Oath

Why are President Barack Obama's ideas, policies and decisions always getting a "recalculating" response from our nation's Constitutional GPS? Where is he trying to take us? As with so many controversial decisions and policies proposed or adopted since the beginning of the Obama administration, why are we constantly reminded that we are "off course" when it comes to our Constitution? Mr. Obama tries to get around "that old piece of paper" by appointing czars with unparalleled authority, increasing government regulations to the point that we are being rendered helpless, and unlawfully using the recess appointment power.

AND SO, my fellow Americans, shall we go over this one more time? I just want to see if I've missed something, if there's anything we know today that we didn't know, say, four months ago. Stay with me now. I'm thinking this thing out loud.President Clinton had sex with a White House intern, and he lied about that under oath.I know the president's lawyers will object to the statement. But I'm not bound by the rules of judicial procedure here. So let's just go on and pretend there are no lawyers in the room.

ARLINGTON, VA. -- What do you call someone who, in violation of her oath, reveals government secrets to a reporter, who then prints them and exposes a clandestine operation intended to get information from suspected terrorists that could save American lives? Here is what one dictionary says about that word: "One who betrays another's trust or is false to an obligation or duty." The word so defined is traitor. The Central Intelligence Agency fired an intelligence officer after determining she leaked classified information to a Washington Post reporter about secret overseas prisons used for interrogating suspected terrorists.

LAST WEEK this column ended with a recollection of the fable about George Washington cutting down his father's cherry tree with a new hatchet, but not being able to lie to his father about it. "I cannot tell a lie," the father of our nation told his father. One of the first president's nicknames was "Honest George." Forty-two presidents later, we have yet another George in the White House. I would not call him "Honest George." And this isn't about cherry trees. It's about going to war in Iraq for reasons that were not true, those reasons being Saddam Hussein's possession of weapons of mass destruction and his ties to al-Qaida and implicitly the Sept.

WASHINGTON -- The first Muslim to be elected to Congress has not been sworn in yet, but he's already taking heat. Dennis Prager, a conservative columnist and radio talk-show host, objects to the holy book on which Rep.-elect Keith Ellison plans to take his oath of office Jan. 4. The Minnesota Democrat plans to use a Quran instead of a Bible. Poor, naive me. Here I thought it was an encouraging sign of this country's respect for liberty and diversity that Americans would elect a Muslim to Congress in the midst of an international war against Islamic terrorists.

I notice how positive articles about Sarah Palin seem to really get her critics stirring ("Palin for president? Very funny," Nov. 28). Not only does the comments section seem to be overwhelmed, but letters to the editor surface as well. As a Palin supporter who hopes she runs - and wins - in 2016, let me respond to the usual snark that surfaces. She's not qualified. Compared to whom? Barack Obama was a junior senator from Illinois before running for president. In Alaska, Ms. Palin accomplished everything she set out to do in two-thirds of the time.

MY problem with President Bush's self-described act o "honor, decency and fairness" is not that he pardoned a clatch of ex-officials involved in the Iran-contra affair, but that he pardoned their crimes.I might well have pardoned former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and the others myself. And if I were Bill Clinton, I would pardon George Bush in advance of any charges, and quickly, just to put this unseemly mess behind us and get on with the task of reconstructing America.But first, our leaders, Republicans and Democrats alike, must make clear to Americans that the crimes committed were crimes -- and not, as Mr. Bush called them, acts of "patriotism."

TAMPA, Fla.-- --Andy Pettitte didn't have to call a news conference and answer questions for nearly an hour about his use of human growth hormone or his entanglement in the illegal drug controversy surrounding his former teammate, Roger Clemens, and his former personal trainer, Brian McNamee. Give Pettitte, the New York Yankees veteran left-hander, credit for not hiding behind a blanket statement and some "no comments" now that the whole world knows he used hGH. Give him credit for accepting the spotlight and for a professional, well-delivered apology to his teammates, fans and family.

WASHINGTON -- In forbidding his top aides to testify publicly and under oath on the firings of eight federal prosecutors, President Bush has set the stage for a possible legal battle with Congress that he might not be able to win, experts say, making a compromise more likely. With the House Judiciary Committee authorizing subpoenas for the testimony of Bush's top advisers yesterday and the Senate Judiciary Committee prepared to do the same today, the White House says that preventing Karl Rove and other key officials from providing sworn public testimony is a matter of executive privilege.

Congressional leaders had little choice but to order a formal investigation into whether Reagan campaign operatives in 1980 cut a secret deal with the Iranians to hold American diplomatic hostages for purposes of influencing the presidential election.By its very nature such an investigation will labor under partisan suspicion, but the designation of Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana and Sen. Terry Sanford of North Carolina will go a long way toward guaranteeing the integrity of the investigation.