Over the course of his 20-year congressional career, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) hasn't stood out for doing anything truly remarkable. I generally think of him as the guy who organized the reading of the U.S. Constitution on the House floor last year, as a symbolic stunt (which didn't go well) devoid of any real meaning.
Next year, however, Goodlatte is likely to become the new chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, replacing Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) who'll be forced to step down due to his caucus' term limits on committees. With that in mind, Ian Millhiser notes just how far to the right Goodlatte really is.
For those who can't watch clips online, the Virginia Republican suggested to his constituents just last year that Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security aren't really constitutional, and exist because "the courts have stretched the Constitution."
Millhiser added, "To be fair to Goodlatte, he later states that it would not be practical to 'just say we're throwing out Medicare because it's unconstitutional,' but this does little to change the fact that the man House Republicans want to place in charge of constitutional matters does not have even the most basic understanding of the Constitution."
Goodlatte's other major legislative contribution was spearheading a measure to condemn Supreme Court references to international law and/or legal traditions.
Leave a Comment:
Forgive my naiveté, but just because something is constitutional does not mean its in the constitution, correct? As literal as a lot of these people are, I don't think, 'Yes welfare is in the constitution,' is written in the constitution.
Constitution. (just had to)
I don't understand why they are against any aspect of a social safety net. I guess the question would be to ask is anyone in their family being aided by these services? If so, they why are they so bent on abolishing them?
They are stupid. See this: http://wilderness.hubpages.com/hub/Intelligence-increasing-or-decreasing
They're for abolishing them for everyone except their family and friends. You see, people they know are deserving recipients, and everyone else is a lazy moocher.
I wish I was making this up. This used to be the way conservatives appealed to low-information voters, to keep them from becoming allies with people of different ethnic groups but the same economic level. But now a generation or two have grown up in the bubble, and the people at the top actually believe the scam.
I wouldn't care to try any of his good latte.
Nothing about drivers licenses in the Constitution either. The Republicans should strive to reach the level of anti-intellectualism. Right now, they are just plain DUMB!
No, WELFARE is NOT in the Constitution. The word is, but our welfare system is not written into the Constitution even if you look at Article I Section 8 where the word "welfare" exists.
understand?
Sounds like a real prize. Not!
Are you sure it's not because Lamar will become Prince of Texas when it becomes its own theocracy?
So why should not knowing the Constitution be a hinderance to chairing the committee? Being knowledgeable of a subject never stopped the Republicans before, i.e. look at the Republicans and chair of the Science committee...
Republicans are not just "stupid," they are the party of "No" and "stupid." Conservatives have convinced themselves that their only problem is who they nominated, that their core message was pitch perfect but simply not sold well enough. This fails to understand why Americans are turning away from the GOP. Republicans wail about their electoral defeats yet simultaneously disparage the president and continue to fight against any reasonable deals to save our country from economic collapse. The GOP is still standing up for rich white guys and far-right radicals instead of governing like adults. - PP
If they (the GOP) maintain this belief there will never be another Republican president. W will be the last one.
That's why Rep. Bob Goodlatte still walks on his knockls
There's plenty of stupid to go around with in Republican leadership but equally disturbing is the willing manipulation of information they spread around to grow stupidity.
Bob Goodlatte is the most worthless piece of scum to ever come from the Commonwealth of Virginia.
On three occasions I have requested aid or assistance from his office in Roanoke and each and every time I have either been ignored or have received a form letter telling me he's unable to aid or assist.
My entreaties were in regards to veteran's benefits and a pending claim for disability caused by a botched operation at the local VA hospital. Goodlatte's office sent one form letter to the VA and one to me. That was the end of his office's involvement and the last I heard form him or the VA.
He initially ran for office on the promise that he'd "Go to Washington and solve the problems". That was 20 years ago and we still have a few problems that Bob hasn't taken care of yet.
I'm not represented by Bob Goodlatte, I'm ashamed of Bob Goodlatte!
He does't represent me our my neighbors. Bob Goodlatte represents Bob Goodlatte.
He's a waste of a good seat in congress, a historic failure to provide commerce or industry to a region founded by railways and highways.
How difficult should it be to utilize the existing routes used by native Americans for centuries and mapped by Daniel Boone to foster a commercial enterprise in this region?
Fer christ's sake Bob you were given a commercial no-brainer of a location, north to south valley with an east to west gap connecting Norfolk to Memphis and you can't bring jobs to the region!
What he h3ll has Bob Goodlatte been doing for the past 20 years in office? Isn't there some regulatory statute about sitting on one's butt for 20 years while drawing a paycheck every f'ing month and not doing a gdamed thing for the people he's supposed to represent?
Isn't that a crime?
First off, thank you for your service. Your story is exactly why we the people formed a government to serve those who have served us and I can’t think of anything more constitutional then this. The only problem with this system, are people who don't serve it and therefore don't serve us.
Somebody make some popcorn, and not that light @!$%# either!
Let's hear it for eliminating SCOTUS' mentioning other legal traditions ... like those of Great Britain, which Scalia, Roberts, and Thomas wax eloquently about in their paeans to Strict Constructionism.
</snark>
Speaking of what is and isn't constitutional... He also wants to have the Constitution amended, so that US can't have deficit. Which is just another way to skin the cat... er... the poor, by "necessitating" the destruction of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
And I'm told that, when he ran for the first time all those 20 yrs ago, he promised to term limit himself (5 terms, maybe?). That was one of the things that several people brought up during the early (persuasion) stages of my door-to-door (for Obama, Kaine and Schmookler). Unfortunately, although they held it against him -- "he lied, didn't he?" -- they were also rather philosophical about it -- "politicians! They all do it!".
He is so entrenched by now that, half of the time, we can't even recruit a token sacrificial lamb to run against him. On top of which, it's only the last 4 yrs or so, that he became more "visible", both in Congress and "at home". Before then, he really kept a very low profile, so not many people even knew who their Representative was supposed to be and what his record was.
Darn shame Schmookler didn't win, hopefully he will run again. Great guy and loved saying his name during canvassing!
Doesn't look like our area in Virginia will ever be rid of Goodlatte. He promised to not run after 6 terms but here he is: back again. He and his lovely wife are lawyers here so it seems like we're stuck with them forever.
So he's going to be head of the House Judiciary Committee, based on having once organized a theatrical reading of the Constitution, even though he himself didn't pay attention then, as he still seems to have no idea what the Constitution actually says. This is the kind of thing we have come to expect from Republicans-- take a look at the Republican membership of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, for example.
Anyway, it won't be easy for Goodlatte to be worse than my fellow Texan Lamar Smith.
But can Bob Goodlatte at least live up to his name by making a decent cup of cafe con leche?
Bitter Brew, or not-so-good-latte, is all he's capable of producing.
On behalf of the liberals (and common sense Republicans and moderates) of VA, we apologize for Goodlatte and please don't hold him against us.
there's a basic difference in brain structure between liberals and conservatives.
liberals are inclusive, empathetic, and intelligent.
conservative brains are made of wood.
So he is arguing that a.) Medicare (and similar social programs) is, in some sense, wrong, because b.) it isn't explicitly authorized by the Constitution. Now, being a progressive liberal, I certainly disagree with him on (a.). But (b.)? I really don't care if he's correct or incorrect on the constitutionality question, and you shouldn't either. So what if the Constitution doesn't authorize Medicare? That isn't an assertion about Medicare being bad. It would just mean that the Constitution is flawed & needs to be corrected to clearly authorize those programs.
In fact, Republicans' stating that Medicare is unconstitutional is probably the most consistent thing to come out of that party in a long while. It beats, "Keep the government's hands off my Medicare!" It's consistent with their other positions. Let them keep on trying to do away with Medicare. It'll only make them look like morons. Then, amend the Constitution while you're at it.