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Washington Emolument

By Jay D. Homnick on 12.9.09 @ 6:06AM

Tomorrow a foreign government is slipping a big check to the President of the United States -- and he's not even in it for the money.

As the President presses his tux and his luck to pick up the Nobel on Thursday, I am reminded of one of my late grandfather's favorite jokes. Although he died when I was eleven, he managed to tell it to me three or four times.

A fellow drove across the border from San Diego into Tijuana in a big yellow Cadillac every Saturday. Customs officials were convinced he was a smuggler. He and his car were searched repeatedly to no result. Week in, week out, he made his journey to the chagrin of the inspectors. After one of the Customs men retired and asked the man off the record to satisfy his curiosity: "What contraband have you been transporting all this time?"

"Simple. I was exporting yellow Cadillacs to Mexico tax-free. They are huge favorites over there. Every Sunday I crossed back on foot and nobody noticed."

Similarly, while the punditocracy and the commentariat, the intelligentsia and the cognoscenti all searched for accomplishments to justify the award, only one kept her eye on the prize itself. That would be Claudia Monteverdi of Argentina, granddaughter of retired Senator Grigorio Monteverdi and herself a Congressional candidate. This former Miss Latin America is a long-time friend of this column and its de facto South American correspondent. Among other achievements, she has a thoroughgoing command of the U.S. Constitution and the Federalist Papers.

Immediately following the announcement, Claudia began to make the case that it was unconstitutional for Obama to accept the prize. Article I of the Constitution provides that "No person holding any office of Profit or Trust… shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince or Foreign State." The Nobel is a private fund, but the awardees are determined by members of the Norwegian Parliament.

In short, Claudia maintained, the government of Norway is slipping a big check to the President of the United States. Her case is bolstered, I might add, by the clear agenda the bribe is intended to encourage, i.e. the choosing in all instances of policies deemed peaceful, peaceable, peace-oriented and/or peace-inducing by the pacifist international left. Once again, those who admire this country from foreign shores have a truer sense of its founding vision than many of its own meandering children.

NOW HER CALL has found an echo in the person of Tad Armstrong of Edwardsville, Missouri. Mr. Armstrong is an attorney who founded the ELL (Earn it, Learn it, or Lose it) Constitution Clubs. In an op-ed piece in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch this weekend he confirmed the view that Nobel's dynamite is blowing up the Constitution.

He adds a new wrinkle for folks who regard appeals to the Constitution as quaint and anachronistic. He cites a law passed by Congress in 1966, now numbered as Section 7342 of the U.S. Code, which declares that absent specific consent of Congress any gift or decoration received by a sitting President must be accepted on behalf of the United States and turned over to the Treasury.

Yes, indeed, the disposition of the prize money is not in the hands of President Obama, despite his magnanimous but vague assertion it will be forwarded to charitable causes. Our founders were concerned such gifts might serve as a means of influencing our leaders to make choices in the interest of other sovereigns.

Then again, perhaps all this is absurd. Who would be so overwrought as to suspect a President might be moved to accept European attitudes at the expense of American ones? That he might give more credence to conventional wisdom than to common sense? That he could be swayed by leftist banalities into abandoning an appreciation of American exceptionalism? That he could be moved to regurgitate the pap of Marxist professors in major addresses?

Who would be mean-spirited enough to imagine a President might be seduced into believing America guilty of torture? Of arrogance? Of overusing the resources of the world? Of damaging the physical planet by its consumption and industry? Of interfering into local affairs in South America and the Middle East? Of causing Iranian unrest by something the CIA did in the 1950s? Of causing Palestinians to bridle by favoring Israel overmuch?

The idea that giving an American President a few bucks could make him do and say such things is offensive. In point of actual fact, this goof was saying all those things without demanding anything more in return than flattery. So the Nobel is not a cause, but we are still in plenty of trouble. Please cry for me, Argentina.

topics:
Constitution, Nobel Peace Prize

About the Author

Jay D. Homnick, commentator and humorist, is a frequent contributor to The American Spectator. He also writes for Human Events. Here he performs his original composition, "Buy You (Bayou) a Drink".

Letter to the Editor View all comments (16) | Leave a comment

dee cee| 12.9.09 @ 6:20AM

Let him accept and bill, tax him in April.. haha

Jim| 12.9.09 @ 6:49AM

I think the only part of the Constitution he hasn't violated yet is the quartering amendment. Give him time, he has three years.

Alan Brooks| 12.9.09 @ 7:01PM

No, he has seven more years.
The attacks on Obama are mostly sound and fury. If, for instance, the GOP had been serious, they would have nominated Kemp for POTUS in 1996, rather than Dole.
George W. Bush meant well, but-- like Carter was three decades before-- in over his head.
The future? no one can accurately predict the future, except to say that people will make the same mistakes over and over; until they learn, or until they die.
And that includes the GOP.

k black| 12.9.09 @ 7:41AM

Good column! One small error, though -- it appears there is no Edwardsville, Mo. There is, however, and Edwardsville, Il near St. Louis. In the Post-Dispatch, letters and op-eds post the author's location without seeing the need to name the state.

Phil Galiano| 12.9.09 @ 7:44AM

This shameless boy "Mutt" makes me want to puke every time I read about another violation of our US Constitution. He's a total reflection of all the polititions who are sucking this country dry with their greed Me, me, me that's all they think about. Not one brave sole among them! We the government will run your lives, no longer we the people. Our founders are turning over in their graves and crying!
By and large the majority of voters are idiots, uneducated, pathetic examples of what our teachers are producing in our schools. Sheeple!
We are in the same steady decline that dissolved most of the powerful civilizations that preceded us. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely"
Most history books will show we started the decline the day the boy "Mutt" stole the election in November 2008 or even before. God, please, give us back our Country, before the boy child "Mutt"and his Muzzy Marksists destroy us completely!
The Boy Child "Mutt" won the Noble prize, what a bunch of fools they are, they choose our country "IDIOT"
Think about the other Idiots that were in the competition? How stupid could they feel?

Stephanies| 12.9.09 @ 8:07AM

Phil, there have been many who were indeed deserving of the peace prize, bozo not being one of them of course. I believe Algore was chosen over a woman who smuggled infants out of Nazi occupied Poland. Now I understand that choice, how about you :-(

Ret. Marine| 12.9.09 @ 8:26AM

" The idea that giving an American President a few bucks could make him do and say such things is offensive. In point of actual fact, this goof is saying all those things without demanding anything in return than flattery." How true this statement. This pretender-n-theif of anything American has shown us his hand in the willing effort and destruction of our Republic. He will be known in the history of this Republic as the black-stone of the foundation used to promote world governance. He will have a problem if he thinks we can commit and submit to the World over an issue not yet determined to be factual or even relevant. This is not a dicatatorship, the Senate is responsible to radify this attempt to steal the American Wealth, he should know it. Tell me he is not going to Copenhagen to bolster his image, "I'm ah going to correcting the EVIL AMERICA" bullsheet, that's exactly what he's doing. The one issue I find alarming the most was the statement five days before his carnation he made to a group of his like minded marxist followers. "in five days we are going to fundamentaly change this Nation." Really and just who gave him the authority to change anything? His job is to PROTECT AND SERVE the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, nothing more, nothing less.
It hurts my soul to think what this country will look like in another year. I not only feel betrayed for the years of my service, but, I feel cheated of the responsibility to protect others against the onslaught of this illegal and imoral admin. Here is a person who has hidden everything about his past and we are suppose to think he's being truthful regarding his claims of loyality to the Country he serves? Yeah I was born in the morning but, not this morning.

The Bishop| 12.9.09 @ 8:31AM

And wasn't one the Prez's credentials that he was a scholar and professor of Constitutional law? What a farce! His presence is the Oval Office is definitely a purgative (but why am I not losing any weight?).

jjk| 12.9.09 @ 10:58AM

Tad Armstrong is a rising star in conservative commentary. His focus on the Constitution is very timely. He is an experienced attorney who is devoting his life to teaching the layman the brilliance of our most important document.

Tad Armstrong| 11.3.10 @ 12:29PM

jjk, thank you. I hadn't noticed your comment until today. I would be flattered if you would contact me. Tad

Michael Tomlinson| 12.9.09 @ 2:56PM

Four words -- impeach and remove Obama!

UpChuck.Liberals| 12.10.09 @ 10:25PM

And have Biden as President and Pelosi one step closer to being Empress of the Known Universe? No thank you very much. Our Dear Leader can be neutered. And his hell spawn can be sent back to where they came.

Franklin| 12.9.09 @ 4:27PM

There are so many of us that have asked the question "Why hasn't Obama been impeached yet?" Does anyone know?

Can we do anything? Who do we have to contact, who can we get to listen, what can I do?

I'll email, I'll call, I'll write, I'll pray - just tell me!

Ret. Marine| 12.9.09 @ 7:31PM

Franklin, the Congress alone has the power to start impeachment proceedings. Do you want to guess which party dominates both chambers and has a President as their CEO.