EUGENE VOLOKH BLOGS A BIZARRE QUOTE FROM DICK GEPHARDT about overturning the Supreme Court via Executive Order. I saw the Fox story that Eugene links and decided — as he suspects — that it had to be a misquote. But CNN has it, too. Here it is:
When I’m president, we’ll do executive orders to overcome any wrong thing the Supreme Court does tomorrow or any other day.
I agree with Eugene that if Gephardt meant this as written he has no business running for President — but I still find it hard to believe that Gephardt would say something so dumb.
UPDATE: Eugene now has a link to the C-SPAN video and at about 45:40 Gephardt says exactly what’s quoted up above, and the context is exactly as represented. Sheesh. That’s absolutely pathetic. Either (1) Gephardt, despite all his years in Congress, has still failed to learn that you can’t overturn a Constitutional decision by the Supreme Court with an executive order; or (2) Gephardt was in Full Pander Mode and hoped his audience wouldn’t know better. Neither speaks very well for him.