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United States News Title: Caught On Video: GOP Congressman Calls The Constitution A Distraction (ACN) Congressman Jeff Flake got more than he bargained for at a recent Red Mountain Tea Party town hall forum in Arizona. When a member of the audience asked Flake whether or not he believes that Barack Obama is a legal President, Flake tried, in vain, to put the man in his place. Flake: "I think he is our President. I think he is duly elected and I believe he is a citizen. And I do believe [his eligibility] is a distraction. And my job is to make sure we beat him in November." Question: How can you sucessfully take Barack Obama to task for exceeding his constitutional authority when you believe that the Constitution is "a distraction?" Answer: You can't. When politicians make self-contradictory statements, they call it triangulation. Normal people call it equivocation. Rather ironically, Barack Obama won his first elective office by using every legal trick in the book to disqualify all of his political oppenents from the ballot. Would it stand to reason that the best way "to make sure we beat him in November" would be to challenge his qualifications for office? Even if a Congressional investigation failed to yield the desired result, simply bringing the question of eligibility before the voters might prove to be a winning tactic. People are hesitant to vote for someone they believe may be ineligible, and politicians who seriously address the eligibility question (or, heaven forbid, simply go through the motions) can at least take the moral high ground and compelling convince the American electorate that they take the Constitution seriously. And therein lies the rub. It would appear that Republicans either don't know how to win or don't want to win. But the man who posed the question wasn't done. He asked audience members who wanted Congress to investigate Mr. Obama's eligibility to hold office to signify their agreement by standing and, as the video shows, nearly every member of the audience stood. If anything, Flake's answer is a clear indication of what is wrong with our political system. The Contitution is very clear. Only a natural-born citizen of the United States of America is eligible to hold the office of President and numerous polls indicate that approximately half of all Americans question the eligibiliy of the man occupying the White House. If one looks beyond the nuance of Flake's statement, his meaning is clear. Elections trump the Constitution and, moreover, upholding the Constitution is "a distraction." Republican officeholders are scratching their heads, wondering why people are losing faith in our political system and why people doubt that Republicans have what it takes to lead. He may not realize it yet, but Flake essentially answered his own question. Hat tip to our friends at The Western Center for Journalism for compiling the video.
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