"It's just a goddamned piece of paper"

Bush on the Constitution: 'It's just a goddamned piece of paper'

(I don't have a link, received the following in an email.)

Last month, Republican Congressional leaders filed into the Oval Office to meet with
President George W. Bush and talk about renewing the controversial USA Patriot Act.

Several provisions of the act, passed in the shell shocked period immediately following the
9/11 terrorist attacks, caused enough anger that liberal groups like the American Civil
Liberties Union had joined forces with prominent conservatives like Phyllis Schlafly and
Bob Barr to oppose renewal.

GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the
act could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt
to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

"I don't give a goddamn," Bush retorted. "I'm the President and the Commander-in-Chief.
Do it my way."

"Mr. President," one aide in the meeting said. "There is a valid case that the provisions in
this law undermine the Constitution."

"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It's just a goddamned
piece of paper!"

I've talked to three people present for the meeting that day and they all confirm that the
President of the United States called the Constitution "a goddamned piece of paper."

And, to the Bush Administration, the Constitution of the United States is little more than
toilet paper stained from all the shit that this group of power-mad despots have dumped
on the freedoms that "goddamned piece of paper" used to guarantee.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, while still White House counsel, wrote that the
"Constitution is an outdated document."

Put aside, for a moment, political affiliation or personal beliefs. It doesn't matter if you are
a Democrat, Republican or Independent. It doesn't matter if you support the invasion or
Iraq or not. Despite our differences, the Constitution has stood for two centuries as the
defining document of our government, the final source to determine – in the end – if
something is legal or right.

Every federal official – including the President – who takes an oath of office swears to
"uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says he cringes when someone calls the Constitution
a "living document."

""Oh, how I hate the phrase we have—a 'living document,'" Scalia says. "We now have a
Constitution that means whatever we want it to mean. The Constitution is not a living
organism, for Pete's sake."

As a judge, Scalia says, "I don't have to prove that the Constitution is perfect; I just have to
prove that it's better than anything else."

President Bush has proposed seven amendments to the Constitution over the last five
years, including a controversial amendment to define marriage as a "union between a man
and woman." Members of Congress have proposed some 11,000 amendments over the
last decade, ranging from repeal of the right to bear arms to a Constitutional ban on
abortion.

Scalia says the danger of tinkering with the Constitution comes from a loss of rights.

"We can take away rights just as we can grant new ones," Scalia warns. "Don't think that
it's a one-way street."

And don't buy the White House hype that the USA Patriot Act is a necessary tool to fight
terrorism. It is a dangerous law that infringes on the rights of every American citizen and,
as one brave aide told President Bush, something that undermines the Constitution of the
United States.

But why should Bush care? After all, the Constitution is just "a goddamned piece of paper."

Do you have any evidence that this scene in the White House actually happened? Or is it more likely just another b.s. e-mail forward? I get crap like this all the time.

It was posted at yahoogroups for discussion, I'm on their email list. No link was given. But here's a excellent response from a blog.


Dear President Bush; about that "goddamned piece of paper."

"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It's just a goddamned
piece of paper!"

Let us start out with the fact that the Constitution is actually written on parchment, not
paper. A trivial point, I grant you, but one that reveals (along with your inability to
correctly pronounce the word "nuclear") a shocking lack of education in a head of state.
But to get to the point, the Constitution is not the parchment itself, but the ideas written
upon it; ideas which form the foundations of our nation, ideas which would carry equal
weight if written on stone, glass, metal, or even paper. These ideas are the soul of the
nation. They include the recognition that the people of this nation have certain rights,
rights which the government does not have the authority to remove. These rights include
freedom of speech, to say what we think about the nation at any and all times, to write
that opinion down and share it however we choose to. These rights include the freedom to
worship as we choose, free from coercion. These rights include the right to privacy, in our
homes and businesses, free from government intrusions other than in very specific and
well-defined circumstances.

Maybe those rights are inconvenient to you, as such rights are always inconvenient to
tyrants, but you are not allowed the choice which rights you will abide by or not. That too
is spelled out explicitly in the Constitution.

The Constitution isn't just a piece of paper or parchment. It's a contract; the original
contract with America. It's the contract you yourself swore an oath to preserve, protect,
and defend against all enemies both foreign and domestic. You attached your name to
that promise. You swore that oath before a judge of the United States Supreme Court, with
your hand on a bible. That isn't just scenery for the cameras. Swearing an oath before a
judge carries legal obligations with that oath, and legal penalties for breaking that oath.

The election process by which you claim authority is defined in that Constitution. And as
you claim authority by Constitutional process, so too are you limited by Constitutional
process. If you act outside the limits of the Constitution, you are no longer acting as the
President, but as a private citizen abusing the powers with which you were trusted. A
government that acts outside the Constitution ceases to be the legal government of this
land.

The Constitution exists not only to tell the government what it may do, but more
importantly what it may not do. You, as the President, are not allowed to declare wars
without the US Congress. You, the President, are not allowed to seize people at random
and send them off to be tortured. And most of all, you, the President, and not allowed to
lie to the people and to the Congress.

Every President before you, including your father, swore that oath to preserve, protect, and
defend that Constitution. Millions of Americans died in wars in the firm belief that the
form of government describes on that parchment was worth such a sacrifice. To state that
the Constitution is just a "dammed piece of paper" is a slap in the face of every American
who ever donned the uniform of the military forces of this country.

Go over to Arlington National Cemetery. It's not that far from where you live. Look at those
tombstones. By your statement, you have written across and every one the words, "Died
for a goddamned piece of paper."

...he's about as credible as BatBoy, in the Weekly World News.

and is the subject of an ongoing flamewar. FYI.

Don't post anything without proof or good sources. Sound ok?

Also, we generally have a four paragraph copyright rule as well, but it was probably posted without copyright notice at the yahoo group you got it from, so it's understandable that you didn't realize it was protected content.

All good things to be aware of.