Charlie Sykes is really not very bright, is he

Or else he is very bright and cynically panders to the collection of dim bulbs that comprise his discipleship. Local AM radio buffoon Charlie Sykes is troubled by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's assertion that "the power of Congress to regulate health care is essentially unlimited."

Except to the extent that health care has an effect on and is affected by commerce among the several States (which is a very large extent indeed), Pelosi's statement is right on the money, and she can claim several decades worth of U.S. Supreme Court decisions for support.

Try as Charlie Sykes might, he won't find any "limit" on that regulatory power mentioned in Art. I, Sec. 8 of the U.S. Constitution.

And guess who helped author one of the most recent of those decisions reaffirming the reach of the federal legislative branch's constitutionally enumerated power over interstate commerce? You are correct: Conservative hero and avatar Justice Antonin Scalia.

He said even if you were just growing a couple of weeds in your living room for personal, medicinal purposes, the feds could still come and throw your sorry keister in prison, on an interstate commerce theory.

So, yeah, essentially unlimited.

Incidentally, the otherwise highly commendable link aggregator WisOpinion.com counts Charlie Sykes's one- and two-sentence gibberishes among its "Featured Blogs." Nobody really knows why.

This ridiculous clown but not, for example, the fabulous Jill Sixpack.

Fortunately we can (and do) know better.