There was an awkward and tense moment yesterday during a Senate Judiciary Hearing on Senator Diane Feinstein’s (D-CA) proposed “assault” weapons ban. Freshman Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) got up before the committee and began to discuss the importance of holding true to the Constitution:
CRUZ: The question that I would pose to the senior senator from California is: Would she deem it consistent with the Bill of Rights for Congress to engage in the same endeavor that we are contemplating doing with the Second Amendment in the context of the First or Fourth Amendment, namely, would she consider it constitutional for Congress to specify that the First Amendment shall apply only to the following books and shall not apply to the books that Congress has deemed outside the protection of the Bill of Rights. Likewise, would she think that the Fourth Amendment’s protection against searches and seizures could properly apply only to the following specified individuals and not to the individuals that Congress has deemed outside the protection of the Bill of Rights?
Apparently, Senator Feinstein did not appreciate Senator Cruz’s remarks:
FEINSTEIN: I’m not a sixth grader. Senator, I’ve been on this committee for 20 years. I was a mayor for nine years. I walked in, I saw people shot. I’ve looked at bodies that have been shot with these weapons. I’ve seen the bullets that implode. In Sandy Hook, youngsters were dismembered. Look, there are other weapons.
“No, we know you're not a sixth grader,” Pat quipped. “They have more respect for the Constitution.”
“They have been entrenched for so long in their ivory towers and with this power and they don't want to hear about the Constitution,” Pat continued in reference to Senator Feinstein and her colleagues’ careers in the government. “They don't think they're constrained by the Constitution.”
“Here's what they truly believe,” Glenn said. “If they were honest, they would say to these guys: You just got here. You're a little baby. You come in here with your cute ‘I'm with the people, and the people believe in the constitution.’ The constitution doesn't work. It hasn't been working for a long time. That's not the way it works in the America anymore. It's not the power works in Washington. Stop your cute little lecture. You will figure it out in time, and so shut up.”
Career politicians like Senator Feinstein see themselves with a holier than thou attitude that puts them above the Constitution. But at the end of the day, they are power-hungry human beings and the only safeguard is the Constitution.
“People like power,” Glenn concluded. “You're going to go down the same road as the 1930s, and we all know how it ended. And I'd prefer to go to with the Constitution. It's an owner's manual.”