Monday, April 09, 2007
Andrew McCarthy: Don't investigate Nancy Pelosi
Shorter McCarthy: Criminal prosecution is not the best solution for every problem (even if it has become a possible solution for every problem).
6 Comments:
By 
, at
Mon Apr 09, 11:57:00 PM:
Andrew McCarthy a liberal wussietard and defender of treason he would have defended BENEDICT ARNOLD
By 
TigerHawk, at
Tue Apr 10, 06:18:00 AM:
Bird, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you're the first person ever to call Andy McCarthy a "liberal wussietard." Of course, you're the first person to say many things about many people, so maybe that's OK.
By Georg Felis, at
Tue Apr 10, 01:14:00 PM:
Pardon Pelosi Now! (A decision so right on so many fronts :)
By Dawnfire82, at
Tue Apr 10, 11:28:00 PM:
"The Logan Act is a United States federal law that forbids unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments. It was passed in 1799 and last amended in 1994. Violation of the Logan Act is a felony, punishable under federal law with imprisonment of up to three years.
The text of the Act is broad and is addressed at any attempt of a US citizen to conduct foreign relations without authority. However, there is no record of any prosecutions or convictions under the Logan Act."
Seeing as how such authority is explicitly granted to the Executive branch, headed by the President, in the Constitution, any attempted negotiations with a foreign head of state without his blessing would be illegal.
Perhaps there have been no prosecutions to date because no one has been stupid (or rebellious) enough to try to negotiate without Executive permission until now.
Note: By not prosecuting this offense, the Executive can be understood to have given its permission. Private citizens (like Carter) have negotiated on behalf of the US before.
This case is more exceptional because it is public knowledge that the President specifically asked Pelosi NOT to go and she did anyway. That's a pretty clear violation, and I'm sure she knows it. She's counting on her position to protect her. (which is ironic, because it's her position that makes this behavior a threat to Executive authority. Joe Smith from Tallahassee can't convince President Assad of diddly-squat, but the Speaker of the House probably can)
By Newtons Bit, at
Wed Apr 11, 12:19:00 AM:
There's a reason that act was passed too. The infant United States kept having all sorts of people trying to intercede on it's behalf with the European Powers in regards to such things as the Barbary States. This made the United States seem further weak to Europe and the Barbary States and probably caused all sorts of nasty piracy on US merchant ships.
By Dawnfire82, at
Wed Apr 11, 07:55:00 PM:
1. What did Pelosi negotiate exactly?
I have no idea. I wasn't there and no one has told me. (except for Olmert and his pronouncement)
2. How did her actions “defeat the measures of the United States”?
You have fixated on words of your own choice, which is only part of the law. Now read this again.
"The Logan Act is a United States federal law that forbids unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments. It was passed in 1799 and last amended in 1994. Violation of the Logan Act is a felony, punishable under federal law with imprisonment of up to three years.
The text of the Act is broad and [b]is addressed at any attempt of a US citizen to conduct foreign relations without authority. [/b]However, there is no record of any prosecutions or convictions under the Logan Act."
And so there's no more confusion, here's the text of the actual law.
"[b]Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, [/b] or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply himself, or his agent, to any foreign government, or the agents thereof, for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.
1 Stat. 613, January 30, 1799, codified at 18 U.S.C. § 953 (2004)."
You have fixated on the phrase "defeat the measures of the United States," but there is a whole other section prior to that, also, which may have been violated. Whether it was or not depends on what exactly was discussed which, as I mentioned, I don't know. The whole point of my post was to banish the idea that this is some sort of lame, boogey-man law that cannot be enforced and has no real purpose; something like it is necessary to maintain proper separation of powers. Can you imagine how fucked up this country could become if members of the individual parties and factions started taking it upon themselves to negotiate with foreign powers? That's the basic root of Lebanon's eternal issues.
3. Is anything she did substantially different than Newt Gingrich's little trip to China in 1997?
I'm not familiar with Newt Gingritch's trip to China in 1997, and I imagine the answer to this would tie in to #1.
