Before pulling out the troops, that is. Or something, since there seems to be quite a bit of sectarian disagreement over there in the aftermath of our exodus.

The Veep over there’s actually the star of an arrest warrant naming him as the man behind a bombing plot. He denies any guilt, claiming that the charges are trumped up, courtesy of the Iraqi Prez, who’s of the “opposing” sect.

So who’s telling the truth, and who’s fibbing?

I don’t know about this Islam; Here in the west, our varying religions coexist, as do the sects within same. Among Muslims, they are apparently enemies, or at least that’s what developments indicate to be the case in Iraq.

Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi:

“I am puzzled by the statement of President Obama when he says we left a democratic Iraq and that the judiciary is independent and that there’s transparency and there’s no corruption,” Mr. Hashemi said. “I am the vice president addressing him today as my home is surrounded by tanks: What democracy are you speaking about Mr. Obama?”

Oh, my, that doesn’t sound very promising at all, President Obama, now does it? Perhaps we should’ve stuck around a little longer and figured things out a little better, but what the heck? What’s a little potential mass violence in another country compared to Obama kissing up to his “peace at any price”, middle aged hippie base? Next year is an election year, you know.

Who knows what Iraq will look like or who will be running that country a year from now!

I mean, South Vietnam sure went through some changes, including a sharp, brutal, terrifying decrease in population figures, after America cut and ran out on them…

A spot-on rant from Jason Mattera:

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Princesella Smith, who raked in $89,599 for operating the toll lanes at the George Washington Bridge in 2011.

Good work if you can get it!

Smith isn’t alone. An investigation by the New York Post revealed that another toll booth operator pulled in a whopping $102,670 in 2011, $40K of that money coming in overtime. In total, as the Post notes, there are at least 24 New York and New Jersey workers who have raked in more than $80,000 as “public” workers at a job that requires us to hand them even more of our money.

Yep, in essence, we’re paying them to sit in an outside cubicle all day and deplete our wallets further if we want to travel between New York, New Jersey and the surrounding states.

Must be nice.

I can’t say as I would blame the employees themselves for any of this, I mean who wouldn’t take the hours and the pay involved? I would, however, blame the supervisory personnel and the bureaucrats who make all this possible.

What a country!

Besides excessive wages to people whose only skill requirement is to sit on a stool and count and collect dollar bills, tax dollars reserved for transportation uses have gone to a panoply of nonessential programs. As Ronald Utt of The Heritage Foundation points out, the “highway trust fund” has been raided to pay for Indian reservations, historic preservation sites, Appalachian and Mississippi Delta development, roadside beautification, bicycles, hiking paths, university research, and—the granddaddy of all expenses—feeding the $425 million beast that is the Department of Transportation.

The Port Authority (PA), for instance, employees a gardener for $94,000 and a blacksmith for $146,000 a year. Heck, there are even retired PA employees who are making around that amount by cashing in on unused vacation and comp time. (Here’s an idea: As we’re facing budget deficits well into our future, how about requiring public employees to use their vaca time … or lose it. No cashing in allowed.)

I concur.

The rest of the column is here.

Perhaps I am seeing a situation where one doesn’t exist, but then again, perhaps I’m not.

What I mentioned in my last post and what was accurately brought up in the comment section by Gray Monk, whose comment easily applies to the United States as well as Britain, causes me some amount of worry.

The politicians who run this nation seem to be doing what everyone else in a position to do so is doing; Grabbing everything they can for themselves while they are able, as though they expect an “every man for himself” environment to arise in the foreseeable future that applies to them as well as to the rest of us.

Performing what amount to criminal acts (acting on information they possess about how they are going to vote on issues to make personal investments), sweetening the pot in the area of their own compensation, at the taxpayers’ expense, in total violation of the Constitution…

And there was mention, last year, of National Guard troops returning from overseas combat and entering “urban unrest” training. What for?

Surely not because someone in the administration expected “Occupy Wall Street” on steroids!

NO, more likely because our politicians, who do indeed have access to information that may well tell them things they prefer not to share with we, the people, fully expect some conditions created by they themselves and their stewardship of our government to cause a significant amount of “urban unrest” among “we, the people”, significant enough that it will require well trained military units to put it down.

I hope I am overreacting, but I fear I am not…

I’m back in Manhattan for a couple of days.

I spent the last few weeks taking care of chores at home, and now am in the city to eat at a few good restaurants with some friends and go to the theatre.

I managed to get in some reading from Seth’s list of favorite books I found while monitoring one of his email accounts, The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczny and Steinbeck’s Travels With Charlie, both excellent. The second was actually a “reread”, the first a “first read” for me.

But getting down to brass tacks: We (Seth, Wolf, Chuck and I) have all become tired of the field of professional career politicians that have been running this country of late.

I’m not only speaking of the Democrats, but of the Republicans as well. Both sides are much too concerned with playing party politics to spare the needs of the American people any of their precious time. The reason for having our two party system is to allow room for compromise of one kind or another. I mean let’s face it: Both sides, while claiming that they are open to compromise, are lying: In both cases, it’s “my way or the highway”.

This might suffice for the more politically, logically or morally (each to his or her own morality) motivated among us, each of us “knowing” what is good and what is not good for our country, but without some kind of compromise, a little pain on both sides, perhaps, no one is going to “win”; However, the American people will be the big losers.

The government (mostly the Democrats, but still the government) put us in the economic fix we’re in by going outside the authority placed in them by the Constitution and causing the mortgage crisis that snowballed into the present mess, and every repair job they’ve executed on our broken economy has only made things worse.

These professional politicians are literally destroying what was unquestionably the greatest country in the history of civilization. I say was because they’ve about brought us to our knees, and they still persist in continuing on the same path, that of placing the welfare of we, the people as a united entity second to the whims of the special interest groups that support their campaigns.

Meanwhile, again unconstitutionally, they’ve voted themselves salary increases, elite health benefits and even six digit retirements (pretty good, that, considering that politics was not intended to be a career field); all, according to the Constitution, the kind of stuff we, the taxpayers, are supposed to decide as initiatives on the voting ballot.

They’ve also now been reported to be profiting via investments made based on privileged insider information they possess as part of their jobs, a criminal offense if we rank and file citizens do it. Politicians in the House and the Senate are becoming millionaires through insider information generated portfolios.

Oh, of course they’ll see justice done for these dastardly deeds: They merely introduce toothless legislation to prevent themselves from reaping the rewards of their malfeasance, then go back to business as usual.

I fear that our government’s become as corrupt as that of any third world country, and like in those dictatorships, the people are powerless to do anything about it, except…

…except that this is the United States of America, where we can vote them all out and replace them with patriotic, honest man and women, non-politicians who will serve six years or less and then return to the private sector, depending on their own private resources for building retirement incomes, acquiring the levels of healthcare they require, etc.

But we won’t vote them out, will we?

No, of course not. Everybody (not, however, those of us here at Hard Astarboard) will continue to support the Romneys, the Gingriches, the Obamas, the Pelosis, the Reids, the Perrys… and the politics will continue, along with our own downward spiral until there is little left to distinguish between the United States of America and any third rate country you care to name.

I say this: If we continue allowing the career politicians to stay in office, we will thoroughly deserve the price our children and grandchildren will be paying down the road, because we will have begged for it via our own stupidity.

Like Seth would say, “the government needs an enema.”

And he’d be right.

Where the presidential primaries are concerned, Herman Cain is still our man, and let the opposition keep on throwing fabricated sexual harrassment charges at him. The best thing Cain could do would be to minimize these innuendos, treat them as he might a fly buzzing around and forge ahead with his message.

And that, said Mrs. Wolf, is that.

As we know, a number of allegations have suddenly appeared, citing sexual harassment and related improprieties against Herman Cain.

The timing and organization of this “timely” crusade are simply too convenient to be taken as anything but, well, organized.

The accusations don’t seem to have had an appreciable effect on Cain’s support from the conservative side, but the entire thing has left liberals absolutely shocked. Yes, such abominable behavior (revisionist history: the fact that their own icon, B.J. Clinton, was a sexual harasser and date rapist from as far back as his days in Arkansas politics, and more recently committed adultery in the Oval Office has been stricken from the record for the duration of the accusations vs. Cain), indeed!

From Ann Coulter:

Herman Cain has spent his life living and working all over the country — Indiana, Georgia, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Washington, D.C. — but never in Chicago.

So it’s curious that all the sexual harassment allegations against Cain emanate from Chicago: home of the Daley machine and Obama consigliere David Axelrod.

Suspicions had already fallen on Sheila O’Grady, who is close with David Axelrod and went straight from being former Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley’s chief of staff to president of the Illinois Restaurant Association (IRA), as being the person who dug up Herman Cain’s personnel records from the National Restaurant Association (NRA).

The Daley-controlled IRA works hand-in-glove with the NRA. And strangely enough, Cain’s short, three-year tenure at the NRA is evidently the only period in his decades-long career during which he’s alleged to have been a sexual predator.

After O’Grady’s name surfaced in connection with the miraculous appearance of Cain’s personnel files from the NRA, she issued a Clintonesque denial of any involvement in producing them — by vigorously denying that she knew Cain when he was at the NRA. (Duh.)

And now, after a week of conservative eye-rolling over unspecified, anonymous accusations against Cain, we’ve suddenly got very specific sexual assault allegations from an all-new accuser out of … Chicago.

Herman Cain has never lived in Chicago. But you know who has? David Axelrod! And guess who lived in Axelrod’s very building? Right again: Cain’s latest accuser, Sharon Bialek.

Read On…

So, yes. Here at Hard Astarboard, having never doubted him, we stand by our candidate.

This time, Obama’s little helpers have not only thrown a bomb into the Republican primary, but are hoping to destroy the man who deprives the Democrats of their only argument in 2012: If you oppose Obama, you must be a racist.

Heh, heh…

Interesting, isn’t it, how anytime a liberal “progressive” agenda is realized to even the slightest degree, its proponents invariably begin the push to see how much they can milk out of it.

For example, the abolishment of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”.

From One News Now:

BOSTON - A group of married “gay” current and former military personnel has sued the federal government, seeking equal recognition, benefits and the same support as married heterosexual couples.

The lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Boston says the government’s Defense of Marriage Act violates their constitutional rights and asks the military to recognize their marriages. The suit was filed by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

Executive director Aubrey Sarvis says homosexual service members deserve the same protections as heterosexual couples because they make the same sacrifices.

It never fails, and before the fact, warnings are never heeded for the simple reason that the lefties behind these agendas employ what amount to first steps
as merely a foot in the door.

Opponents of President Obama’s decision to oveturn “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy warned that such a lawsuit would be coming once that restriction was removed.

Read the article here, and weep.

Having heard briefly from the Big, Bad Wolf yesterday,

A) He and Seth are “okay” and hope to be back among us really soon (I can’t wait, after all this my Wolf owes me a long, exotic vacation).

B) While they are somewhat isolated from mainstream society, as it were, they are not exactly cut off from “outside” news and current events: They both agree that Herman Cain is the forerunner for the 2012 vote here at Hard Astarboard. I third the motion.

I know, I know, most Republicans whose blogs I read have a thing for staying with experienced, bona-fides produceable GOP veterans who have made their careers in politics, but face it, these people simply aren’t cutting the mustard. It’s all about politics, not about America and Americans with them, and while they duke it out, the country is sinking into an economic abyss under the direction of a government that has no direction.

Herman Cain grew up black in the “In The Heat of the Night” south and instead of being what the Democrats consider a proper “African-American” and settling into a life on the government dole, he embraced the American Dream and succeeded in life.

He brings to the table real leadership experience, hard won in the private sector, where bottom lines make it difficult if not impossible to conceal failure behind political rhetoric, as in government.

Okay, so he hasn’t committed on every issue:

Like all the candidates, Mr. Cain has weaknesses. He has stumbled on abortion. He refuses to restore the ban on homosexuals in the military. His views on trade are sketchy. In particular, he has failed to articulate a comprehensive foreign policy. On Afghanistan, Iran, China and Russia, Mr. Cain needs to outline where he stands. This is especially true regarding the seminal issue of our time: radical Islam. If Mr. Cain can’t cross that bar, then he will rightfully lose the GOP primary contest.

Fine, like the article says, “Like all the candidates…” One of the reasons we’ve missed the boat on some potentially excellent leaders is that we keep on looking for perfection in a world where nobody’s perfect. The day we find a candidate whose every single stance agrees with those of every single voter will never come.

Mr. Cain’s visceral appeal is that he is the outsider, the anti-establishment candidate. Unlike Mr. Romney, Mr. Cain is not a conventional politician. On the campaign trail, Mr. Cain’s answers are often not scripted; rather, they are blunt, raw and honest. He is articulate and passionate and uses simple, clear language that resonates with the electorate. In short, he is not a phony.

Moreover, he is a populist reformer who embodies much of the Tea Party insurgency against the decrepit governing class. Mr. Cain’s candidacy is tapping into Middle America’s frustration and anger with Imperial Washington.

Politicians have brought America to the brink of collapse. Inside the Beltway, Mr. Cain’s lack of political experience is seen as a huge negative. In the heartland, however, it is viewed as a virtue.

Three cheers for the “Fly-over Zone!”

Tax reform is Mr. Cain’s signature issue. His 9-9-9 plan is ambitious. The current tax code is burdensome, stifling and infested with special-interest loopholes and carve-outs. It is the very symbol of our bloated and corrupt federal government. Mr. Cain calls for a 9 percent income tax, a 9 percent business tax and a 9 percent national sales tax. His proposal creates a simple, efficient tax code that broadens the base of taxpayers.

It would unleash economic growth and job creation - and strike at the heart of welfare liberalism. Nearly half of all Americans no longer pay any income taxes. This means they are being subsidized by middle- and upper-income earners - one half of the country is living off the other half. Mr. Cain would end this. The 9-9-9 plan would terminate the use of the tax system to foster a culture of dependency and government handouts.

Mr. Cain’s worldview can be distilled to running America as a business, not a socialist empire. His call for across-the-board spending cuts, entitlement reform and repeal of Obamacare would revive our moribund market economy. None of the GOP candidates captures the entrepreneurial spirit better than Mr. Cain. He embodies rugged individualism and self-reliance. He is a self-made businessman and former chief executive officer of Godfather’s Pizza. He has spent almost his entire life in the private sector. He speaks with the weight of conviction - and experience.

Mr. Cain also truly represents the promise of a post-racial America. This was the initial appeal of Mr. Obama’s presidency: The ugly legacy of race finally would be buried. Instead, under his administration, the country has become even more racially - and ideologically - polarized. Mr. Obama and his media allies constantly play the race card to demonize their critics. Mr. Cain, however, is the very opposite: His campaign so far has been completely free of racial overtones or grievance-mongering. He is running on his character and policies, not on the color of his skin. His candidacy truly transcends race.

His candidacy transcends idiotic political Romperroomism, as well.

Herman Cain in 2012

My own position on the so-called “Occupy Wall Street” movement, or whatever you call it, is one that both approves and disapproves.

While I don’t agree with their rhetoric (not that more than 5% of those involved is likely to have any technical knowledge of economic issues, anyway, or any proactive ideas as to how to enact the positive change they apparently want to bring about), I do see what they’re doing as exercising a fundamental American right to assemble and protest. Where I come from, doing what they’re doing would likely end them up in a filthy, overcrowded prison, a harsh labor camp, or worse. The worst that’s happened to the most obstructive in the OWS crowd has been a shot or two of pepper spray and a single night in a city jail, after which they were released and allowed to return to their assemblage. We already saw what such protest gatherings are met with in China.

So on that level, I see nothing wrong with those people doing what they’re doing. This is, after all, America.

On the other hand, there’s this, which serves only to undermine whatever dubious message the “legitimate” protesters are trying to get out.

Seth has spoken of the differences between the conservative side of the street and the liberal side of the street once the many demonstrations and/or counter-demonstrations he’d been to had ended, the former left pristine by the right thinking crowd while the latter had been “trashed” and left as such by the lefty faction.

The men, women and whatevers among the OWS people are obviously “progressives”, so the drugging and the unruliness are to be expected, especially in a protracted gathering such as the one in question.

BUT… I believe that in the spirit of American freedom we MUST allow those who disagree with our point of view to express theirs.

Unfortunately, we have become so polarized that while our side of the street objected to the treatment “the opposition” gave the Tea Partyers, we are doing the same thing to the Occupy Wall Streeters.

In 2009, where Democrats saw an unruly mob, Republicans saw patriotism.

In 2011, where Republicans see an unruly mob, Democrats see patriotism.

That was the “tea party.” This is the “Occupy” movement.

Reaction to the “OccupyWall Street” protests, which have now spread to Washington and other American cities, broke down along party lines Sunday, with Democrats voicing support for the movement and some Republicans painting the demonstrators as anti-capitalist agitators backed by big labor, anti-war groups and other liberal activists.

Since the tea party’s birth in 2009, conservative lawmakers, candidates and pundits have praised it as the natural reaction to an unprecedented explosion of government spending and federal regulation on a litany of issues including health care. Democrats and many of their liberal allies in the media, however, have often painted tea party members as “racists” and “bigots” who oppose President Obama’s every move simply because he’s black.

While the two movements are backed by opposite ends of the political spectrum, each party reciting the other’s talking points from two years ago, some see similarities between them.

The “core” grievance of the Occupy protesters “is that the bargain has been breached with the American people. There’s a lot in common with the tea party,” Vice President Joseph R. Biden said last week, citing the anger of both the tea party and the OccupyWall Street crowd toward federal bailouts of banks and other financial institutions.

Man, I hate quoting a Biden quote here, but the Veep’s right, even though, thankfully, he’s just Biden his time until he and his boss are voted out next year, relegated to a one termer.

But let’s be tolerant, here. The Tea Partyers, as good conservatives, conducted themselves with dignity and patriotism. As we see in the first linked article above, the OWSers are being the usual collective of liberals, so let’s allow them to make themselves look like dumb bunnies, dancing bears, idiots and buffoons while we honor their Constitutional Right to do so.

UPDATE: I had meant to include the Cain take on the Occupy Wall Street “movement”, which, since the bulk of our economic woes can be laid at the feet of the (previous) Democratic majority and the exacerbation of these woes at the feet of the Obama-in-Chief himself makes sense to me!

From Heritage. org:

You wouldn’t know it if you solely paid attention to the mainstream media, but while President Barack Obama attempts to sell the country on hundreds of billions in new stimulus spending and $1.5 trillion in new taxes, his Administration is smack in the middle of several growing scandals: the Operation Fast and Furious gun-running debacle and the crony capitalism wrongdoing involving Solyndra and LightSquared.

In the fall of 2009, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which is overseen by President Obama’s Department of Justice, launched an effort to sell weapons to small-time gun buyers in the hopes of tracing them to major weapons traffickers along the southwestern border and into Mexico. Their effort, which is known as Operation Fast and Furious, failed terribly.

Around 1,500 of the guns went unaccounted for, about two-thirds of those guns ended up in Mexico, a border patrol agent was shot and killed with weapons that were sold as part of the operation, 57 Fast and Furious weapons have been connected to at least 11 violent crimes in the U.S., and in Mexico an unconfirmed toll of at least 200 people have been killed or wounded with other weapons linked to the botched effort.

Save for recent reports from CBS News and the Los Angeles Times, and earlier reporting by ABC News, the mainstream media has largely ignored the story and the White House press corps has not bothered to ask the President or press secretary Jay Carney about the scandal since July 5 — that’s 78 days, and over 40 press briefings, without one single related question.

Meanwhile, congressional hearings were held, top officials associated with the operation were removed from their positions, and a third individual resigned. In the latest news, Mexican officials are complaining that, to this day, the United States has not offered an explanation about Fast and Furious, much less an apology. And yesterday, CBS News reported that a series of secretly recorded audio tapes thought to have been recorded in March reveal that an Arizona gun dealer and an ATF agent involved in the operation were worried about the unraveling scandal.

Okay, there’s one we’ve mentioned in a past post.

As if it weren’t enough, however,

Turning from guns to butter, another scandal has cropped up, this one involving the solar panel manufacturing company Solyndra, which received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Energy Department as part of President Obama’s green jobs spending spree. The President lauded the company when he spoke at the unveiling of its new factory in May of last year. But now, little more than a year later, it stands bankrupt and plans to lay off more than 1,000 employees. Days after it filed for bankruptcy, the FBI raided the company’s offices and the homes of its executives.

The Obama Administration had a lot riding on Solyndra and the promise it offered. The President had made “green” energy a centerpiece of his failed plan to boost job growth in the United States, likening his effort to America’s “moonshot”–the space race following the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik. The import of the company’s bankruptcy was evident in a January 31 e-mail between Office of Management and Budget staff regarding “Solyndra optics.” In the e-mail, the staff discussed what it would look like if the company went belly-up down the road, its implications for the 2012 elections, and how an earlier default might give the Obama Administration some credit for “fiscal discipline.”

Meanwhile,

Then there’s the story of LightSquared, a wireless start-up company backed by billionaire Democratic donor Philip Falcone. The Daily Beast reports that military officials fear that the company’s technology could interfere with GPS signals–and that “two U.S. officials allege the White House tried to influence their [congressional] testimony to rush key testing, to LightSquare’s benefit.”

Enter the investigations. Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Tuesday that his committee plans to investigate government loans to private companies made by the Obama Administration, according to The Hill. “I want to see when the president and his cronies are picking winners and losers,” Issa said. Now, Reuters reports that Solyndra’s chief executive and chief financial officer will invoke their Fifth Amendment rights and refuse to answer questions at the hearing on Friday.

Is this what happens when “we” (quotes denote “not me, but the voting kollective“) elect as president a man of unknown character from a political environment renowned for its shameless, blatant corruption because of his race and because he lays out a smooth line of B.S.

A cross-border gun-running scandal, deaths in the United States and Mexico, staff removals and resignations, secret audio recordings, complaints from foreign officials, hundreds of millions of dollars in loans, bankruptcy, an FBI raid, campaign donors, and allegations of inappropriate White House influence in congressional testimony. There are serious questions coming out of Washington. It’s time the media start demanding answers.

If a conservative had been in the White House, you can bet your bottom dollar the mainstream media would have been “demanding answers” for quite some time now.

Here’s the entire column.

From a column by Robert McNight in the Washington Times:

The Constitution of the United States, whose adoption we celebrate every Sept. 17, clearly lists the powers of each branch of the national government. Let’s take a look at what Barack Obama, like any president, is empowered to do and see if it squares with his actions. In Article II, Section 1, he is sworn to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Section 2 names the president as commander in chief of the armed forces, grants him the power to make treaties with the advice and consent of the Senate and to appoint ambassadors, federal judges, Cabinet officials and other federal officers. Section 3 says the president “shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”

In his two years and nine months in office, President Obama has compiled a spectacular record of noncompliance with the Constitution. Here are just some of the ways his administration has failed to execute the laws while using raw, unauthorized power:

A few “snips”:

The 15th Amendment: Under Mr. Obama, the Justice Department has effectively become a race-based enforcement unit. After New Black Panther Party members were caught on tape intimidating voters at a Philadelphia polling place in 2008, the Justice Department declined to defend the convictions and thus sent the message that baton-wielding thuggishness on Election Day is no big deal. Former Justice Department attorney J. Christian Adams, who laid out the case before the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, described the administration’s dismissal of charges as “lawless hostility toward equal enforcement of the law.”

Well!

Illegal Immigration: The Obama administration has ignored the illegal actions of “sanctuary cities” and sued the state of Arizona in July 2010 for enforcing federal law. Then, last month, the administration announced a new policy that, in effect, ends enforcement of illegal immigration, providing the illegal alien meets the requirements of the Dream Act, a bill Congress failed to pass. So, Mr. Obama is ignoring current federal law while creating rules based on a law that never passed.

Hmmmmm.

The Fifth Amendment: The Constitution guarantees that no one is deprived of his or her property without “due process of law” or “just compensation.” The National Labor Relations Board’s absurd order to the Boeing Co. not to open a newly built $750-million Dreamliner facility in right-to-work South Carolina, because unions in Boeing’s home state of Washington object, violates that guarantee. Even liberal New York Times columnist Joseph Nocera commented, “Seriously, when has a government agency ever tried to dictate where a company makes its products? I can’t ever remember it happening.”

Wow!

The entire column.

I guess this means that all those liberals who defend and even praise Obama and would vote for his reelection don’t have much use for the Constitution, either.