OK, Can We Move On Now?

This was an outrageously silly issue.

Senate Says McCain Is Qualified
By CARL HULSE
Published: May 1, 2008
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday delivered its judgment on a constitutional question involving one of its own and formally declared that Senator John McCain is eligible to be president — at least from a citizenship perspective.
Weighing in on an arcane question that has arisen because of Mr. McCain’s birth in the Panama Canal Zone, the Senate without opposition approved a nonbinding resolution recognizing that Mr. McCain is a natural-born citizen. (emphasis, Princess Crabby)
Among the basic qualifications the Constitution lays out for president is that the person be a natural-born citizen, a phrase not defined and one that has been subjected to various interpretations.
At the request of Mr. McCain’s campaign, two constitutional lawyers studied the issue and found in favor of Mr. McCain, whose father was stationed in the zone with the Navy when the future candidate was born. Colleagues of both parties in the Senate, including his two potential Democratic rivals, concur.
“There is no evidence of the intention of the framers or any Congress to limit the constitutional rights of children born to Americans serving in the military nor to prevent those children from serving as their country’s president,” the resolution said.
It does not have the power of law. Its authors, chiefly Senators Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont and Claire McCaskill of Missouri, both Democrats, said they wanted the Senate clearly on record.
H/T the Corner