The Big “I”

August 15, 2008 by lestro

by lestro

Impeachment is once again back in the news and once again not on the table for the Democratic leadership, although it sounds like Nancy Pelosi might be willing to talk, even if it is now almost too late:

Pressed on ABC’s “The View” about whether she had unilaterally disarmed, the author of “Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters” said she believed the proceedings would be too divisive and be a distraction from advancing the policy agenda of the new Democratic majority. Then she added this qualifier: “If somebody had a crime that the president had committed, that would be a different story.” That assertion only threw fuel on the impeachment fire as advocates of removing Mr. Bush cited the 35 articles of impeachment compiled by Representative Dennis Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, as well as accusations in a new book by author Ron Suskind of White House orders to falsify intelligence, an accusation that has been denied.

Kucinich, you crazy little bastard, God love ya!

But as the story points out, the Democratic leadership absolutely does not want any part of an impeachment battle:

Despite whatever resonance pursuing the president might have in progressive Democratic circles, it is not the message Democrats want to carry into an election where they need to appeal to swing voters to increase their Congressional majorities and win the White House. They would rather devote their final weeks to pushing economic relief and health care, even if they thought Mr. Bush and the conduct of the war merited impeachment hearings. And leading Democrats argue anyway that Mr. Bush has already been tried and convicted in the court of public opinion. “He has been impeached by current history,” said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. “He is going down as the worst president ever. The facts are in.”

To me, that is not enough. I think there needs to be a bitchslap in the historical record to let future generations know that what this president and this administration did were wrong and unamerican and violate almost everything we are supposed to believe in.

Our Founding Fathers created the system we knows as “checks and balances” in order to try and ensure that no one branch of government – especially the executive branch, whose constitutional powers are very, very weak indeed – gain too much power over the other branches.

Everybody has their reasons why the president and vice president should be impeached, from the false intelligence in the rush to war, the PATRIOT act, outing undercover CIA agents and then lying about it – the list goes on and on.

My personal favorite reason is the signing statements the president abuses in order to sign laws approved by the people’s representatives while explaining why they do not apply to him or why he is not going to enforce them.

It is this reason why it is important to make sure that even if we have decided just to bury out heads in the sand for the next four months and pray that president stupidpants doesn’t start any more wars, future generations – and the next president, be it McCain or Obama – must know that this consolidation and abuse of power must not stand.

Thankfully, Dennis Kucinich (the crazy little guy with the big ears and ridiculously hot British redhead model wife) has never let go of this issue and every now and again another lawmaker gets on board.

It is for the future that we must not allow the imperial presidency of George W. Bush to become the norm. While it is agreed an impeachment proceedings would definitely gum up the works for the remainder of this term – and could even have dire effect in the November election (and it’s impossible to know which of the two parties would catch the brunt of that backlash…) – it is absolutely the duty and responsibility of Congress not only to reclaim their constitutionally recognized powers but place a permanent check and balance on this presidency.

It’s unfortunate that Bubba was impeached for such a stupid reason as lying about getting his wang mouthified because the country’s distaste of that event has convinced lawmakers that Americans would sour on any impeachment, even one as justified as outing an undercover CIA agent – a felony if you or i did it.

According to the Constitution, the president and vice president may be impeached for “high crimes and misdemeanors,” a purposefully vague phrase. But as we have pointed out before, Alexander Hamilton, one of th authors of the Constitution, further explained impeachment in Federalist Papers #65:

The subjects of its jurisdiction are those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust. They are of a nature which may with peculiar propriety be denominated POLITICAL, as they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately to the society itself. (the emphasis on “political” is Hamilton’s)

We are running out of time. There are less than than 160 days left the Bush Presidency and unless we make a point of saying this will not stand, future generations might assume we were OK with what these scumsucker screwheads did.

And I don’t want that on my conscience.

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