Blogging for Max

Make up your mind, John. Do we need even mention the “straight-and-narrow?”
From the campaign:

BARROW VOTES TWICE AGAINST PROTECTING “ONE NATION UNDER GOD” BEFORE VOTING FOR IT

July 19, 2006

(Savannah, Georgia) Max Burns, former Congressman running to represent Georgia’s new 12^th District, today questioned why Athens Congressman John Barrow would vote two times against allowing a bill to be debated on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives that would protect the Pledge of Allegiance and the phrase “one nation under God.”

“I am glad to see Congress take the necessary steps to protect the Pledge of Allegiance from the activist judges who use their power to make laws from the bench rather then interpreting them,” said Burns. “But it puzzles me to see John Barrow vote two times against allowing the bill to be debated in the House prior to voting for it. If you support the legislation then why in the world would you vote two times against allowing it to be considered on the floor of the House floor? You can’t have it both ways.”

H.R. 2389, the Pledge Protection Act of 2005, would restrict the jurisdiction of lower federal courts and the Supreme Court from ruling on the constitutionality of the Pledge. The bill, which was introduced by both Congressman Todd Akin (R-MO), and U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), uses the power granted to Congress by Article III of the Constitution to establish the jurisdiction of federal courts. Burns was an original co-sponsor of the bill when it was first introduced in May 2003, and voted for The Pledge Protection Act when it passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in September of 2004. Congressman Akin introduced the legislation in response to the decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declaring the phrase “under God” unconstitutional.

“If John Barrow had been successful, the Pledge Protection Act of 2005, would not have been debated in the House and activist courts, such as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, would be free to strip ‘one nation under God’ or even outlaw the pledge of allegiance altogether as courts have done so it the past,” said Burns.

The bill passed the full House of Representatives with bi-partisan support, 260-167, and now awaits action in the United States Senate.