Beginning with the impeachment of former President Clinton and continuing through the recent election gymnastics in Florida, media members and pundits have made liberal use of the phrase “constitutional crisis.”
Would the impeachment of President Clinton result in a “constitutional crisis”? Were the Florida recounts causing a “constitutional crisis”? Would protests throw the nation into the clutches of a “constitutional crisis”?
It is asinine to think that every time an issue arises that requires the employment of seldom-used constitutional provisions or judicial rulings, a crisis results, let alone a “constitutional” one.
What would constitute a constitutional crisis? Perhaps if we had only one copy of our federal Constitution and lost it. Or if our military had taken over the White House and Capital and instituted, on its own, martial law.
So far, nothing has come close, and the pundits ought to stop crying wolf.
