I had a roommate once who asked me to leave the phone in my name when I moved out. He was low on cash and didn’t want to pay the installation fees. He gave me his word of honor that he would pay the bills and switch it over to his name as soon as he could. But, he broke his word and didn’t pay the bills. When I confronted him and asked him to give me the money he owed me, he refused. So, I knocked him unconscious. I never got my money, but he had to pay nonetheless.
Today the Democratic Party is in the same situation with George W. Bush that I was in with my roommate. George W. Bush took an oath to “faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
He has been caught red-handed not only failing to preserve and protect those laws, but breaking them. And, like my roommate, when he was confronted he refused to make things right. He told all American citizens to ‘go get fucked’.
In these circumstances, there is nothing left to do but knock George W. Bush out.
Prior to the NSA scandal and, more importantly, Bush’s response to the NSA scandal, it was possible for reasonable Americans to disagree over whether the President had betrayed his trust and should be removed from office. Now there is nothing more to debate.
The latest Newsweek has revelations about some of the courageous people in the Justice Department that have been trying to rein in the wanton criminality of the Bush administration. Newsweek uses unusually strong language to characterize what these lawyers were up against.
These Justice Department lawyers, backed by their intrepid boss [James] Comey, had stood up to the hard-liners, centered in the office of the vice president, who wanted to give the president virtually unlimited powers in the war on terror. Demanding that the White House stop using what they saw as farfetched rationales for riding rough-shod over the law and the Constitution, [Jack] Goldsmith and the others fought to bring government spying and interrogation methods within the law. They did so at their peril; ostracized, some were denied promotions, while others left for more comfortable climes in private law firms and academia. Some went so far as to line up private lawyers in 2004, anticipating that the president’s eavesdropping program would draw scrutiny from Congress, if not prosecutors. These government attorneys did not always succeed, but their efforts went a long way toward vindicating the principle of a nation of laws and not men.
That is strong stuff. But it is not surprising. We are in a full-fledged constitutional crisis. Bush is asking his own party, a party with a strong and admirable legacy of libertarianism, to take his side over the side of the constitution. Bush’s decision to inflict this pain on his party is bad enough, but to do it to them in an election year is excruciating. The Republicans know that their President has overstepped his bounds and asserted executive powers that do not exist. They know all their talking points are lies.
In these circumstances we should not even be debating the wisdom of putting Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court. Samuel Alito was selected because he is one of the few judges in the country that might rule in Bush’s favor if and when his assertions of executive power come before the court. Voting for Alito is no different than endorsing the erasure of the 4th amendment.
The Democratic activists understand this. The party in Washington is coming around. We have no choice but to reassert the separation of powers and to forcefully declare the Bush administration as accountable before the law. If they will not back down to Congress, Bush AND Cheney will have to be removed from office by Congress.
That is how the system is designed to work. The Republicans understand this. The Democrats need to start insisting that their colleagues across the aisle act to protect their own prerogatives. And that starts with a filibuster of Alito.
Anyone want to print this out and fax it to a wavering Senator?
It is superb. A hard punch.
I’m sending this baby around.
(Martin, you’re scary when you’re pissed!)
It’s cross-posted.
Filibuster swing votes, and other actions you can take: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/1/29/115823/110
And, as has been historically the case, we will first have to push most Democratic politicans to get on board with their constituents (who do seem by and large to get the problem.) I mean this beyond making them at least make a pretense of a filibuster.
What’s important to understand is this is not something new. It has always taken a grassroots uprising to get all but the very best Democrats going in a principled direction. Don’t think that during the Civil Rights movement or the anti-Vietnam war movement that the equivalent pols just came around. They were begged, interrupted, picketed and primaried until they got it. Damnit Janet’s diary about taking on Hilary is the kind of stuff this may take to put some stuffing into our “friends.” It works.
Peace
Perfectly said.
Mary, I wrote to Larisa at Raw Story and told her that likely you and I will be listening for sure and that we’ll try to do a bit of live blogging .. I’m not guaranteeing anything because it can be difficult to type that fast … and sometimes I’d rather just listen. 11pm PT.
It won’t let me register — when I click on either of the mirror links it just takes me to the page that say the page is unavailable or can’t be found. I’ll keep trying.
Dang it. But Larisa did say it would be on Air America radio — although that — I don’t think Air America does any live radio that late — but we can try it.
I checked Air America’s site and didn’t see any info about it.
yeah, the Young Turks need to redo their site.
I’ve got it through itunes.
Tres cool. I’m not very iTunes-literate.
btw, someone posted this alternate listening link because Young Turks has gotten overloaded, or something … but that’s supposed to work.
and SOMEONE’s diary is in the recommended list. Not a surprise.
Thank you for your succinct appraisal of American reality in the early beginnings of 2006.
I miss the old days Mr. Boo and I miss John Lennon awfully too. Sometimes even though there’s no soundtrack to the Tribune … I hear the song of his heart in your words.
That’s why I come here.
knockout=impeach
CHARGE!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, I’d say George has a phone bill that’s way overdue and your collection style, with interest added, would fit nicely.
Great diary.
I linked to that Newsweek article in a diary comment here somewhere this morning. I had the same thoughts about considering the source and the angle it took making it more damning than it seemed before.
Amen
Time to come out swinging.
BooMan, Meagert is down below in the Open Thread laughing his ass off after reading your first paragraph .. and he can’t stop laughing long enough to post up here. Kinda cute.
you go, booman!!! Tell it like it is!!! KO in the first round…booman th echamp!!!
Hear, hear! Brilliantly said.
I almost had to do the same thing. Luckily, the guy was pretty easily intimidated so I got everything back a couple weeks later.
Oh, and Bush and Chaney both need an ass kicking too.
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