September 15, 2014 --

Former Congressman Michael D. Barnes (D-Md.) in an article in The Washington Post, indicated that he now regrets having led a move in Congress to bring a lawsuit against the Reagan administration.

What is remarkable, in LPR's view, is that Mr. Barnes seemed, in his article, to have praised Judge Robert H. Bork for indicating, in his dissent from a Court of Appeals decision upholding the action, that the framers of the Constitution never contemplated that the judiciary should decide disputes "between the political branches of the national government."

The occasion of the Barnes de facto mea culpa was the action by the House approving litigation against the Obama administration for the way it is implementing -- or not implementing -- provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

LPR regrets that the former congressman did not include in his article an apology to Judge Bork for the shabby way Democrats treated him in rejecting his nomination to the Supreme Court. Well, what next from a Democrat -- regret at bringing U.S. v. Nixon and not, instead, just sticking to the impeachment route? (Note from LPR: the Constitution and Federalist Paper No. 65 indicate that impeachment of a president and his removal from office comes first, and, thereafter, judicial action, if any.)