Topic: WorldNetDaily
Joseph Farah writes in his Dec. 22 WorldNetDaily column:
Many have questioned whether Barack Obama truly deserved the Nobel Peace Prize.
That's not the purpose of this column.
As far as I am concerned, the Nobel ceased to have much in the way of honorific qualities after it was bestowed on such unsavory and unworthy candidates as Al Gore, Yasser Arafat, Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev and Kofi Annan.
My concern about Barack Obama's acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize is that it was patently unconstitutional.
I guess that should surprise no one given Obama's penchant for unconstitutional activity.
Yet, this one is flagrant, personal and, worst of all, petty.
Speaking of flagrant, personal and petty, Farah goes on to suggest that Obama "ignore[d] this constitutional provision" -- he claims that "an act of Congress would be necessary for him to accept the emolument" -- because "he considers himself above the law and the Constitution and/or because he really wanted to benefit personally from the award" and because "he actually seeks to undermine the foundational document of American government." Farah answered the first question earlier in the column by noting that Obama planned to donate the prize money to charity.
What Farah doesn't mention, of course, is that the emoluments clause has, in practice, routinely been ignored; there was no agitation to enforce it when Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize. Nor do we recall any outcry from Farah when Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf was awarded an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth.
So unless Farah is also demanding that Stormin' Norman relinquish his knighthood, he might want to give up this particular battle. After all, he has many other hateful Obama conspiracies to focus on.
