they had questions that made it seem like it wasn t going to stand up. the president, who is a constitutional lawyer. taught in an elite university to suggest that the supreme court is unelected, that s by design. the fifth circuit, separation of powers, three branchs of government. the job is not to decide if the law has merit but to decide whether it s constitutional. that doesn t mean people don t want healthcare reform, because they do. but they are apt to argue on one point. the president made a bewildering, stunning comment. taunting the court is not attractive. andrea: exactly. not just from a president, but from an attorney to taunt judges. there are limits of what an attorney and lawyer can say to judges. the constitution is put in place to limit the expansion of government. that s how the founding
the democrats are doing the same thing. eric: bowerying the lead here, beckel burying the lead, beckel. president made harrial comments. the appeals court fired back at the obama administration in the last few minutes. it says the order by three judge panel of the u.s. court of appeals for the fifth circuit appears to be responding,ing can the obama administration to respond to what he meant about the shot he took at the supreme court. this is the court saying this is the way government is supposed to work in america. three branchs. judicial branch and let s leave it that way. bob: you are talking something that is unique to obama. it s unique to every president that don t have a court on their side. dana? dana: i find the administration s position completely bewildering. they did not do well last week when they made the argument. which they tried to make on the merit.
working americans. working american who is are unemployed or engineers or doctors, lawyers, teachers, firefighters the, i think are well qualified to work. then we add insult to injury, i m rushing to the floor to discuss budget amendments that are not a budget, about shortchanging so we can do taxes and not do revenue. isn t that a dream? i believe that divide government is now being put to the challenge. i believe in the constitution, three branchs of government. we can see in in congress, and i hope the american people can see, when we have this form of divided government, we re not getting anything done. we re listening to our friends in the tea party and others. for example, the president made an announcement that s been challenged on the floor as someone who is stamping on religion.
you were also homeland security adviser in the bush administration. what do you make of gadhafi s son, hits power? well, you know, suzanne, when i was there, i was there at the time of the air crash and i watched then the difficulty of journalists getting in and out of the country. i was able to report because i was already inside, but this is a country, a government, that very closely is controls all information all access, and power is highly centralized in a way that people in this country don t really appreciate. look, we have by our constitution three branchs of power, the executive, the legislative and the judiciary and there are all checks on the other. no such thing in libya. all power is centralized in moammar gadhafi, and his son saif is the heir apparent. he speaks fluent english, western educated, he was the
ordinary folks on questions about the u.s. constitution and basic civics. only 49% of them could name all three branchs of government, compared with 50% of the general public. 20% of elected official said the electoral college is a school for training those aspiring for higher political office. now the top story at the bottom of the hour. house voted to repeal the president s healthcare reform law. the yeas and nays were 245-189. and three democrats crossed over to vote with republicans in favor of repeal. one of the flash points in the debate over obamacare has been abortion funding. correspondent shannon breem looks at the emotional issue. reporter: it s been nearly ten months since president obama signed