President Trump Honored the Constitution, After Speaker Pelosi Trashed It

PRESIDENT TRUMP'S SHINING ARMOR IS A LITTLE DENTED BUT IT'S STILL USABLE. The news of the President's rolling over to Speaker Nancy Pelosi's demand that he postpone the State of the Union address until the shutdown is over hit me in the solar plexis. It seemed so weak -- uncharacteristic -- and lazy, if you will forgive me. I had the feeling that our MAGA quest was over, that America was lost to the savages, and that President Trump could never again be able to command the loyalty he has had from us who are his devoted supporters. But, after spending the day talking to friends and advisors and reading absolutely everything published about the last 24 hours, I now need to leave my emotional shock, which still hurts, aside and get back to facts. • • • BASED ON ALL WE KNOW ABOUT DONALD TRUMP, WE HAVE TO BELIEVE HE HAS A PLAN. The President was very low-key in his announcement. He tweeted that he would defer to Speaker Pelosi’s cancellation of her House chamber invitation and schedule the SOTU address when the shutdown is over. “There is no venue that can compete with the history, tradition and importance of the House Chamber,” he tweeted, promising “a great State of the Union address in the near future.” No mention of using the Senate chamber. No mention of going to the southern border. No mention of another place, as he and his staff had suggested in prior days. That in itself is a hint that President Trump has a plan -- and it is undoubtedly to make Speaker Pelosi sit behind him in the House chamber while he castigates her and the Democrat Party for refusing to protect America's borders and refusing to agree to barriers that they had long ago funded. • • • DUTY, HONOR, AND THE CONSTITUTION. But, I think there was another message that has been lost in the gloom and disappointment that pervaded everything on Thursday. President Trump said : "There is no venue that can compete with the history, tradition and importance of the House Chamber.” That was the President honoring America. He is honoring her traditions. He is honoring the great history of the House of Representatives and its historic chamber. And, Donald Trump is honoring the Constitution. • "Article I, Section 5.2 : Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings..." The President honored that constitutional rule -- and it permitted Speaker Pelosi to deny the President of the United States the forum of the House chamber to deliver his traditional State of the Union address. President Trump didn't pound on the chamber doors or cry 'foul.' He respected and deferred to the constitutionally-required Rules of the House. • "Article II, Section 3 : He [the President] shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient;..." The President shall give his information about the state of the union "to the Congress." Not to a group of Americans at the border, or in a hall, or at a stadium, but "to the Congress." And not just to the Senate alone, since it was certain that the House Democrats would have refused to attend a Senate SOTU address. Thus, in deciding to wait until a proper congressional forum in the larger House chamber could be agreed under the Rules of the House as applied by the Speaker, President Trump was honoring the Constitution. • "Article II, Section 1.8 : Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:—'I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.' ” In deferring to the requirements of the Constitution, to the constitutionally-required Rules of the House, and to the constitutional order to the President to deliver his information about the state of the union "to the Congress," President Trump was honoring his constitutional Oath of Office. • • • DEAR READERS, that President Trump had to delay his State of the Union address because of Speaker Pelosi's belligerent and petty refusal to allow him the forum of the House chamber speaks of her indifference to the Constitution and its hallowed instructions for the Republic. Pelosi made that clear when she said on Thursday that "the state of the union address is so unimportant to the American people..." • Balance Speaker Pelosi's dismissal of the constitutional requirement for a state of the union message with President Trump's courage in honoring the Constitution in the face of a Speaker who was willing to bend the Constitution to the breaking point for the sole purpose of belittling the duly elected President of the Republic. • Of course, his tormentors -- the Progressive and radicalized Democrat Party and its de facto propaganda arm, the media -- attacked President Trump, mocking his capitulation to Nancy Pelosi as if it had been a high school debate. The #NeverTrumpers RINOs had their day in the sun as well, ridiculing the self-styled tough, deal-making President for bowing to the superior skills of Speaker Pelosi. • But, as the sun set on Thursday, the President was still standing. His stunned base was willing to wait for his next move. After all, there is, as we who support President Trump know, nobody to take his place. We may hope that by 2024, his successor will be obvious. That is not the case in 2019. If our President fails, if we desert him, we will be crushed by the Philistines. The Republic will be sold to the Pharisees. And America will cease to exist as a constitutional Republic that stands for and protects the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. • Procedure and rules are cold, lifeless things. No patriot would ever throw himself or herself into death's jaws for the innumerable sections of the Constitution that refer to things like "the Rules of its Proceedings." We patriots want to face death fighting for "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The lawyers can handle the procedural stuff. But, without the "procedural stuff," we would be fighting a chaotic battle in which even the winners would quickly lose to mayhem. • On January 24, 1965, Winston Churchill died at the age of 90. In a note he wrote to President Roosevelt in late 1940, he reminded FDR that Hitler, if he defeated Britain, would very likely rule the world. FDR answered : "..."I think this verse applies to your people as it does to us : 'Sail on, O Ship of State! Sail on, O Union strong and great. Humanity with all its fears With all the hope of future years Is hanging breathless on thy fate.' As ever yours, Franklin D. Roosevelt." Winston Churchill's reply to the Longfellow verse has echoed through the years : "Put your confidence in us. Give us your faith and your blessing, and under Providence, all will be well. We shall not fail or falter. We shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools, and we will finish the job." • Carl M. Cannon, Washington Bureau chief of RealClearPolitics, wrote about that exchange on Thursday, adding : "One of those tools didn't need to be borrowed from any other nation : It was the prime minister's own voice, one harnessed to reflect the determination of free people in the British Isles and everywhere else in the world. In 1963, President Kennedy, borrowing phrasing from famed American war correspondent Edward R. Murrow while conferring honorary US citizenship on Sir Winston, put it this way : 'In the dark days and darker nights when England stood alone -- and most men, save Englishmen, despaired of England's life -- he mobilized the English language and sent it into battle." • Today, in America, we are mobilizing the Constitution and sending it into battle. "Neither the sudden shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down....we will finish the job."