Saturday, August 28, 2010

Shorter Chris Wallace: "If Grover Cleveland Can Destroy the Constitution, So Can Anyone Else I Like. But not Barack Obama. He's a Commie-Islamofascist Constitution Destroying Foreigner"

Regardless of Grover Cleveland's somewhat questionable sexual history, what's really offensive about the man is how he destroyed working-class rights during his presidency. The Democrats were supposed to be the party of the working man in the late 19th century. But tainted with the Confederacy and realizing they would never win another election if they didn't election a quasi-Republican, the Democrats went for Cleveland in three straight campaigns.

Most notably, Cleveland used the military to crush the Pullman Strike in 1894. This really impressed Fox News blowhard Chris Wallace when he "wrote" his 2004 book Character: Profiles in Presidential Character. What does character mean to Chris Wallace?

WALLACE (continuing directly): And so they decided they were going to strike. And it happened in the context of lots of people coming to Chicago for the international exposition, and it became riots and tremendous civil disorder. And they counted, the labor people, on their friend in the White House staying out, or, if anything, caving in to their demands, Grover Cleveland. Cleveland, who, as I say, was a huge friend of labor, felt that the nation`s security was in jeopardy. And he really went against the Constitution because at the time, there was—you—presidents were not allowed to send troops into a state unless the governor asked for the troops, and Governor [John] Altgeld of Illinois didn`t want them because he was a—he favored labor.

And so Cleveland went against the law, went against Altgeld, sent in federal troops, restored order. 

Like George W. Bush, Grover Cleveland eviscerated the Constitution to advance his conservative agenda. That's great. Heroic even. 

Chris Wallace's loose interpretation of the Constitution totally extends to Barack Obama. For instance,

Wallace: ..."I have to say I'm not sure Barack Obama really is the President of the United States because the oath of office is set in the Constitution and I wasn't at all convinced that even after he tried to amend it that John Roberts ever got it out straight and that Barack Obama ever said the prescribed words. I suspect that everybody is going to forgive him and allow him to take over as president, but I'm not sure he actually said what's in the Constitution, there."