Impeachment

By Ruth Conniff, http://progressive.org

What sense does it make that some of the same Washington media and political leaders who countenanced the Clinton impeachment over a semen-stained dress, somberly intoning about the "rule of law," consider impeaching Bush beyond the pale?

From the Impeach Bush Coalition:

Tom Delay (R-TX):
"This nation sits at a crossroads. One direction points to the higher road of the rule of law. Sometimes hard, sometimes unpleasant, this path relies on truth, justice and the rigorous application of the principle that no man is above the law. Now, the other road is the path of least resistance. This is where we start making exceptions to our laws based on poll numbers and spin control. This is when we pitch the law completely overboard when the mood fits us, when we ignore the facts in order to cover up the truth.

by Kagro X, www.dailykos.com

Have you heard the news? Daniel Schorr says "nobody's talking about impeachment." Charles Krauthammer says impeachment talk is "nonsense." And Jonah Goldberg says impeachment will actually help W's poll numbers.

By Marty Luster, Ithaca Journal (New York)

As if the lies that took us to Iraq were not enough. As if the knowing use of bad intelligence wasn't enough. As if the ever- shifting justifications for this war were not enough. As if the use of torture by and at the behest of the United States was not enough. As if the disclosure of classified information to retaliate against a critic of the war policy was not enough. As if the shroud of secrecy that binds this administration was not enough. As if the squandering of hundreds of billions of dollars in support of this war at a time when we can't find the money to rebuild one of our great cities, when millions of us go without health care and when the federal government has reneged on its commitment to public education was not enough.

By Katrina vanden Heuvel, Huffington Post

In the late 1990s, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, currently under indictment on corruption charges, proclaimed: "This nation sits at a crossroads. One direction points to the higher road of the rule of law.... The other road is the path of least resistance" in which "we pitch the law completely overboard when the mood fits us...[and] close our eyes to the potential lawbreaking...and tear an unfixable hole in our legal system." That arbiter of moral politics, Tom DeLay, was incensed about the danger of letting Bill Clinton escape unpunished for his "crimes"--lying about sex.

Elsy Fors (Prensa Latina)

Next year might be decisive for US President George W. Bush, accused of lying, showing total disregard for US and international laws, Constitution violations, living in a bubble, promoting abuses, torture, indefinite detention of and spying on US citizens and foreigners.

By Dave Lindorff, http://www.thiscantbehappening.net

The uproar over the spying on Americans' telephone and email communications that has followed publication of an expose by the New York Times, which has included the first calls in Congress for censure or impeachment, makes it clear that this is an issue that resonates across party lines.

By RALPH NADER

Richard Cohen, the finely-calibrated syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, wrote a column on October 28, 2004 which commenced with this straight talk: "I do not write the headlines for my columns. Someone else does. But if I were to write the headline for one, it would be 'Impeach George Bush'."

James R. Carroll's: Notes from Washington
Louisville Courier-Journal

President Bush's authorization of domestic spying by the National Security Agency has prompted a couple of Democrats to mention the possibility of impeaching him over abuse of power.

By the Santiago Times

Bush’s Slippery Slope Leads To A Police State, Plain And Simple

(Dec. 21, 2005, Ed. Note: It is a sad state of affairs to have the President of the United States admit to the nation and to the world that he is spying on the citizens he is elected to safeguard.

By Andy Ostroy, www.opednews.com

Back in December of 1998, a highly partisan U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Bill Clinton, making him just the second U.S. president in history to be impeached since Andrew Johnson in 1868 following the Civil War. Clinton's offense? Lying under oath about his unimpressive high-school-quality sexual dalliances with intern Monica Lewinsky. Pretty tame stuff, and not quite a threat to anyone or anything except a flimsy red dress and a Rhodes Scholar's dignity.

Bush Impeachment Process Will Begin Early January, 2006
By William McGinnis

Conservative Republicans Will Join Democrats To Remove The Dangerous, Out-Of-Control President-King Before He Does More Harm.

By Stephen Crockett
http://www.opednews.com

The generation of American leaders who fought the American Revolution and crafted the United States Constitution examined the most important issues of government. They considered (1) war and peace, (2 ) the limits to government power vs. individual liberties, (3) how officeholders should be controlled by the citizenry and (4) the raising and management of public money. That generation devised impeachment to remove tyrants and corrupt officeholders from positions of public power based on their experience under the government of King George. Under the present circumstances, it is likely that they would vote to impeach and remove from office George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Check out these follow ups (one, two) to MyDD's excellent earlier post on the Washington Post's poor excuse for a pollster.

And here's Digby and more Digby.

Nicholas F. Benton, www.FCNP.com

The nation is at one of its most precarious junctures ever at this very time.

If it fails to call the president to account for his admission of a widespread disregard for the rule of law, involving in principle and fact the most invasive violation of the public’s civil liberties possible by any government, then a critical moment will have passed. A precedent will be set that will forevermore forfeit the public’s right to privacy, to live free of Big Brother.

By Dan Froomkin, WashingtonPost.com

Howard Fineman writes in his Newsweek column: "We are entering a dark time in which the central argument advanced by each party is going to involve accusing the other party of committing what amounts to treason. Democrats will accuse the Bush administration of destroying the Constitution; Republicans will accuse the Dems of destroying our security. . . .

Editor & Publisher

Suddenly this week, scattered outposts in the media have started mentioning the "I" word, or at least the "IO" phrase: impeach or impeachable offense.

The sudden outbreak of anger or candor - or, some might say, foolishness - has been sparked by the uproar over revelations of a White House approved domestic spying program, with some conservatives joining in the shouting.

Here is a list of co-sponsors for the various Iraq Report Resolutions. Already there are seven cosponsors of a bill to create an investigation and make recommendations on impeachment, four cosponsors on a bill to censure Bush, and five cosponsors on a bill to censure Cheney.

Conyers seeks impeachment inquiry over domestic spying
Associated Press /
December 21, 2005

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney has called for "strong and robust" presidential powers, saying executive authority was eroded during the Watergate and Vietnam eras. Some lawmakers objected that President Bush's decision to spy on Americans to foil terrorists showed he was flexing more muscle than the Constitution allows.

Mark Leno represents San Francisco in the state assembly. This opinion piece appears in the Dec. 21-27 issue of the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

The horror, lies, corruption, deceit, death, and destruction of the Bush-Cheney administration have all evolved to a scale beyond any of our worst nightmares. Our once-great nation has been reduced to a preemptive war machine, squandering our limited national resources on its imperial conquests while our domestic needs are left unattended.

An unscientific online survey at MSNBC (which has thus far refused to do a real poll on the topic)

Do you believe President Bush's actions justify impeachment? * 61295 responses

By News Hounds

Napolitano: in retrospect, Clinton crime not impeachable offense

Newsweek's Howard Fineman begins an article with the headline: "The 'I Word'" and this subheadline: "Expect 2006 to offer up Nixon-era nastiness and a chorus of calls to impeach Bush." And he ends with this paragraph:

By Joe Conason, The New York Observer

Recklessly and audaciously, George W. Bush is driving the nation whose laws he swore to uphold into a constitutional crisis. He has claimed the powers of a medieval monarch and defied the other two branches of government to deny him. Eventually, despite his party’s monopoly of power, he may force the nation to choose between his continuing degradation of basic national values and the terrible remedy of impeachment.

http://impeachthesonofabitch.com/

Times don't get more serious than this; it is time for the most serious of measures.

Every American generation has a moment when it is called upon to do its part to preserve the freedom and higher values of our country. This is our moment.

By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective, www.truthout.org

The framers of the Constitution devised an elaborate system of checks and balances to ensure our liberty by making sure that no person, institution or branch of government became so powerful that a tyranny could be established in the United States of America. Impeachment is one of the checks the framers gave the Congress to prevent the executive or judicial branches from becoming corrupt or tyrannical.

www.DemocracyNow.org

We speak with Congressman John Conyers (D - MI) introduced measures to censure President Bush and Vice President Cheney for misleading lawmakers on the decision to go to war in Iraq. Conyers is also seeking the creation of a select committee to investigate the Administration's possible crimes and make recommendations regarding grounds for impeachment.

Censure and Impeachment
By David Swanson, censurebush.org

Censure is not the enemy of impeachment, any more than impeaching Bush prevents impeaching Cheney. We have a tendency to jump five steps ahead of ourselves in order to find imaginary problems.