From DailyKos

DE-Sen: Video proof that O'Donnell really did say: "where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?"

by Jed Lewison

Tue Oct 19, 2010 at 10:52:49 AM PDT

As Markos wrote earlier, in a debate yesterday Christine O'Donnell said Chris Coons was ignorant about the Constitution and challenged him to explain "where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?" When Coons explained that little thing about how the First Amendment bars Congress from making laws on the establishment of religion, O'Donnell didn't believe him. "You're telling me that's in the First Amendment?" she asked.

And it was all captured on video. Here's the key snippets (you can watch the full video here):



To answer Christine O'Donnell's question about whether the separation of church and state is in the First Amendment: yes, it is. And although I know she didn't realize it, the audience wasn't laughing with her. They were laughing at her.


DE-Sen: O'Donnell is a Con Law expert, but she's never read the Constitution

by kos

Tue Oct 19, 2010 at 10:10:03 AM PDT

I was on a radio show not too long ago promoting American Taliban, when a woman called in to defend the Tea Party. She said that she had gone to a Constitutional workshop and learned a great deal about the Constitution, and that it was a good thing. The host asked her, "What did you learn?"
The caller hemmed and stammered until finally she said, "There's the thing about guns, and how they can't ram health care down our throats." And that was it, in a nutshell, the teabagger understanding of our Constitution.
Witness Christine O'Donnell, a supposed serious person in their movement:

The exchange came in a debate before an audience of legal scholars and law students at Widener University Law School, as O'Donnell criticized Democratic nominee Chris Coons' position that teaching creationism in public school would violate the First Amendment by promoting religious doctrine.
Coons said private and parochial schools are free to teach creationism but that "religious doctrine doesn't belong in our public schools."
"Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?" O'Donnell asked him.
When Coons responded that the First Amendment bars Congress from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, O'Donnell asked: "You're telling me that's in the First Amendment?"
Her comments, in a debate aired on radio station WDEL, generated a buzz in the audience.
"You actually audibly heard the crowd gasp," Widener University political scientist Wesley Leckrone said after the debate, adding that it raised questions about O'Donnell's grasp of the Constitution.

Instead of asking Coons about the First Amendment in a live debate, she could have spared herself the embarrassment and read it. I mean, we know that Republicans don't like to read things that are long and full of words, but it's the First Amendment, and the relevant part is the first clause of its single sentence:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Yet ignoramuses like O'Donnell walk around talking about the Constitution, making bold claims like this one:

"Talk about imposing your beliefs on the local schools," she said. "You've just proved how little you know not just about constitutional law but about the theory of evolution."

Remember -- O'Donnell knows more about Constitutional law than a room full of law professors and students, and she knows more about the theory of evolution than 99.99999 percent of the world's scientists.
And while O'Donnell won't win, a bunch of candidates like her will. It's going to be a much nastier, and a much dumber Congress, come January 2011.