The ineligible Senator McCain

This is really starting to be funny.

First we find out that the soon-to-be Republican nominee for president has a criminal defense attorney on retainer, and now it turns out that he may not be eligible to run for president.

The New York Times reports today that Senator John McCain has asked former Solicitor General Ted Olson to prepare "a detailed legal analysis" of the U.S. Constitution's requirement that only a "natural-born citizen" can become president of the United States.

The problem seems to be that Senator McCain, the son of a Navy officer, was born in the Panama Canal Zone where his father was stationed. There's no question that he's a citizen. The question is whether someone who was not born on American soil is a "natural-born" citizen.

Well, sure, it sounds like an idiotic Internet conspiracy theory, but it turns out that the question has never been answered in a court of law.

The New York Times reports that lawyers have been unable to determine who would have the standing to bring a lawsuit, or whether a lawsuit could even be filed before the person in question was sworn in as president.

You can't make it up.

The Republicans are going to nominate a man who might not be eligible to run.

The next time Hillary Clinton talks about the sophisticated and powerful Republican machine that's coming after the Democratic nominee, pay no attention. This is a bunch of people who shouldn't ride escalators, because if the power went out, they might be trapped for days.


Copyright 2008

Editor's note: You might be interested in the earlier post, "Why John McCain needs Bob Bennett."

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