Congress shall make no law . . . abridging . . .the right of the people . . . to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. -- First Amendment to the Constitution
Remember the MSM brouhaha when some conservatives suggested reconsidering the automatic granting of citizenship to children born in the US to illegal immigrants? Suddenly, the sanctity of the 14th Amendment became the single most precious thing to liberals—even though no amendment of it, let alone its abolition, would have been necessary to revise the policy on birthright citizenship.
So should we expect the liberal media to take up its constitutional cudgel against Elizabeth Warren? After all, Pres. Obama's newly appointed [not nominated] head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau went on Morning Joe today and in effect proclaimed that the right to petition government for the redress of government "scares" her. More disturbingly, Warren suggested we need to work on "dialing back" that right.
To be sure, Warren never cited the First Amendment or the right it recognized to "petition government for a redress of grievances." But read and listen to her words: that's exactly what she was kvetching about—and wanting to "dial back."
Warren's words came at the end of her appearance today. After the panel's collective hand-wringing over the invidious influence of money in political campaigns, Warren took her parting shot.
ELIZABETH WARREN: I actually want to add something to this, about where we've gone, how unbalanced things are. We talk about the campaign contributions—powerfully important. But I'll tell you about other parts of it. It's the lobbying world that never sleeps. So, yeah, even when you're not in election cycle, even when it's not just about talking to the specific representatives, it's every single day: get up, and see if you can find a chink, see if you can find a mistake, see if you can—let's attack this, let's do background on that. Let's go visit every single senator, let's go visit every single representative, let's go visit everybody in the media, to try to get a message out that will help our clients and will undercut doing the people's business. This is the part that scares me. It's even bigger than you talk about. You talk about the right place [campaign finance reform] to start in dialing it back, but we've got a lot that's in trouble here.
You're so right, Elizabeth. Scary, indeed, those unruly, selfish people out there. Don't they understand that Barack Obama, Barney Frank and Elizabeth Warren are the repositories of divine wisdom? That you are the chosen ones who alone understand what constitutes the "people's business" and how to promote it? How dare these self-serving ingrates seek to point out government mistakes or do anything that might suggest a different path? We can well understand that you and Pres. Obama are devoted to "dialing back" such unwarranted interference with your righteous work. But keep hope alive: a couple-three more Supreme Court appointments, and you might just get there!
Note: We shouldn't be surprised by Warren's attitude. After all, she was appointed by the man who said: "I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don't mind cleaning up after them, but don't do a lot of talking." [Breitbart video]
