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Impeachment At All Costs |
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The likelihood of Congress starting impeachment hearings against President Bush seems low at the moment. Even though impeachment hearings require only a majority vote in the House of Representatives to get started, something the Democrats could easily muster, party leadership has repeatedly come out against it. Nancy Pelosi couldn’t be any clearer when she said, “that impeachment is off the table; she is not interested in pursuing it.”
The oft cited reason for not impeaching Bush is that even though he has committed “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the standard required for impeachment (see NSA wiretapping, the Valerie Plame leak, misleading intelligence in the run up to Iraq), most democrats continue to maintain that they have more important things to do with their time. Senator Russ Feingold pretty much sums up the thinking:
I believe that the President and Vice President may well have committed impeachable offenses. But with so many important issues facing this country and so much work to be done, I am concerned about the great deal of time multiple impeachment trials would take away from the Congress working on the problems of the country. The time it would take for the House to consider articles of impeachment, and for the Senate to conduct multiple trials, would make it very difficult, if not impossible, for Congress to do what it was elected to do – end the war and address some of the other terrible mistakes this Administration has made over the past six and a half years.
And you know what, they would be right, mostly. There are a lot of important issues facing our nation right now, issues that deserve time and attention. But impeachment is one of those issues, and I can’t help but suspect that the Democrats are using these explanations as excuses to cover their political maneuvers. They are set to cruise into the White House in 2008, and they don’t want to jeopardize their chances with impeachment hearings.
The arguments for impeachment are common knowledge. The crimes of the Bush administration go way beyond simple politics, and the repercussions of not strongly punishing the current administration for their transgressions is going to cause us problems for years, if not decades to come. As Kagro X has pointed out, Bush and Cheney are playing for keeps. They hope to use their power to entrench neocon principles at every level of government, and right now, it seems like they are winning. Stuffing the courts and U.S. Attorney General’s office with political appointees? Check. Expanding executive power with signing statements and overwhelming secrecy? Check. Claiming executive privilege over every little thing? Check. Tax cuts and money for faith based organizations? Check. In short, Bush and Cheney are trying to win the future by instilling their values in all sorts of places, places that will be hard to reform later.
This is why impeachment is necessary. Without a strong rebuke to a renegade President, you risk handing off incredible power and a corrupt system to our future leaders, who are going to have some real trouble cleaning up the mess. John Nichols, a correspondent for The Nation, puts it another way:
Let’s say that– when George Washington chopped down the cherry tree, he used the wood to make a little box. And in that box the president puts his powers. We’ve taken things out. We’ve put things in over the years.
On January 20th, 2009, if George Bush and Dick Cheney are not appropriately held to account this administration will hand off a toolbox with more powers than any president has ever had, more powers than the founders could have imagined. And that box may be handed to Hillary Clinton or it may be handed to Mitt Romney or Barack Obama or someone else. But whoever gets it, one of the things we know about power is that people don’t give away the tools. They don’t give them up. The only way we take tools out of that box is if we sanction George Bush and Dick Cheney now and say the next president cannot govern as these men have.
So, let’s combine the arguments. The Democrats feel that if they do start impeachment hearings, and they end up looking like the Republicans after the Clinton debacle, they might just blow their chance at the Presidency. So, they sit on their hands and make excuses. Now, for the record, I don’t think you can compare impeachment proceedings against Bush with those against Clinton. The Clinton proceedings were an aberration, a mistake, whereas Bush impeachment proceedings have the support of the people and are backed by real crimes. But even if you take the Democrats’ implicit argument at face value, that they will lose in 2008 if they impeach, I argue that they should impeach anyway. That’s right. Even if it costs them the White House and some seats in Congress, the Democrats should impeach Bush anyway. Why?
There is a lot at stake, and so a strong rebuke is necessary. Realistically, it is doubtful that Bush or Cheney would be convicted. But even so, an impeachment hearing would be the kind of strong message we need to send to prevent a permanently shifted political system in the future. We’ve seen the horrors that a powerful, King-like executive can wreak on the country. I don’t want to hand that kind of power or precedent to any other elected official. Even if impeachment cost Democrats their support, and even if impeachment fails, there is no way Republican challengers would be able to run a Bush style Presidency. Republican candidates are staying as far away from Bush as they can, and impeachment would only drive them away further. So, I’d be willing to put a Republican in the White House if it meant the current administration’s plans are destroyed. I’d be willing to take four years of limp Republican rule if it meant that the neocon legacy that Bush and Cheney are quietly building is dismantled forever. That’s a trade-off I’m willing to make, and I hope the Democrats realize that it isn’t about their candidacy, and it isn’t about their party. This is about permanently changing our country for the worse by passively affirming the expanded executive rights our President has claimed. I hope the Democrats realize that preventing this precedent is something worth sacrificing for. It certainly is something I think is worth sacrificing for, and I think that if they impeached, they’d make a yellow dog Democrat out of me and many others in this country. I feel it is the right thing to do. Do you?
I agree with you and anyone else how does should head over to http://www.impeachbush.org/ and act on it. Thanks for this post, my faith in America’s sanity is slowly coming back.
the idea that those who support impeachment would lose votes is a myth. the american people are pissed, and want the ideals of this country restored.
this talk about there being ‘a lot of important issues’ is nonsense. _the_ important issue is the complete trampling of the constituion, both our rights as citizens, and the gutting of checks and balances that this country was founded on.
the democrats do not wish to impeach because while they believe that the goals of the bush administration are bad, the tactics are sound and justified. they have a fantasy of winning the presidency and having the same situation that the republicans had for 6 years. they want to implement more large-scale federal pork programs (healthcare) which will have all the responsiveness of FEMA, DHS, TSA, et al, combined.
i’d been interested in a seeing a ron paul/dennis kucinich ticket. start dismantling this horrible machine of large federal government and support states in picking up the slack. do this in a way such that those who stand to benefit more in the long run (the poor and middle class), are not hurt in the short term (by wiping out programs they depend on, before the states can adequately respond)
i agree completely.
I totally agree mind, but as I’m trying to point out, that’s beyond the point. Even if it costs them in 2008, which is their implied argument, the Democrats should impeach anyway, mostly because, as you said, we need to dismantle the system that Bush and Cheney have set up to give the executive unchecked power. If the Dems had that kind of conviction, and made that kind of sacrifice, I think they’d turn a lot of people into lifelong yellow dogs for them. I know I would.
The Dems are waiting for the 2008 elections. If they don’t get their butts in gear, there won’t be any 2008 elections, and congress can have their sessions in one of those 80-odd concentration camps that our fearless leader has waiting for us.
Where are these camps ?
hello, micky
Do me a favor–do a Google search on the following:
Bush “detention camps”
Happy reading!
Agreed with micky. It is concerning that the administration is even considering this, but we sure aren’t in Auschwitz territory yet. It is something we need to watch, sure, but no concentration camps are imminent, in my opinion.
If something like this were to happen,it’s the reason we givin the right to own guns.
Well, Micky, I hope your right, but I think you’re wrong. There are a number of secret US prisons that we know about (more or less). There is a big jump from the fact that “we don’t know where they are” to the assumption that “therefore they don’t exist”. Obviously, if they don’t exist, you can’t know where they are. If they do exist, you are very unlikely to know where they are. If they do exist and there is a “false flag” event, there will be no need to use secret prisons off shore. Also, it this happens, a lot of people will, as the English say, go missing, and there has to be some place to stash them all (as opposed to just confiscating their property). If, at that time, you point all this out, you’ll find out where one of the secret prisons is!
g Anton said;
“There are a number of secret US prisons that we know about.”
You might want to reconsider that statement.{who’s we?}
Yesterday I saw this man squating on the sidewalk with his finger in a hole about the size of a dime. He sat there for about ten minutes with his finger in this hole Finally I walked up to him and asked him what he was doing. He said; ” If I take my finger out of the hole all the air will escape from the earth and will deflate. And then we’ll all fall off the planet and into space.”
Untill you can bring something substantial to bring to this debate besides suspicion, I suggest you put your energy into something that deserves more attention. Our country has bigger problems than to worry about something that no one has been able to prove for six years.
Do something to praise your country,we havnt been attacked since 911, and that is not luck. That is a result of the goverment you hate watching out for your ass, and be glad you’re here and not in Poland during WW11.
Because if you were, you would be able to see how utterly ridiculous and ugly your claims are.