Suppose...: Arguments for an Impeachment Resolution

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YonWax2 [YonWax2]

Tuesday, September 27, 2005 14:15

Bernard Weiner's " Arguments for an Impeachment Resolution "

9/27

 

http://www.crisispapers.org/essays-w/suppose.htm

 

 

 

 

" Suppose... " : Arguments for an Impeachment Resolution

 

By Bernard Weiner, The Crisis Papers

 

Suppose it could be proven that the integrity of the

vote-counting in the 2004 election had been seriously

compromised, and that Bush-Cheney probably lost. What would you

do about it?

 

Suppose it could be proven that the Bush Administration told huge

lies to get the U.S. military into Iraq, thus leading to the

deaths of thousands of American soldiers, the maiming of tens of

thousands of others, the deaths of more than 100,000 innocent

Iraqi civilians? What would you do about it?

 

Suppose it could be proven that the Bush Administration

effectively has turned over the writing of pollution-control

legislation to the corporations that create much of the

pollution? What would you do about it?

 

Suppose it could be proven that the Bush inner circle knew that a

huge terrorist attack was about to go down in the Fall of 2001

and chose, for whatever reason, to ignore the warnings. What

would you do about it?

 

Suppose it could be proven that high officials of the Bush

Administration, for political reasons, deliberately revealed the

identity of a covert CIA officer, and that of a CIA mole inside

Osama bin Laden's inner circle? What would you do about it?

 

Suppose it could be proven that the Bush Administration concocted

a legal philosophy that would permit the President to ignore laws

passed by Congress, and has " disappeared " a number of American

citizens into military-base prisons away from public or legal

scrutiny -- in effect, making the President into a kind of

dictator? What would you do about it?

 

Suppose it could be proven that under rules devised by the Bush

Administration, confidentiality between lawyer and client no

longer exists, federal agents can enter your home and conduct a

search without you being present or even being told it happened

( " sneak & peak, " it's called), can hack into your computer and read

your private emails without you being informed, can check what

library books you're reading and prevent librarians from telling

you they've done that. What would you do about it?

 

Suppose it could be proven that the Bush Administration devised

legal rationales for torture of suspected terrorist-prisoners in

U.S. care -- with more than 100 dying while being interrogated

-- and that key detainees are being sent to U.S.-friendly

countries where extreme torture methods are used? What would you

do about it?

 

Suppose it could be proven that because of their incompetence and

delay in responding to the Gulf Coast Katrina catastrophe, more

than a thousand innocent American citizens drowned or starved to

death? What would you do about it?

 

Suppose it could be proven that the Bush Administration, hostile

to science, has denied the reality of global warming and its

effects on regional weather changes, such as the increase in

monster hurricanes like Katrina and Rita, and thus devoted little

or no attention to the deadly implications. What would you do

about it?

 

" WHAT DO I CARE WHAT YOU THINK? "

 

Well, you get the idea. You or I could continue this list forever

-- civil liberties decimated, church & state merging, humongous

deficits, activist judges granting more and more power to the

central government, certain citizens (especially women and gays)

being discriminated against, etc. etc. And then we'd always come

back to the same closing question: " What would you do about it? "

 

The reason I ask is that the Bush Administration has been caught

in the spotlight on these issues for the past four-and-a-half

years, with documented evidence reported in the mainstream media.

Scandal after scandal, corruption after corruption, high crimes

and misdemeanors -- and yet, nothing happens.

 

As Bush himself once said about his critics, almost in these

words: " So what, I'm the President. What are you going to do

about it? What do I care what you think? " As long as Bush is in

the White House, with all the power at his command, with all his

loyalist toadies keeping real-world consequences away from him,

he feels that he and his inner circle in the bunker with him are

untouchable.

 

And, to date, he has been. So what are you, what are we, going to

do about it?

 

ALMOST AT CRITICAL MASS

 

I suggest that anti-Bush critical mass is just about achieved in

the body politic, especially after the disgraceful, shameful

neglect and bungling associated with the Katrina scandal, which

led to the deaths of so many American citizens. Nearly two-thirds

of those polled these days agree that the Iraq War is a mistake,

and the troops should be brought back home soon. Bush's approval

rating is now in the high-30% range. If and when in the next few

months indictments are unsealed against key Bush Administration

officials -- perhaps including not only Karl Rove and Scooter

Libby but John Bolton and, maybe as unindicted co-conspirators,

Bush and Cheney -- true critical mass could be achieved.

 

At that point, we don't want to be just sitting there watching

the unfolding of the Bush Administration's self-destruction, or

witnessing their last, dangerous, martial-law death throes. We

need to have protected ourselves, and helped prepare the way for

the moral/legal/political turnaround that is coming.

 

One way to lay the necessary foundations is to get the citizenry

talking seriously about the possibility of impeachment. Now. And,

in addition to raising the issue amid the chattering class,

perhaps the best way of getting the word out more widely is for

an impeachment resolution to be introduced in the House. Now.

 

As I see it, such a resolution will have no chance of success if

it is introduced only by a single, and easily dismissable, Member

of Congress. No, this impeachment resolution -- calling for

hearings into the alleged high crimes and misdemeanors of Bush

and Cheney -- ideally should be introduced by a huge number of

Representatives, including whatever courageous Republicans can be

convinced to join.

 

There also is strength in numbers, perhaps giving members courage

to take the giant step in the company of many of their peers. Who

will start the process by talking along these lines to their

fellow Members of Congress? My guess is that if someone with the

stature of John Conyers and Jim Leach began talking up the idea

of an impeachment resolution, others might well consider signing

on. Even better would be if anti-war Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

were to bite the bullet and join in. I'd say a minimum of 40

names would be necessary to break through into the major media as

a " serious " movement afoot.

 

WHY MANY REPUBS MIGHT JOIN IN

 

Why would Republicans want to abandon the Bush cabal that helped

turn them into the majority party in Congress? Well, for one

thing, they want to get re-elected and Bush could well be an

embarrassing and politically radioactive albatross around their

necks in 2006. If Bush and Cheney were to go, they could run

campaigns devoid of their association with that pair, and might

well return to their seats of power in the Congress.

 

Likewise, CEOs and other business types, including Stock Market

brokers and economic powers that be, see the damage being

inflicted on the budget, on deficit financing, on the economy,

and so on, and might well believe that three more years of this

bumbling, ideologically-driven administration could well take the

country down with it. Better to cut their losses now by

abandoning Bush & Co. to the retribution of the public for

four-plus years of reckless rule, and then stabilize things and

get the country back on track.

 

So many retired military leaders and traditional Republicans,

conservatives all (in the pre-Bush meaning of that term), already

have cut themselves loose from a party kidnapped by far-right

extremists. It's not outside the realm of possibility that these

GOP forces might coalesce into a movement that sees the forced

eviction of Bush & Co. from the White House as in the best

interests of themselves, their party, the economy, and the

American people in general.

 

Now, introducing such a resolution calling for impeachment

hearings could well fail when it comes up for a vote. But Bush &

Co. may have gone so far over the acceptable edge, it's not

outside the realm of possibility that such a bill could pass.

(Members of Congress were talking about the impeachment of

President Nixon in the early-'70s and, though no such resolutions

passed, they helped set the stage for Nixon's resignation later

as the Watergate scandal unfolded.)

 

In any event, discussing the reasons for impeachment outside the

fringes of internet discourse -- actual governmental officials

talking about it -- would significantly alter the respectability

of the topic being raised in the public sphere. Suddenly, it

would be a serious issue being discussed seriously, both out on

the street (where there would have to be unrelenting rallies and

civil disobedience) and in the corridors of industry and

political power.

 

NO SEX BUT PLENTY OF DEAD BODIES

 

The basis for impeachment of Bush-Cheney would not be a personal

indiscretion a la Clinton -- extremely bad judgement, but a

private sexual act between consenting adults -- but crimes and

misdemeanors that have resulted, and continue to result, in the

death and destruction of American citizens and their property,

both abroad and at home.

 

As for the wording of such a resolution, my guess is that the

experts in such things will opt for a simple, all-inclusive

indictment rather than a laundry-list of specific offenses, which

will come later. For example, Bush and Cheney took their oaths of

office swearing to " preserve, protect and defend " the

Constitution and, by implication, the citizens of the United

States. They have done neither.

 

The Constitutional protections designed to shield citizens from

an overbearing federal government are in shreds; citizens are

being killed in a war based on lies; we Americans are less

secure than we were before the invasion of Iraq; and monster

storms have become more deadly because of unfeeling incompetence

and a denial of scientific realities.

 

It is long since time to take corrective action. Many

progressives and Democrats have been moving in that direction for

a long time, but the time may be ripe for significant factions of

the Republican Party to join in the movement to pry the grasping

fingers of Bush & Co. from the levers of power.

 

Introducing a resolution calling for impeachment hearings is the

first serious step along that road back to political sanity and

moral accountability for our country. Let's demand that our

Representatives in Congress do it, and if they won't, we will

elect those who will. #

 

Bernard Weiner, Ph.D. in government & international relations,

has taught at various universitites, worked as a writer/editor

for the San Francisco Chronicle, and currently co-edits The

Crisis Papers (www.crisispapers.org).

 

First published by The Crisis Papers and Democratic Underground

9/27/05.

 

Copyright 2005 by Bernard Weiner.

 

 

Mark Hull-Richter, U.S. Citizen & Patriot

U.S.A. - From democracy to kakistocracy in one fell coup.

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0416-01.htm

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