Dereliction of Duty Pervades the Political Class

I fully expect the wrath of the Statists to descend upon Governor Rick Perry for his defense of Texas' sovereignty under the 10th Amendment. As I thought about how I would defend him from this onslaught, my first thought was, "he's upholding his oath of office." As the Governor of Texas, it falls more squarely upon Gov. Perry's shoulders than anywhere else to defend the constitutional perogatives and rights of the state of Texas. It is not within the constitutionally circumscribed powers of the federal government to dictate to the state of Texas how to spend its money.

Upholding one's oath of office has become a quaint idea of the past. I'm not sure whether that's because our politicians willfully reject their responsibilities or because they fail to comprehend them. This week's release of the "torture memos" is a great example. President Obama, in the name of mollifying his MoveOn base weakened the executive branch, weakened the concept of attorney/client privilege, and weakened our intelligence gathering capabilities all in one fell swoop. I suspect that one of the reasons that he can see his way clear to doing this is that he doesn't understand or respect the concept of checks and balances. The Left finds checks and balances inconvenient, and unnecessary as long as the right (I mean Left) people are in power.

Similarly, Congress abdicated is responsibility and perogative to control the purse strings when it handed the executive branch a $700B TARP slush fund to dole out as it sees fit (see post and link to George Will column).

State and local officials fail to do their duty when they allow the federal government coerce them into signing on to programs that will bankrupt their states and municipalities in the future.

Regardless of how much he or she may want to support a particular political agenda or outcome, every politician that takes an oath of office is obligated first and foremost to uphold that oath.