Guest Author...Great Points!
The Role of the Vice President of the United States
In a recent interview, Governor Palin explained to a group of third-graders that the role of the Vice President was to "run the Senate," which set off a storm of Democrat hysteria with everyone screaming that the Vice President "only votes in the case of a tie," and "how could she be so stupid, etc?"
As I looked on in wonderment at the quick fire vitriol that was spewed out by the Democrat intelligensia, including Mitch Albom, Alan Colmes and that rabid dog partisan Chris Matthews against Governor Sarah Palin, I wondered if any one of them had recently issued a great chuckle at Joe Biden and his three letter word J O B S … I know I sure did.
One of the insults fired at Governor Palin by Mitch Albom on his Wednesday evening, October 22, 2008, radio show on WJR was that he could hardly tell the difference between the way she talks to third graders and the way she talks to adults.
How dare he be so condescending to a woman who in the past six months has shown the nation a remarkable grace under fire, as well as an admirably well-grounded ability to directly answer even the most disturbingly direct questions, and the ability to motivate hundreds of thousands of hard working, tax paying, law abiding legal citizens of these great United States of America? Is it possible that Mr. Albom, with all of his acknowledged talents no longer has the ability to see the greatness in others or rather the greatness in conservative women?
Now, two days after the firestorm have these liberal swayers of opinion taken the time to do a bit of research on the actual role of the Vice President, and could they contemplate that they just might be wrong? I happen to think that they are after just a cursory look at the United States Constitution Article I, Section III where it states that the Vice President is to be the "President of the Senate".
In an effort to keep our eye on the mark, The American Heritage® Dictionary states that the President (n) is "one appointed or elected to preside over an organized body of people such as an assembly or meeting."
Maybe Governor Palin should have used the eight letter word "presides" instead of the four letter word "runs," but then she was talking to third graders who probably feel more comfortable with the three/four letter word run(s) than the seven letter word preside. Beyond that though, if you review the history of the role of the Vice President, you would find that our country's first Vice President, the Honorable John Adams cast 29 tie-breaking votes and was known to lecture the Senate on procedural and policy issues according to an easily obtainable Wikipedia article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice_President_of_the_United_States#President_of_the_Senate .
In that capacity, the Vice President of the United States has the right to preside over every single Senate debate or deliberation and is charged with ruling on points of order, which means that the Vice President clarifies objections between Senators in debate. Certainly it could be said that using these rights, the Vice President could and probably should exercise greater control over our Senate. If Governor Palin as the 44th Vice President were to return to the constitutionally mandated active role of the President of the Senate, she most certainly would run the Senate and I think that she deserves a public apology from the left, if only because she appears to be doing her homework."
While both Janice and I understand (the font fairy has taken over, folks) that the media will NEVER apologize, we also understand that an ignorant populace is our hugest weakness!
From my 2006-7 edition of "American Government and Politics Today: The Essentials" on pg 398:
"The job of Vice President is not extremely demanding even when the president gives some specific task to the vice president. Typically, vice presidents spend their time supporting the president's activities. During the Clinton administration (1993-2001), however, Vice President Al Gore did much to strengthen the position of vice president by his aggressive support for environmental protection policies on a global basis. He also took a special interest in areas of emerging technology and was instrumental in providing subsidies to public schools for internet use. Vice President Dick Cheney, as one of President George W. Bush's key advisors, clearly has been an influentialfigure in the Bush administration."
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Tamarah180: Even though the role of the Vice President has evolved over time, that still does not change the original intent for the position as stated in the Constitution. The Veep is the "President of the Senate" and in that role can significantly influence the Senate, in addition to the various tasks provided at the direction of the President of the United States. Vice President Dick Cheney's potentially most significant contribution to the Bush Administration was his tie breaking vote that gave the Republican Party their majority status until the 2004 elections. It is unfortunate that our Vice Presidents haven't taken their role as the President of the Senate with more seriousness ... it certainly seems to lend itself to a much greater role within the administration and our Senate certainly could use more direction ... maybe their approval ratings would go up under the leadership of a fine woman like Sarah Palin.
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This comment isn't specific to this article posting necessarily, but I had to find the quickest way to leave a comment on your website. Your neo-conservative banter here and on the MSNBC World Blog for the posting by Mohammed is idiotic, to say the least. No personal offense intended, but I'm so tired of reading the kind of crap that you throw out there.
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Pablo, a good lesson for you to learn as you grow into a mature adult is that if you don't like something and cannot contradict what is said in a meaningful, rational or logical way, you are best served to just leave it alone. Personal attacks, cutesy talking point phrases and harsh words really only show the lack of depth in your own character. They do nothing to offend or impress the reader. So, with all due respect, I would suggest that you either present some original thought that might expand the discussions on this website or go away ... whichever you choose, we won't mind. Best regards, Janice
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The bottom line is that the msm will criticize whatever Sarah Palin says, while they let Joe Biden off the hook for his inane statements.
And given the ridiculous things that Biden has said, he and the entire msm owe Dan Quayle and apology.
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The "entire MSM" should be charged with treason and replaced with true journalists who understand the awesome and solemn responsibility given to them by We The People for the unbiased dissemination of facts.
joke biden should be voted out of office and replaced with a man who can control his mind and his mouth.
Shame on us for allowing people like joke biden, barney frank, ted kennedy, carl levin, nancy pelosi, harry reid and their ilk to infect our legislative halls like the cancer that they are.
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