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Preamble to my constipation...
Oct. 19th, 2010 07:24 pmYeah, ok, Christine O'Donnell doesn't know her U.S. Constitution front to back. I'm frankly impressed she got one out of three when asked about the 14th, 16th, and 17th Amendments. (I just wracked my brain and came up with eight amendments—not counting 14, 16, and 17, none of which I could have identified by number before Ms. O'Donnell and her querent did—and I'm not positive I have the numbers of a couple of those right. I'm fairly certain the average citizen knows maybe two, thanks to the NRA and courtroom dramas.)
I was, of course, every bit as appalled as the next [semi-literate, non-theocratic, non-schizophrenic, self-pleasuring] citizen at her ascension over Delaware GOP fixture Mike Castle. But the left-leaning blogohemisphere has universally claimed she doesn't even know what the FIRST Amendment says—which is plumb ridiculous. Of course Christine O'Donnell knows what the First Amendment says; she was challenging Chris Coons's interpretation of it in a way conservatives often do, by pointing out that the phrase 'separation of Church and State' does not actually appear there, and he has no business reading that phrase (originally from a letter by Thomas Jefferson) into it.
Of course, Ms. O'Donnell appears to have forgotten, halfway through the gambit, exactly how one makes that line of argument go. (It doesn't help that it's not much of an argument to begin with.) I'll warrant she's just stupid enough to be all, 'Where does it say that?!' but not follow up with, 'See? It doesn't say quite that!'
Note also that Chris Coons himself misquoted the First Amendment, saying 'government shall make no establishment of religion'. The few correspondents who noted that at all gave Coons a pass; the New York Times, for example, called it 'shorthand'.
I was, of course, every bit as appalled as the next [semi-literate, non-theocratic, non-schizophrenic, self-pleasuring] citizen at her ascension over Delaware GOP fixture Mike Castle. But the left-leaning blogohemisphere has universally claimed she doesn't even know what the FIRST Amendment says—which is plumb ridiculous. Of course Christine O'Donnell knows what the First Amendment says; she was challenging Chris Coons's interpretation of it in a way conservatives often do, by pointing out that the phrase 'separation of Church and State' does not actually appear there, and he has no business reading that phrase (originally from a letter by Thomas Jefferson) into it.
Of course, Ms. O'Donnell appears to have forgotten, halfway through the gambit, exactly how one makes that line of argument go. (It doesn't help that it's not much of an argument to begin with.) I'll warrant she's just stupid enough to be all, 'Where does it say that?!' but not follow up with, 'See? It doesn't say quite that!'
Note also that Chris Coons himself misquoted the First Amendment, saying 'government shall make no establishment of religion'. The few correspondents who noted that at all gave Coons a pass; the New York Times, for example, called it 'shorthand'.
