Impeachment: The Time Has Come!
From other people on the anti-Bushite blogosphere, hearing the idea that it’s time to impeach Bush and Cheney would hardly be noteworthy. A great many commentators have been saying that for some time.
I think they’ve been mistaken– till now. While I’ve agreed that Bush and Cheney deserve impeachment –have said, indeed, that no one in American history has deserved it more– I’ve never considered that to be a sufficient basis for making such a judgment about what should be done. My approach has always been more strategic than that. I’m concerned not only with the rightness of an action, but with its impact. And a premature effort to move toward impeachment, I thought, might actually have strengthened the Bushites by weaking their opponents.
When many were condemning Nancy Pelosi for declaring impeachment to be “off the table,” I did not join in the criticism. I thought it a politically prudent statement to make, given the apparent skittishness of the American electorate at that time about impeachment and, more generally, about so-called “partisanship.” For that time, it was probably reassuring to many in the public and it in no way impaired the ability to put impeachment back onto the table when circumstances changed.
Well, now they’ve changed. And now it is time to begin the drumbeat and the march toward impeachment. (Pelosi’s situation does remain delicate, however: if Bush and Cheney are both impeached, guess who is next in the line of succession.)
There have been three important changes since last November’s election.
First, in the first half year of this Congress, after years of virtually no congressional oversight, the investigative hearings conducted by the Democratic Congress have brought a whole stream of administration wrong-doing to the attention of the American people.
Second, and likely at least partially as a result of the first, the proportion of the American public now favoring movement toward impeachment has reached a stunning level. Almost half of the public (46%) favors the impeachment of the president, and more than half (54%) favors the impeachment of the vice president. These are already numbers that greatly limit the political risk to the Democrats in pressing forward with impeachment. And it can be assumed that the actual impeachment process –if it is conducted with reasonable political and prosecutorial skill- would raise those numbers considerably. It looks as though about 30% of the public will support Bush regardless of any facts presented about any high crimes he has committed, but there remains an additional quarter of the public whose support might still be won over to supporting impeachment.
Then there’s the third important change –and in some respects it might be the most important one. And that is that the Bushites –by their arrogance, their stonewalling, their imperial usurpations– have quite blatantly and publicly blocked every other recourse.
Just in the past month:
**Their indefensible assertions of “executive privilege” are thwarting the other, lesser forms of congressional investigation into the wrongdoings of the Bush presidency. Battling these issues out in the courts would drag on for so long as to give this lawless regime a victory by default.
**Meanwhile the vice president’s machinations have compounded the message of contempt for the public’s right to oversee what is being done by their elected leaders with the power entrusted to them.
**The president’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s sentence has made a mockery of the ability of the justice system to deal with criminal activity on the part of this cabal and, moreover, has blocked the ability of prosecutors to get to the root of the crimes committed.
With all these maneuvers, the Bush administration has laid down the gauntlet. It has precipitated the ultimate in constitutional crises: will America be ruled by an all-powerful president, accountable neither to Congress nor to the courts nor to the American public?
The answer to that question must be “No!” For the sake of future generations, American cannot afford to allow this profound constitutional challenge to go unmet.
Andit is the Bushite regime, by blocking every other recourse –for oversight, for accountability, for checks and balances– that has made impeachment the sole remaining way to defend the integrity of America’s constitutional system and the rule of law.
So, the impeachment solution is now necessary. The polls show that, while inevitably risk, that course of action should be politically viable. And so it is now up to the American body politic –the public, the Congress, the media– to summon up the will.
July 16th, 2007 at 9:34 am
YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
July 16th, 2007 at 9:39 am
I’ll be forwarding this article to my congressman!
July 16th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Of course because of the possibility of “false flag” potential, the impeachment process may hasten the martial law eventuality that Bush signed into law just recently. There are so many examples of “security services” implementing false flag operations just to manipulate public opinion. They’ve so much practice. I’ve known 3 guys who signed out of the CIA because they could not allow themselves to participate in such activities any more. There are are many signs that something is brewing in the Dark Cauldron of that extra-every law office in the inhabitant who would look so at home in an SS uniform. Let us not forget the Reichstag fire and the Polish mentally ill patient they placed in the ashes and said, “See, the Communists did it!” We don’t instinctively feel anyone could do such an awful thing. But, given Cheney’s absurd obviously cooked up story about his 9/11 day responses in the Washington Monthly, these folk may just do it. Such desperate attempts to secure power brings to mind Lord Acton’s warning and Machievelli’s musings about what a prince must do. Impeachment has never been more just, but….
July 16th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
It is my belief that this action is long over due. I believe it is necessary. History is watching us………..other nations are watching us. Are we a Democracy?……..did we judge others for allowing Hitler to do what he did when people faced death literally for opposing him. What excuse do we have? Bush has said “war is peace”……that line was in George Orwells book……………
July 16th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
On last week’s Bill Moyers Journal, journalist Josh Holland and constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein laid out their well researched case for impeachment. Fein, a legal scholar, a conservative who actually drew up the papers for Bill Clinton’s impeachment, made a potent point of saying the usurping of extraordinary powers by the bushies will set a precedent for the next administration, whether democratic or republican. Unless checked now, unless we challenge their illegal power grab, the next president will inherit these unconstitutional powers, thereby forever undermining our democracy. An all-powerful Hillary or Obama’s democratic presidency should be the fearsome image, the very possibility of which would instigate former opponents of impeachment to enjoin conservatives to the impeachment cause. Progressives and liberals, independents and wary conservatives already seem inclined to endorse articles of impeachment be brought against Bush/Cheney. Republicans and true conservatives, fearful of the repercussions of a unitary, all-poweful DEMOCRAT in charge, will fall over themselves to demand impeachment. Only those 26%-ers, too brainwashed to be reached, would voice dissent. The crimes committed by the bushites have been well-documented. They are legion. The highest of all high crimes and the lowest of all low misdemeanors have already been exposed. It is our duty as American citizens to use this appropriate tool given us by our founders to protect and defend our constitution and our country from these enemies within!
July 16th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
I’m very sorry. John Nichols was the co-debater on Bill Moyers Journal. Perhaps it was my supreme excitement at actually hearing the “I” word on my teevee!! Josh Holland is an excellent journalist who I much admire who probably would be flattered at the comparison.
July 16th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
I applaud Bill Moyers for his bold step in bringing this issue forward in this way. It is a visionary act on his part, and he chose well in bringing the guy from the right and the guy from the left together.
Now we’ve got to think of all the other ways we can advance this issue.
July 16th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
I think you have made yourself very clear; no question about it.
Kassandra’s comment matches closest my own feelings, and views about this matter, in addition to yours, Andy.
July 16th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
We have reached the point where there is no longer any down side to impeachment. The idea that it would not be strategically wise to go ahead as it would bog congress down and prevent the democrats from launching all the progressive programs ballyhooed in January has been thoroughly exploded. There is now everything to gain by proceeding as nothing can be accomplished by proceeding as usual except to allow the Bushites to drive us further into global shame and disaster. David Loye
July 18th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Here is a reply letter that I received from Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), after I urged him to join the impeachment movement:
“Thank you for letting me know you think the House of Representatives should consider impeaching President Bush and Vice President Cheney. I appreciate your taking the time to get in touch.
The Constitution says “The President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States” can be removed from office upon impeachment for and conviction of “Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors.” The House of Representatives has the sole power of impeachment, and the Senate has the sole power of trying a person who has been impeached. The Constitution defines “treason,” and the meaning of “bribery” is generally well understood, but just what other offenses constitute “high crimes and misdemeanors” for purposes of impeachment is a matter of longstanding debate – as demonstrated when the House debated and adopted articles of impeachment against President Clinton. That was the second time a President was impeached, and the second time that the Senate failed to convict, leaving the President in office.
I am not a lawyer, and cannot claim to be an expert on impeachment. However, based on what I know now, I am not persuaded that it would be appropriate for the House to consider impeaching either the President or Vice President. I opposed going to war in Iraq and disagree with many other policies of the Bush Administration, and will work to change those policies. But at this point I think those changes should come through the normal legislative and political processes, rather than through impeachment.
Thanks again for contacting me. I welcome your letters and e-mails and always listen closely to what you and other Coloradans have to say.”
July 19th, 2007 at 3:26 am
Thanks for the report, Jim Z.
Any chance of your writing a follow-up?
I’d write something along the lines of this, starting with your congressman’s statement, “I am not persuaded that it would be appropriate for the House to consider impeaching either the President or Vice President.”
I would ask what it would take to persuade him. I would ask if he is saying that he is not persuaded that they’ve committed the very kinds of “high crimes” that concerned our Founders? And if that’s what he means, is he interested in seeing where genuine legal scholars and prosecutors lay out a powerful and elaborate case that indeed impeachable offenses have occurred.
I would ask, if it is not the question of impeachable offenses, whether he’s not persuaded that it would be politically wise to take that course. And if that’s the case, I’d inquire: what sense of obligation did he think he assumed when he took his oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States?
July 19th, 2007 at 11:26 am
great to see this info in print. too many americans are still in denial of this criminal administration.
July 20th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
I have not supported impeachment up until now. I have always felt that it was a waste of time and would have little to no impact as Bush and his cronies would be gone by the time the process would be completed.
After recent events, including the VP claiming to not be part of the Executive Branch despite having the ability to declare Executive Privelege, the manner in which a former Supreme Court Justice nominee has ignored subpoenas, an Attorney General who has been caught in more lies than a hooker and the recent claim of Executive Privelege over the death of a US soldier despite the family requesting that the information be released; I have officially come to believe that impeachment is the only option.
Regardless of when it finally concludes, America must impeach this administration for our own sake. Never have our laws and Constitution been so ignored and trampled upon as under this gang. A message must be sent for future Presidents.
The time for impeachment has now come.
July 20th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Pelosi has been threatened, bribed, or probably both. She is a coward and should be replaced at once. She smugly refers to ‘the will of the American people’ when it suits her, but ignores the same ‘will’ when it doesn’t. The same polls that she quotes to shame the Bush whitehouse show that the American people have even less use for (her) congress than they do for Bush. She and Reid are the best thing that has happened to the republican party since Reagan. I wish Lyndon Johnson were still alive to give Pelosi a good spanking.
July 20th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Impeachment is not a dirty word. Impeachment was included in the Constitution by the Founders to enable the Legislative Branch to hold the Executive and Judicial Branches accountable for their actions. Over the course of time the Executive Branch has attempted to drum into us the perception that it is a radical action amounting to a coup d’etat. It is not.
Alexander Hamilton (not exactly a flaming liberal), in Federalist 65, explained that the subjects of impeachments are “those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or … from the abuse or violation of some public trust.” He goes on to say that the true spirit of impeachment is “designed as a method of NATIONAL INQUEST into the conduct of public men”.
In many ways therefore impeachment can be an educational process. Assuming that the Congressional hearings would be covered by the media at least as zealously as Paris Hilton’s incarceration, people would have an opportunity to gain an insight into the operations and motives of our current employees in the Executive Branch. Can anyone doubt that the public needs and deserves enlightenment into this Administration’s activities both domestically and in foreign affairs?
Impeachment is the appropriate teaching device if Congress has the will to employ it.
July 21st, 2007 at 5:03 pm
I too thought it would be a waste of time impeaching bush and chaney.Now is the time the democrats should start impeaching both men.Bush and chaney have failed to keep faith with the American people.They should have gone after the taliban first. Cutting taxes and then spending billions of dollars while health care keeps going up and gas prices are going through the roof.Now bush is ignoring congress and that should be cause enough.Lets get it done!
July 21st, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Let me just say, a propos of your comment, Billy Roberts, that the reasons for impeachment are many, but simply bad policies and bad choices (like blowing the anti-Taliban effort) are not legitimate reasons for impeachment. Bad government is undesirable but not unconstitutional. It’s the violation of law and Constitution that are the “high crimes” calling for impeachment.
July 21st, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Win, lose or draw, impeachment these guys is the way to go! If either Cheney or Bush sould escape conviction in the senate it will have at least slowed them down considerably. The appointed Bushites will be far more hesitatent to carry out ‘extreme’ orders knowing that they could be next.
I can’t help but wonder if it wouldn’t be prudent to impeach Gonzales first. For basically the same reason as above. If we were to begin the proceedings of impeachment against Gonzales we might find the Justice Department a bit more helpful. My point is; if we can just get the House to begin the march to impeaching these guys then the White House is going to clam up amd little if anything harmful can take place while the WH is under seige.