Mike: Oh, yes, because the Tea Partiers are so fired up about earmarks, AG. [mocking] This is destroying America. Those darned earmarks. Not the wars, not all the unconstitutional largesse, not the people who put them in and vote for them, not the shilling for the tens of billions of dollars that are awarded to every state out there to manage the roads and highways and bridges in a very unconstitutional manner, none of that matters. None of the running up of the debt, none of the extension of the debt ceiling, none of that matters. What matters is earmarks.
Granted, the appropriations for highways and bridges and all that stuff, I still disagree with. If James Madison could disagree with it in 1817 and inform me as to why he disagreed with it, and I believe him to be more correct than I believe any of the nitwits out there today, well, then, I’m going to stick with Mr. Madison. That’s just a small part of the problem. What about all the other federal largesse that we heard Governor Romney or Senator Santorum supported in voting for and then giving some kind of intellectual cover to, like we talked about the first hour, Title XX funding. The list can go on and on and on.
I really don’t know what people hope to accomplish by continuing to bring up the Ron Paul earmark problem. If that is the principle upon which he is to be rejected, then how come Santorum is not to be rejected? Why isn’t Gingrich to be rejected? They all vote for them. They all file them and have filed them. Congressman Paul never filed any support, never voted for any of the SCHIP, any of the No Child Left Behind “No Child Gets an Education” Act, none of the Medicare Part D drug extensions, none of the Medicare authorizations, none of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Acts, none of the Patriot Acts. He didn’t vote for any of these things because he can’t find the justification in the Constitution.
I’m calling you people out. I’ve had it with this. I am absolutely up to my ears with this. How dare you? Those of you that sit out there -- seriously, if you’re in a car, stop. Just stop for a minute. Pull over and look in the mirror. Where do you get off with this decades-long pursuit of demanding that members of Congress, if they would only honor their oath to office, all would be right with the world? Sunshine would shine, streets paved with gold and silver, gumdrops and lollipops falling from the sky, every child in a two-parent family, every child that wants to be a Harvard grad Rhodes Scholar with $90,000/year to start jobs, every homeowner fat and happy and mortgages paid up, totally balanced budgets every year. We would be as right with the world as rain if only they would obey their oath of office. We need more people to get in there and obey their oath of office.
How dare you? You sit out there and you say this and you repeat it and then other people in the media repeat it. You show up at rallies and paint signs. Then, when someone shows up and says, “I’ve been doing that for 34 years in Congress with a 12-year break. I’ve never voted for any of these things ever. I’ve never violated my oath to office. I always defer to the Constitution,” and you have the audacity, the unmitigated gall to shat upon him and mock him and make fun of his suits and the way his eyebrows grow and all these other things that matter nothing in the grand scheme of things? You want to know why this country is screwed up and why the Constitution is dead? It’s because of you people.
Not everyone in this audience, but there are some of you out there. There are some moles that will run back and tattletale this to others. Go ahead. Tell them. Let me pull a Kurt Russell, “You tell ‘em I’m comin’ and hell’s comin’ with me.” You tell them I’m coming and the Constitution is coming with me. I don’t get this. I don’t understand this. In the one moment when he says, “There ought to be declarations of war. That’s all I’m asking,” [mocking] “Oh, he’s a pacifist. He’s a tree hugger.” Because he acts as we were instructed to act by those men that you always, so gloriously and so lovingly promote as the Founding Fathers? What do you think they would say about the guy you love to mock and love to hate, Ron Paul?
Compared to Senator Santorum, with all due respect to his myriad of personal accomplishment and his life and public service and what have you, and Speaker Gingrich, which one of them do you think a Jefferson would pick out of a lineup to play on his pick-up Congress team? [mocking] “Yeah, but that was then and this is now and you’re a loser and your guy is gonna lose.” Oh, great. My guy is going to lose and I’m a loser, right? Let me let you in on a little secret there, pal. As long as that debt clock is running, you’re the loser. You and I are the loser. Our kids are the losers, sir, madam.
So stop your whining. Stop your ballyhooed bellyaching about the Constitution and what you purport that it’s supposed to do, when in fact you won’t demand absolute obedience and absolute fidelity to it. When someone does obey it and when someone does have fidelity to it, [mocking] “Well, I didn’t mean fidelity like that. I got to have my stuff. Just because my favorite guy…so what?”
This is why this pickle that we’re in has no end in sight. This is why it will matter not who it is that you elect in 2012 because they will just continue status quo. You’ll continue sending $25 to the Heritage Foundation every month. You’ll continue watching television, listening to radio, going in chat rooms, haranguing, screaming, hollering and painting signs and demanding constitutional obedience. When you had it in the palm of your hand, you blew it away like so much dust in the wind. Congratulations. Happy?
