WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold intends to propose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to end the practice of governors filling vacant Senate seats.

With the Illinois governor charged with having tried to sell President Barack Obama’s old Senate seat — and New York’s governor accused by critics of having held a circus-like review to fill the one formerly held by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Feingold says voters — not governors — should make the call in special elections. 

“The controversies surrounding some of the recent gubernatorial appointments to vacant Senate seats make it painfully clear that such appointments are an anachronism that must end,” Feingold said.

Feingold said he will introduce this week what would be just the 28th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the framework for American democracy that has been in effect since 1789.

His proposed amendment would require that all senators, just like all members of the House of Representatives, be elected.

Initially, senators were elected by state legislatures. But the 17th amendment, adopted in 1913, made them elected instead by voters.

A third of the Senate is routinely elected ever two years. But in case of a death or a resignation, governors in most states are empowered to appoint a replacement.

Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, said that as chairman of the Senate Judiciary’s subcommittee on the Constitution, he plans to soon hold a hearing on his proposed amendment.

Untold hundreds of amendments to the Constitution have been proposed. But there’s a reason why just 27 have been approved. To become law, it has to be passed by two-thirds of the House and Senate, and then within a set time period, three-quarters of the states.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Mike Segar - A worker changes a flag at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., which houses the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, during the January 20 inauguration of President Barack Obama.

DENVER - Maybe it’s his background teaching constitutional law.

If elected president, Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama said one of the first things he wants to do is ensure the constitutionality of all the laws and executive orders passed while Republican President George W. Bush has been in office.

Those that don’t pass muster will be overturned, he said.

During a fund-raiser in Denver, Obama — a former constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago Law School — was asked what he hoped to accomplish during his first 100 days in office.

“I would call my attorney general in and review every single executive order issued by George Bush and overturn those laws or executive decisions that I feel violate the constitution,” said Obama

Other goals for his first 100 days: work out a plan to withdraw troops from Iraq; make progress on alternative energy plans and launch legislation to reform the health care system.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Rick Wilking (Obama talks to students during a visit to a school in Thornton, CO) 

WASHINGTON - In a rare display of political harmony, Democrats and Republicans on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee came together on behalf of presidential candidate Sen. John McCain.

On a 19-0 vote on Thursday, they approved a sense of the Senate resolution that declares McCain is indeed a “natural born” U.S. citizen and thus eligible under the Constitution to be president.

Questions have been raised because McCain was born outside of the United States — to Americans parents on a military base in 1936 in the Panama Canal Zone, then under U.S. control.

McCain, a Republican, insists he meets the “natural born” requirement. Many Democrats and Republicans agree. But the Senate panel approved the resolution and sent it to the full Senate for a vote as a statement and precautionary move.

A sense of the Senate resolution is not binding. But if there is a court challenge of McCain’s eligibility, it could help influence the decision.

“The Senate should adopt this resolution and put to rest any question of Sen. McCain’s status as a ‘natural born citizen’,” said Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and a chief sponsor of the resolution.

Senate backers include Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who are competing for the Democratic presidential nomination and the right to face McCain in the November election. 

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Jose Gomez