Woman shouts "Except Obama!" as congressman reads the Constitution's section pertaining to presidential eligibility.
The U.S. House, which was in the process of reading the U.S. Constitution aloud for the first time ever, was interrupted briefly today by a woman protester who shouted "except Obama" when the requirements for the person who occupies the Oval Office were read from the founding document.
According to reports, the woman was removed from the gallery.
A video of the sequence was posted on YouTube.
According to the video, a New Jersey Democrat, Frank Pallone, was reading Article II, Section 1, which requires that only a "natural born Citizen" be allowed to be president, the woman started shouting.
"Except Obama. Except Obama. Help us Jesus," she said.
Politico reported she was seated in the front row of the public gallery and was removed by an officer who said, "You're under arrest."
The reading of the Constitution by Congress has been described by many on the left as being done because of a "fetish."
That's how it was put by Dahlia Lithwick of Slate.com, who wrote, "Read It and Weep: How the tea party's fetish for the Constitution as written may get it in trouble."
"The way some people rub Buddha and they think the magic will come off, I think there's a longstanding tradition in this country. We're awfully religious about the Constitution," she later told MSNBC. "I think there is this sort of fetishization that is of a piece with the sort of need for a religious document that's immutable and perfect in every way."
She added: "Part of what's a little bit fraud about this conversation is that the same people who are fetishizing the document as written, as framed by the framers – and bracket the idea that there wasn't one framer and there was no one agenda embodied in this – but even if you bracket that idea, I think there's a real problem with the idea that we're trying to sort of fetishize the document at the same moment that we're falling over ourselves to amend and change the parts we don't like."
Lithwick's remarks came under heavy fire from Rush Limbaugh, the top-rated radio host, who ripped Lithwick and others on the left for holding such a sentiment.
"They're perverts themselves," Limbaugh said. "These are perverts perverting the founding documents. If the Constitution's not that big a deal, how come the same people had such a cow when they thought Christine O'Donnell didn't know what she was talking about regarding the Constitution? If it's so unimportant, how come Obama's so proud to have been a constitutional lawyer or professor or lecturer, whatever he was?
"Abraham Lincoln. They hate him? Abraham Lincoln had a fetish for the U.S. Constitution? Here's what Lincoln said among many other things: 'We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.' That's Lincoln. Is he a pervert? Lincoln have a fetish? Lincoln also said, 'Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.'"
Syndicated columnist and commentator Charles Krauthammer said the objection to reading the Constitution aloud by many on the left "is truly astonishing."
He said on Fox News that in the 1960s, "Liberals got in trouble for being on the wrong side of the flag," and are now in danger of being on the wrong side of the Constitution, which he called "the essence of America." He noted for liberals to think there's an advantage in dismissing the public reading of the document "is real bad politics."
Members of the U.S. House today were rotating by party as they read short parts of the Constitution. The House also for the first time this session is requiring members to document the constitutionality of their plans when they are proposed.
At Slate.com, Dave Weigel reported he was told the woman was Theresa Cao. She is an avid supporter of Terrence Lakin, the former military doctor who challenged Obama's eligibility by refusing to deploy to Afghanistan.
When a judge deprived him of his right to discover evidence or present his arguments, he was court-martialed.
It was almost a year ago when she was profiled in WND as a lone woman evangelist delivering the message that "heaven is offering a 'bailout' far greater than dollars."
At the time, Cao told WND, "I have a standard location literally right in front of the White House" – encouraging people to follow the Bible to see God's miracles on earth and its companion warning of punishment for those who disobey.
The message applies not only to individuals but to nations, she believes.
"Most Americans really are asleep concerning what's taking place," she said then. "People are willing to hand over their God-given rights and the Constitution to the prevailing wicked forces."
WND has reported on dozens of legal challenges to Obama's status as a "natural born citizen." The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."
Some of the challenges question whether he was actually born in Hawaii, as he insists. If he was born out of the country, Obama's American mother, the suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time.
Other challenges have focused on Obama's citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making him a dual citizen. The cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born.
Several of the cases have involved emergency appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court in which justices have declined even to hear arguments. Among the other cases turned down without a hearing at the high court have been petitions by Philip Berg, Cort Wrotnowski, Leo Donofrio and Orly Taitz.
Complicating the situation is Obama's decision to spend sums estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to avoid releasing a state birth certificate that would put to rest all of the questions.
Obama wrote in his own book that he was born a dual citizen of the U.S. and Great Britain due to the fact his father was a subject of the British crown when Obama was born.
Several cases over Obama's eligibility still are pending.
At The Hill, which also reported on the outburst, commenters came down solidly on the side of those "birthers," who contend Obama, if he is eligible constitutionally, at least has yet to document it. Among the comments:
- Oh, those "birthers." They're just like the people, the right wing conspiracy people, that claimed Bill Clinton was unfaithful to Hillary and had a history of unwanted sexual advances on women. Or those people that claimed John Edwards had gotten an ugly blond pregnant when his wife was dying of cancer…
- I invite you to cite the location of Obama's birth certificate for review. You won't find it. I think you're confused between Hawaii's notice of birth, and an actual birth certificate. The actual birth certificate is required – not what Obama provided.
- Obama is definitely a citizen. The question is: of what country?
- Instead of the label "Birthers" why not just call them "Constitutionalists" or "Americans"?
- Anybody with half a brain knows that Obama is not a natural born citizen.
- IMPEACH! IMPEACH!
- I'm more interested in his mentor, communist Frank Marshall Davis, and his FBI file that details his anti-American activity as a communist. Obama was probably surveilled and written up right along with "Uncle Frank" as he was being tailed by FBI agents.
- Regardless if he was born in Hawaii … BOTH parents have to be citizens of American for a person to be president. Obama's dad … whoever he was … was NOT an American citizen!! End of story … we have a usurper in the White House!
