Via the Hillary ’08 Fact Hub blog, here is John Edwards dismissing concerns last week about the constitutionality of his questionable proposal to strip health insurance from members of Congress if they don’t create universal coverage (see here and here):

[CNN’S WOLF] BLITZER: You’ve also suggested that if the Congress doesn’t pass universal health care, you would, as president, take away health care insurance, health care privileges for members of Congress, to which the Clinton campaign issued a statement saying: ”Senator Edwards is proposing unconstitutional gimmickry to pass universal health care.” Would this be constitutional or unconstitutional simply to strip members of Congress of their health care given the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches?

EDWARDS: Well, first of all, when I talk about shaking up Washington and making this place actually work for the American people, it is an interesting thing to watch that the people who are inside Washington, including Senator Clinton and her campaign, they circle the wagons and start protecting Washington politicians.

Who cares? I mean, what this is — the answer to the question is, yes, the president of the United States has enormous power. He has the veto power over the budget. The president of the United States has the bully pulpit to make this proposal to America and to the Congress and to go around America — by the way, every Democrat would vote for universal health care. So it would not be an issue for Democrats.
But if you go across this country and say, “Your Congressman or your Congresswoman is for their own health care and their family’s health care but they’re not for health care for you” — the whole point of this is to shake the place up.

And it’s fascinating to watch how quickly Washington insiders, including the Clinton campaign, rally the forces and circle the wagons to protect politicians instead of talking about what we can do together to bring universal health care to the country. I will be the first to tell you, I’m going in there to shake the place up and make it work for America.

Did Edwards really say “Who cares?” about the constitutionality of his proposal? I don’t know what his inflection sounded like in the video, but it certainly looks bad in print. As far as substance, his answer makes no sense. Even if his proposal were to be found to be constitutional, Congress would have to pass it into law. The president’s veto power is irrelevant.