Michelle Bachman has a great idea - Teach the constitution to lawmakers

Most of you know the tea parties want the constitution to be foremost in the thoughts of the people who make our laws, and that no law passes without passing the test of the constitution.  The recent flap over the "separation of church and state" in the Delaware debates shows us that lawmakers, law  professors and law students do not have a keen grasp of exactly what is IN the constitution. This article is good news.  It is from Politico.

Bachmann wants Constitution classes for lawmakers
By MARIN COGAN

For the Tea Party soldiers worried that the young upstarts they’re poised to send to Congress will lose their constitutional druthers once they get to Congress, Rep. Michele Bachmann has a message: Fear not, she’s going to set up constitutional classes.

Bachmann spokesman Sergio Gor says, “It was something she’s always wanted to do. There’s so many folks that come to Capitol Hill to discuss obscure and mundane topics, but no one coming regularly to discuss bill of rights or the role of government.”

I think the writer is not perfectly happy about Michele Bachman, her Fear not, she’s going to set up constitutional classes. comes across a slightly catty, but she does go ahead and give the full story.  Read it all here.

Ann Althouse on Obama as a Religous Leader

Obama would like you to see government as religion.
He addresses a group of religious leaders: (she quotes from the NY Times)

“I know there’s been a lot of misinformation in this debate, and there are some folks out there who are frankly bearing false witness,” Mr. Obama told a multidenominational group of pastors, rabbis and other religious leaders who support his goal to remake the nation’s health care system.

Bearing false witness? Breaking the 9th Commandment? So his opponents are sinners. I'm trying to imagine the separation-of-church-and-state freakout if George Bush had taken this approach to arguing for one of his policies.

According to the lede paragraph in the linked NYT article:
President Obama sought Wednesday to reframe the health care debate as “a core ethical and moral obligation,” imploring a coalition of religious leaders to help promote the plan to lower costs and expand insurance coverage for all Americans. Strangely, the context of that quote — "a core ethical and moral obligation" — is missing from the body of the article. Was something cut? Was it too embarrassing? Too Bush-y?
I have to go elsewhere:

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: OK, for some, that public option has gone over like a lead balloon. So how about plan B, morality? Is that the secret weapon strategy to get health care reform? President Obama went on a conference call today with thousands of religious people, arguing health care reform is a moral issue. The president also argued against what he calls "ludicrous lies" made up about his health plan.

Go read it all, she says some good things that need to be said.