Our motto is ‘We won’t rest until they’re frog-marched out’ and I am not going to abandon our creed just because we took back the Congress. But impeachment (and perhaps a preemptive Nixonian resignation) now seems like it is more likey than handcuffs. There are two factors that are forcing the country’s hand. First, there are Bush’s poll numbers, which are the lowest of his Presidency. And then, more significantly, there is this:
Former White House advisers to George H.W. Bush are keenly disappointed and concerned about the current President Bush’s initial reaction to the report by the Iraq Study Group.
They consider him rather dismissive of the group’s conclusions, issued yesterday, which include the view that current Iraq policy is failing. The group recommends a variety of important changes, such as assigning U.S. troops to play more of an advisory and training role and less of a combat role. The ISG also recommends that the United States withdraw most of its combat brigades by early 2008 and that the administration increase diplomatic efforts, including starting talks with
Iran and Syria and energetically working toward an Israeli-Palestinian solution.Adding to the unease were President Bush’s comments at his Thursday news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in which he avoided commenting on specifics in the ISG report.
“We have a classic case of circling the wagons,” says a former adviser to Bush the elder. “If President Bush changes his policy in Iraq in a fundamental way, it undermines the whole premise of his presidency. I just don’t believe he will ever do that.”
And, so, we are at the end of the road. We have exhausted all of our options short of impeachment. Jim Baker tried, but he failed. There is nothing left to do but remove him from office.
before he does a fire sale on some of the governmental agencies. EPA is being trashed, along with the GSA. We already know HSA is bunk!
I am referencing an article / interview from “Mother Jones”. I read a great article, quoted in part here, about the case for charging Bush / Cheney with fraud:
Elizabeth de la Vega has a book- Going After the Con-man-der in Chief- that gives the case for charging Bush with defrauding the US. According to her, this was done in Watergate.
From the article:
“There were many, but the main one is conspiracy to defraud the United States. That is Title 18, United States Code section 371. It’s a very old statute. The statue itself is really very simple: It says it’s against the law to conspire to defraud the United States. There are several very old cases where they define what that means. The statute is used a lot against defense contractors who present false information to get overpayments on their contracts. But it was also used against some defendants in Watergate and Iran-Contra. It seems kind of like a vague statute, but it’s actually very simple–it means using deceit of any kind in order to impair the function of a government agency. In this case, the deceit was the broad pattern of deception that the administration directed towards the public and Congress.”
May be easier and certainly a lot more straightforward than impeachment
Impeachment can be a punishment, or it can be a way to uphold the rule of law. But in our current circumstances it is neither. It is the constitutional way to deal with a President and Vice-President that have an ‘Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office[s].
It’s that simple.
Impeachment may also be the only way to stop these people from driving all of us off a very deep cliff, if it hasn’t already happened. If it has, we need all the time we can get to commence emergency aid.
INDICT!
With thanks to the late Johnny Cochrane for the basics of the phrase, it is only logical that if Bush does get impeached for high crimes, then he must also be indicted afterward because impeachment is not really justice for crimes committed. Furthermore as likely discussed previously, even if Bush is not impeached for whatever reasons (no political will or lack of time), he still should be indicted for any provable crimes that can be brought against him after he is out of office!
“It is the constitutional way to deal with a President and Vice-President that have an ‘Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office[s].”
Then after getting someone to discharge those duties, we get to the criminal aspects of why [Inability to discharge] & proceed with the rule of law. Like you say, Mr.Booman, there are two distinct levels and,on which, I believe this country MUST proceed. One is constitutional & one is legal, albeit intertwined, to a point, in this case.
One where I am this spouse who is mad as hell bent like a pretzel, and this other perspective that didn’t vote for any of this and can’t help but be a fascinated observer because I am forever intrigued by human behavior and how much of it can be habitual in spite of immense destruction caused by it in the past. George W has run everything he has ever led into the ground and I’m watching it again only on a global scale and I almost can’t believe my eyes. When your daddy calls James Baker in he’s called the big guns in. When you are dismissive of James Baker and friends and don’t know what is left for you in the Republican Party, I haven’t a clue who your friends could be from this point forward. In a way I almost fear for his life because he is running his party literally into the ground and holy shit, even LBJ had the balls not to do that utterly completely! This isn’t a running aground that your trust fund can save you from! I think his dad cried the other day knowing that Jeb the Bush hero child will never be president and old Bush feels like he deserved it but W ruined it. I don’t think another Bush will ever be president of the United States ever again either.
You bring up a touchy but important point. If it is true, as some suspect, that the Kennedys were killed by strident anti-communists that thought they were insufficiently hawkish, those same people could intervene again to solve what they perceive to be a foreign policy fiasco. But, I suspect Dubya is a made-man and cannot be touched.
That’s all pure conjecture (conspricacy thinking, if you will) but we have been fortunate that there have not been any efforts to assassinate our leaders since 1981. Given how polarizing Clinton and Bush have been, it’s a little surprising. But I’m not complaining. I’m very happy that the Secret Service seems to know what it is doing.
I think his dad cried the other day knowing that Jeb the Bush hero child will never be president and old Bush feels like he deserved it but W ruined it.
I wholeheartedly agree with your perceptions here!
I agree as well. I had the feeling I was watching the old man grieve the loss of his entire dynasty.
Or perhaps regret for ever encouraging son George to go into politics… realizing too late that Jeb was the more competant of the two…. or something. The wrong governor son got promoted to the big job.
(Not that I think Jeb is any great prize either… don’t know much about him.)
But yep, the Bush family legacy has gone totally sour and bad… W’s failed presidency will overshadow his father’s in the history books.
I hope to god you’re right. No Bush should ever have been president in thef first place — or anything else beyond lifetime McDonald’s clerks. The entire Bush saga defines the American Dream-Turned-Nightmare more perfectly than any recent episode that comes to mind: a textbook case of how far you can get with a mediocre intellect, inherited privilege, and obsessive lust for power. It gives the irrefutable lie to the faith that democracy = meritocracy.
Well, maybe then we can be grateful to Dear Leader for at least ridding us of the abominable Bush family. In the meantime, however, they’ve taken the money and run. Never forget that Jeb Bush was the bastard in the driver’s seat in Florida in 2000 when everything went fishy and almost started a local war because of the repugnants’ perverse public theater around Terri Schiavo.
I stand right with you, Boo, on this one and admire your strong public stand. I literally had chills running down my spine watching Bush’s reaction to the ISG report. The risk we take, not only for our own country, but for the rest of the world, by NOT acting decisively and soon, is more than I care to imagine.
The “Decider” is beginning to remind me of a former Ruler-of-the-World wannabee who spent his final days pushing nonexistent armies across maps while holed up in his bunker dreaming of victory.
On the one hand, I’m glad McKinney did this. If nothing else it was a big, black middle finger to His Nibs and to everyone who marginalized her while she was in office.
On the other hand, as Matt Pascarella points out in the article that Pagan Science Monitor cites in his (her? their?) recommended article today, the prospects of anything happening with this are rather gloomy, because she has been marginalized and because she is leaving office. But, if this gets the ball rolling on a discussion of high crimes and misdemeanors, that might be something at least.
Personally I think that if anything is going to happen with regard to impeachment, the people of this country are going to have to stand up and say “Off the table? Like hell it is!” and that is going to involve a good, solid, air-tight case as to why the President needs to be impeached. 40% of the country will be true believers who think somehow everyone else is out to “get” Bush. Hell, there are still people who think Nixon was framed. The job is going to convince the remaining 60% that he has to go.
The sooner we can do this, the better.
I would LOVE to see him impeached, it would just warm the cockles of my heart, it would make my day..week..month..year…
However, the downside is just too big.
First, because it means totally tying up our new House and Senate with this one project. Nothing else will get any attention in congress or in the press, all the possibilities for good, necessary, needed legislation will be swallowed up as various forces circle the wagons to defend their boy. As a lawyer, I am always amazed by the amount of effort it always take to do something which is so obviously right.
Second, you’ll get President Cheney.
Let Nancy and Harry work the House and Senate, and we can have a total Democratic administration in 2 years, and there is a lot they can do to restrain him until then.
Point taken, but how do you imagine all this good, necessary, needed legislation will get passed over his veto anyway? I’m not so sure the twin spectacles of Bush vetoing popular legislation AND facing impeachment proceedings would be as unworkable as you imagine.
As far as Cheney goes, they’d have to be impeached together — or allowed to resign.
Kudos to you BooMan, for sticking to your guns. I don’t take the site motto lightly, either.
I know I’m repeating myself in thread after thread, but the argument that the congress can’t chew gum and walk at the same time is totally without merit and without historical precedent. AND the political advantage has ALWAYS accrued to the party that does the impeaching, whether a conviction is obtained or not. This holds true in all cases of impeachment ever brought.
Impeachment would be good for the long term progressive agenda, because it would likely lead to greater majorities of Dems in both houses and lead to a Dem President. NO truly progressive legislation can be passed while the margin in the Senate is so slim and Boosto has the veto pen (or pocket, as the case may be).
It is delusional thinking to get all giddy about the prospects of restoring America within two years by passing legislation that is subject to Boosto’s veto. The Re-pub-lick Party needs to be kicked while it is down, kicked hard, so as to give the Dems enough power to really change things.
Boosto and Darth should be impeached simultaneously, as co-conspirators. Make Boosto veto Medicare D improvements and a Social Security lockbox and Anti-torture bills and anything else we can get through WHILE he is being impeached… Anyone who doesn’t think the corporate media would cover that is too far gone into conspiracy theories even for me. And I’m known for wearing a tin-foil hat on a regular basis….