Letters to the Editor, The Sun-Sentinel

February 25, 2009

Letters to the Editor
The Sun-Sentinel
200 East Las Olas Boulevard
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301

RE: Two things and let us thank God for giving us James Madison who gave us both of them.

Sirs,

Thank God for James Madison!
The little man was a giant.
He touches us still today.

When asked what was the most important trait to look for in a candidate for public office he answered, “Character. Character is all.”

You support Don Rosen for the Plantation commission. A question arose several years ago over his resume.

He claimed to have been graduated from Queens College with a degree in biology. Some people have doubted this.

If he did let him produce the transcript and the degree.

If he didn’t he’s a liar.

Only Presidents get to lie and get away with it. Presidents are sometimes required to lie. In fact, Presidents can perjure themselves with impunity. Plantation commissioners should not have the same perverse privilege. If he lied he should become anathema.

Speaking of the Founders, Samuel Adams said “We can never be too curious about the character of public men”.

Madison was the principal architect of the Constitution. It told us what government could do. George Mason told us what government could not do. Those proscriptions are called the Bill of Rights.

The question of the District of Columbia having a voting member in the House of Representatives begets a second question. If D.C. has a vote in the House shouldn’t it have a vote in the Senate? More precisely, shouldn’t it have two votes in the Senate?

Having a vote in one House of a bi-cameral system is like being almost pregnant.





The answer to the above is also found with Madison.

The question of the status of the District of Columbia is spoken to directly in the Constitution. It is in Article 1, Section 8.

[As an aside, other countries have capitol cities similar to ours. Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and Australia have separate Federal districts.]

The current political pavane about one House vote for DC and one House vote for Utah is insulting both to the Constitution and students of American History. It is reminiscent of the one slave state/one free state compromises that led to Civil War.

If the status of the District of Columbia is to be changed let it be done in a way that settles the question once and for all.

Amend the Constitution.

It’s as simple and as difficult as that.