Con Law has a whole new meaning

By now almost every blog reader knows that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is determined to get a health care reform bill to President Obama's desk no matter the cost, monetary or political. And with her latest trick, she's quite willing to shred the Constitution to do it. Her latest power play is the "Slaughter Solution."

The WSJ reports that Pelosi has leaned on US Rep. Louise Slaughter, Democrat of New York, who chairs the House Rules Committee, to,

... insert what's known as a "self-executing rule," also known as a "hereby rule." Under this amazing procedural ruse, the House would then vote only once on the reconciliation corrections, but not on the underlying Senate bill. If those reconciliation corrections pass, the self-executing rule would say that the Senate bill is presumptively approved by the House—even without a formal up-or-down vote on the actual words of the Senate bill.

Democrats would thus send the Senate bill to President Obama for his signature even as they claimed to oppose the same Senate bill. They would be declaring themselves to be for and against the Senate bill in the same vote. Even John Kerry never went that far with his Iraq war machinations. As we went to press, the precise mechanics that Democrats will use remained unclear, though yesterday Mrs. Pelosi endorsed this "deem and pass" strategy in a meeting with left-wing bloggers.

Rep. Louise "Rules by Edict" Slaughter --->

Nancy Pelosi gives a whole new meaning to "Con Law," the slang for Constitutional Law. Her version is all con, no law. As the WSJ says, "We have entered a political wonderland, where the rules are whatever Democrats say they are."

This is so blatantly unconstitutional that it almost beggars belief that even Nancy Pelosi would try it -- but we've learned since her ascendancy to the Speaker's throne chair that there is no line she won't cross to get her way.

Jonathan Adler at The Volokh Conspiracy (a law-oriented blog run by UCLA Constitutional law Prof. Eugene Volokh) cites Former federal judge Michael McConnell, of Stanford University on why Pelosi's ploy is unconstitutional.

To become law—hence eligible for amendment via reconciliation—the Senate health-care bill must actually be signed into law. The Constitution speaks directly to how that is done. According to Article I, Section 7, in order for a “Bill” to “become a Law,” it “shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate” and be “presented to the President of the United States” for signature or veto. Unless a bill actually has “passed” both Houses, it cannot be presented to the president and cannot become a law. ...

The Slaughter solution attempts to allow the House to pass the Senate bill, plus a bill amending it, with a single vote. The senators would then vote only on the amendatory bill. But this means that no single bill will have passed both houses in the same form. As the Supreme Court wrote in Clinton v. City of New York (1998), a bill containing the “exact text” must be approved by one house; the other house must approve “precisely the same text.”

These constitutional rules set forth in Article I are not mere exercises in formalism. They ensure the democratic accountability of our representatives.

Here is a key question: Will Obama go to Slaughter? Some Democrat House members are balking.

Opponents of Obamacare have recently been talking about how outrageous the Slaughter strategy is. I agree with them. But there's another point that's worth making more than Republicans have: It's not going to buy the Democrats much political cover, and might make their situation marginally worse.

Candidate Barack Obama touted himself as a professor of Constitutional law.

Sen. Obama, who has taught courses in constitutional law at the University of Chicago, has regularly referred to himself as "a constitutional law professor," most famously at a March 30, 2007, fundraiser when he said, "I was a constitutional law professor, which means unlike the current president I actually respect the Constitution."

Well, Mr. President, let's see whether you live up to that promise if the Slaughtered bill lands on your desk.

I'm guessing he'll sign it so fast the nub of his pen will set the paper afire.

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Update: Pelosi and Slaughter were against the self-executing rule before they were for it. You see, it's not hypocrisy when the Democrats do it.