Bachmann didn't like being Swiss - rejects citizenship two days later?

by ~ The Rebel ~ Posted 2012/05/12 21:56:01

Related Topics: Citizenship, Michele Bachmann, Constitution, Family, cheese, United States, Rights, Michele, Bachmann, Presidential, Minnesota, America, Born, Swiss, Switzerland

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It turns out that Michele Bachmann’s recently acquired Swiss citizenship had as many holes in it as the delicious cheese of the same name.

Only days after her office announced that former presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann was granted citizenship with the country of Switzerland, the current US congresswoman is already announcing that she wants that status to be revoked.

On Thursday, Rep. Bachmann (R-Minnesota) issued a statement announcing that she was asking the Swiss Consulate to terminate her rights as a citizen. Her office confirmed earlier in the week that, along with her family, Congresswoman Bachmann had recently become a dual-citizen of both the US and Swiss. A spokesman for the Swiss Embassy tells Reuters, however, that Bachmann activated that citizenship two months ago in March.

If Bachmann has her way, that status will be stripped away soon. She delivered a statement to reporters this week announcing that she intends on being a citizen of the US and Switzerlandonly.

"I took this action because I want to make it perfectly clear: I was born in America and I am a proud American citizen," pleads the congresswoman. “I am, and always have been, 100 percent committed to our United States Constitution and the United States of America.”

Philo-Publius 2012/05/13 00:25:06

+1
It stuck me earlier today that there's another aspect to this story that should be more troubling to Americans, whether Democrat, Republican or independent, and that's the fact that Bachmann is on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and thus is privy to a wide range of very sensitive national security issues. (Nobody, to my knowledge, has complained about this.)

I'm not insinuating that she personally would share any of the information she's been given or will in the future be given, but it just seems fundamentally wrong that a Congressperson, let alone one involved intimately in national security matters, should have any loyalties whatsoever to any foreign power or government.

At Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 in our Constitution (Titles of Nobility Clause), these types of things are forbidden to those in our government. And while foreign citizenship may not be viewed in the strictest sense as a type of 'present, emolument, office or title' from a foreign state, I think from a popular perspective it's very un-American for any representative, and one with an Intelligence Committee seat no less, to do anything that could even remotely cause their loyalties to be split.

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