I missed it, but my friend and former Spinsanity co-editor Ben Fritz points out that Tim Russert, who is legendary for his preparation, apparently asked some pretty inane questions of Ron Paul. My favorite is this exchange:

MR. RUSSERT: You say you’re a strict constructionist of the Constitution, and yet you want to amend the Constitution to say that children born here should not automatically be U.S. citizens.

REP. PAUL: Well, amending the Constitution is constitutional. What’s a–what’s the contradiction there?

MR. RUSSERT: So in the Constitution as written, you want to amend?

REP. PAUL: Well, that’s constitutional, to do it. Besides, it was the 14th Amendment. It wasn’t in the original Constitution. And there’s a, there’s a confusion on interpretation. In the early years, it was never interpreted that way, and it’s still confusing because people–individuals are supposed to have birthright citizenship if they’re under the jurisdiction of the government. And somebody who illegally comes in this country as a drug dealer, is he under the jurisdiction and their children deserve citizenship? I think it’s awfully, awfully confusing, and, and I, I–matter of fact, I have a bill to change that as well as a Constitutional amendment to clarify it.

Does Russert even know what “strict constructionist” means? Being one certainly doesn’t mean that you can’t amend the constitution. If it did, then constructionists would have to oppose the Bill of Rights, the end of slavery, giving women the right to vote, etc. The whole line of questioning makes no sense.