Second Supreme Court Coup Attempted, Averted

22Jan09

Inauguration Day 2009: Arrival of the Supreme Court, originally uploaded by USA TODAY.

In an attempt to cast doubt on the presidency of Barack Hussein Obama, members of the out-going administration and the Supreme Court conspired to make the new president misstate the oath of office.

Ex-Vice President Dick Cheney was the brainchild of the plot, according to a confidential source within the former Bush Administration. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia acted as Cheney’s deputy. The good friends, reportedly, hatched the plan during a recent hunting trip.

The basic idea was to create a cloud of confusion over the constitutionality of Obama’s presidency.

If the conspirators could get Obama to flub the oath, to say it differently than required by the Constitution, they would have grounds to delegitimize his tenure as president

And, at the same time, they hoped to rally the conservative base. Cheney wanted to light a fuse under grassroots Republicans – the few remaining. He foresaw the misstated oath as the beginning of a wide-spread resistance movement.

Regarded as the most astute Supreme Court justice, Scalia, a strict constitutional constructionist, had been encouraging Chief Justice Roberts to confuse Obama during the oath for weeks.

Roberts was reluctant to go along at first.

But Cheney and Scalia, die hard conservatives, relentlessly applied pressure and enlarged the core group of conspirators, enlisting the Quiet Justice – Clarence Thomas – who reportedly actually gave his verbal approval of the plot.

Cheney’s office ran an all-out covert public relations campaign in support of the coup attempt over his final two weeks in power. Those attempts were largely unsuccessful, Fox News excepted.

The actual cause of Cheney’s ill health has been attributed to his dogged support of the coup. He was also rumored to have been unable to sleep over the past week. The specter of a “radical” taking control of the country haunted him greatly.

In the end, fortunately, Cheney’s last act came up short.

John Roberts was taken from his Bethesda home last night and forced to readminister the oath to President Obama.

The stark audacity of the plot is a synergistic conclusion to George W. Bush’s presidency. Though in contrast to the successful Supreme Court Coup of 2000 that put Bush in office, this attempt failed.

And, as of this hour, there is still no word as to ex-President Bush’s knowledge of the coup attempt.

Filed under: politics   |  1 Comment
Tags: Barack Hussein Obama, coup, Dick Cheney, John Roberts, oath of office, Supreme Court