "tank thing" was a bad idea. I also had an "encyclopedic" knowledge of Presidential history, I mean I read all about them in encyclopedias.