posted 12-22-2003 01:13 AM            

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Orrin Hatch wants to terminate the constitutional prohibition against foreign-born citizens such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and others from becoming president.

Article II of the Constitution says that, "No Person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of president."

Hatch is seeking to amend the Constitution to remove the ban, allowing anyone who has been a citizen of the United States for two decades to run for the country's highest office.

"This restriction has become an anachronism that is decidedly un-American," Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and one-time presidential candidate, said when he introduced the change last week.

But retired University of Alabama history professor Forrest McDonald said the prohibition made sense when it was included in the Constitution "and I'm not sure the reasoning is entirely outdated."

He said that 15 years before the Constitution was written, foreign operatives from Russia, Prussia and Austria conspired to get a favorable monarch elected to lead Poland. Once in place, the country was divided up among the three powers.

"The American Fathers were acutely sensitive to the prospect," McDonald said. He said it is unlikely, although not inconceivable, that something like that could happen today.

His other argument against the amendment: Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The "Terminator" star has been flirting with running as a Republican for governor of California, and with money, charisma and name recognition could make a strong candidate for president -- but he was born in Austria.

"I'm scared of the man," McDonald said.

Hatch spokeswoman Margarita Tapia said the bill wasn't crafted to help Schwarzenegger.

"It was a policy judgment. It wasn't associated with a particular individual," she said.

posted 12-22-2003 01:19 AM            

Boy...I don't know what to think.

posted 03-27-2004 01:27 AM            

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/8243259.htm

Posted on Sun, Mar. 21, 2004
Sen. Kennedy says Schwarzenegger should be allowed to run for president
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Sen. Edward Kennedy believes his niece's husband, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, should be allowed to run for president. Whether he would cross party lines to endorse him is another matter.

Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday he supports a constitutional amendment allowing anyone who has been a U.S. citizen for at least 20 years to run for the White House.

But Kennedy stopped short of endorsing the husband of his niece, Maria Shriver.

"I watched him on your show, and I think you would agree Arnold's able, and he's smart, and he's doing a good job out there," Kennedy told host Tim Russert. "And he is married, he is married to one of the most wonderful people, Maria Shriver. And I'm still hopeful that, as things go along, that Maria will have more and more influence on Arnold. That's what I'm keeping my fingers crossed for."

The Austrian-born Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has said the constitutional amendment proposed by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, "sounds really good."