The strangled cry of the campaign functionary

Lonesome Rhodes in a hockey jersey

(Emmer, not Strom)

I put up a post this morning titled Tom Emmer: neo-confederate goober, the most recent post in a series that has highlighted the constitutional foolishness and demagoguery of the Republican candidate for governor.

David Strom was quick to respond on the Twitter:

Nullification and tentherism have a story much broader than the issue of slavery, but it always (or almost always) seems to arise in the South.

I am producing a video on the subject of nullification — and Tom Emmer’s record on the subject. I have invited Rep. Emmer to be interviewed for the video; perhaps David will pass the request along, too. I’ll give Rep. Emmer a chance to explain all of his bills and pronouncements on the subject of nullification and how he just wanted to start a conversation.

You know, it’s funny, though, because the Emmer campaign does not discuss this subject willingly and questions are dodged a quickly as possible. It certainly doesn’t seem as though he wants a conversation, does it?

It is one thing for the unschooled to run around screaming Tenth Amendment! Nullification! States’ rights! It is quite another when someone with such a dim and poisoned understanding of federalism — and how we solve constitutional issues — offers himself as a serious candidate for governor.

And and he if agrees to an interview, while we’re at it, Rep. Emmer and I can have a conversation about several of the foundational constitutional cases decided by the Supreme Court.

I, for one, am looking forward to it. How about it, Representative?

Update: Just for grins let’s look at a couple of Southern secession resolutions and compare them to Rep. Emmer’s language (in the post earlier today) about state sovereignty:

The people of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, on the 26th day of April, A.D., 1852, declared that the frequent violations of the Constitution of the United States, by the Federal Government, and its encroachments upon the reserved rights of the States, fully justified this State in then withdrawing from the Federal Union; but in deference to the opinions and wishes of the other slaveholding States, she forbore at that time to exercise this right. Since that time, these encroachments have continued to increase, and further forbearance ceases to be a virtue.

And now the State of South Carolina having resumed her separate and equal place among nations, deems it due to herself, to the remaining United States of America, and to the nations of the world, that she should declare the immediate causes which have led to this act. South Carolina Declaration of the Causes of Secession

And Mississippi:

Whereas, the constitutional Union was formed by the several states in their separate soverign [sic] capacity for the purpose of mutual advantage and protection;

That the several states are distinct sovereignities [sic again; Tea Party ancestor, no doubt], whose supremacy is limited so far only as the same has been delegated by voluntary compact to a federal government, and, when it fails to accomplish the ends for which it was established, the parties to the compact have the right to resume, each state for itself, such delegated powers;

That the institution of slavery existed prior to the formation of the federal Constitution, and is recognized by its letter, and all efforts to impair its value or lessen its duration by Congress, or any of the free states, is a violation of the compact of Union and is destructive of the ends for which it was ordained, but in defiance of the principles of the Union thus established, the people of the Northern states have assumed a revolutionary position toward the Southern states;

That they have set at defiance that portion of the Constitution which was intended to secure domestic tranquility among the states and promote their general welfare, namely: "No person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom the service or labor may be due;"

Further update: Just for good order’s sake here’s probably the best Tenther bleat from Emmer:

[T]he State of Minnesota hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States, and that this resolution serves as notice and demand to the federal government as our agent to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers.

So for my money, David Strom can just take his high horse, turn it around, and ride on out of here.