Chambliss Rejects Un-American Pledge

At no point did it ever occur to me that I would be writing in praise of Georgia's Republican Senator,  Saxby Chambliss. In addition to not being a fan of his chicken franchises, the number of issues we disagree on is prodigious. And yet today I find myself ready to applaud him on his recent act of breaking ranks with the conservatives when he said he is ready to throw overboard Grover Norquist's antiquated anti-tax pledge.

"I care more about my country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge," he told WMAZ-TV. "If we do it his way then we’ll continue in debt, and I just have a disagreement with him about that."

The 20 year-old pledge sponsored by Grover Norquist required that those who signed it "solemnly bind themselves to oppose any and all tax increases."  Many congressional  Republicans signed the pledge and Norquist has been holding the pledge over their heads ever since. (According to Norquist's website, 39 senators and 219 members of the House have signed it.)

As Saxby Chambliss' recent rejection of the pledge exemplifies, those who signed the pledge and were willing to abide by its requirement were acting in direct conflict with their oath of office. When those congressmen and senators were sworn in, they took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, and that Constitution requires  among other  objectives, establishing Justice, and providing for common defense , "We the People...promote the general Welfare."

Congressmen and women who take a private "Pledge"  which could potentially conflict with their Constitutional oath  have crossed a dangerous line. Which is more important: their Tax Pledge or their Constitutional oath? Obviously a conflict of interests. Voters should have demanded that candidates value their constitutional oath of office as their primary obligation rather than some "Pledge" proposed by a guy who never stood before the voters.

Apparently, Senator Chambliss is one Republican who has chosen the welfare of the country above Norquist's  simple-minded, self-interested solution to governing this great nation. 

We can only hope that the senator from Georgia is really serious about serving the "general welfare" of the country and that other Republicans will honor their Constitutional oath more than Grover's irresponsible pledge.