• Letter to the Editor

    Date: 10/09/2010

    LETTER TO THE EDITOR
    To: Frank Meile
    October 5, 2010

    Two expensive attack ads have been mailed to the residents of House District 3 for my Democratic opponent’s benefit. One of these slick and deceptive ads alleges I am cuckoo for carrying legislation to repeal the Seventeenth Amendment in my 2005 session in the Montana Senate. If so, I am in good company; I have over 50 professors, authors, attorneys and legislators who agree with me.
    At the local level, Frank Miele, editor of the Daily Inter Lake, also appears to agree it would be best for the country if we repealed the 17th Amendment. In his Two Cents Worth column on September 26th he stated:

    “- – One thing that has become clear in the past several decades is that senators no longer reliably represent the people of their state, but rather their own self-interest.
    “This phenomenon is one of the unintended consequences of the 17th Amendment — which shifted the election of senators from the individual state legislatures to the people of each state. This was supposed to be a good idea because it gave “power to the people.” It was thus an easy sell. But it tampered with a crucial component of the architecture of the American republic that was devised by the genius of our Founding Fathers to withstand the rigors of time, temperament and outright treason.
    – - -
    “With popular election of senators, however, came the inevitable shift of power away from the states to the individual senator and ultimately to their political parties. Rather than representing a state’s interests, a senator’s only concern from this point forward was representing himself TO the people as their friend and guardian — no matter who he was really beholden to.”

    While reasonable people can debate the merits of keeping or repealing the 17th Amendment, I am proud to stand with some of our best scholars on this issue. I don’t believe Frank Miele and the other scholars who support repeal of the 17th Amendment are all cuckoo.

    The other attack ad castigates me for my battle to open our justice system to the people and for going to the aid of an elderly lady who requested I talk to her husband who was locked away from her in a nursing home.
    At least partially because of my standing my ground against the legal fraternity the Montana Supreme Court on April 20th of this year, agreed with me:
    “this Court is not authorized either directly or through a Commission to regulate the ‘unauthorized practice of law.’
    “- – - the array of persons and institutions that provide legal or legally-related services to members of the public are, literally, too numerous to list. – -
    “- – - Third, we conclude that this Court has no Constitutional authority to define,
    generally, what constitutes the practice of law, except within the context of a case or
    controversy properly before this Court. Moreover, it follows that this Court has no
    Constitutional authority to define the “unauthorized practice of law,” again, except within
    the context of a case or controversy properly before this Court. And, finally, it follows
    that we have no Constitutional authority, except within the context of a case or
    controversy properly before this Court, to sanction or remedy the “unauthorized practice
    of law.”
    I can understand why more good people decline to run for public office when such drivel is laid on those who do step forth.
    Thank you for your educating yourself about these issues before you cast your vote.

    Jerry O’Neil

    See also: http://www.dailyinterlake.com/opinion/columns/frank/article_64f59fe4-c8fe-11df-9834-001cc4c03286.html