Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The day after opening

Long into the wee hours of the night as the First Couple celebrated the first day of the Obama administration, there was a growing realization by those of us whose eyes were glued to their TV sets that history was about to give way to hard work. And then there were those Constitutional scholars who were shouting "Hold on! He's not President!" The controversy sprang up when Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed his one line in dyslexic fashion and caused everyone to scratch their heads over whether or not it would be necessary to re-do. Some of you may be surprised to learn that it does not take a Chief Justice or any Justice for that matter to administer the oath of office to the President. It can be any federal judge or magistrate and we should all know that because of the famous picture taken aboard Air Force One when Lyndon Johnson was administered the oath by a sitting Texas federal judge following the assasination of John F. Kennedy. Oh, well, it seems like it's only a matter of time before the President and the Chief Justice will have another go at it...just to make sure.

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