[NYTr] CrisisPapers: Impeachment - Do You Get It NOW?

[nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com]

sent by MichaelP (activ-l)

Democratic Underground - Jul 24, 2007
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/CrisisPapers/111

CrisisPapers: 

Impeachment - Do You Get It NOW?

SHORT SUMMARY:

America, the world, can't take much more of the CheneyBush
Administration.  It's long since time to rein in their extreme
assumption and exercise of power, and to bring them into accountability
for the high crimes and misdemeanors they've committed.

The only Constitutional way of doing that is to institute impeachment 
hearings in the House. The sooner the better. Pelosi and Conyers have 
given some indication they might be willing to reconsider the "i" word,
so the public pressure on this issue should continue.

                            ***

As Bush&Co. isolate themselves even further in the White House Bunker
with their lies, scandals, coverups and unending wars, they're becoming
even more reckless and dangerous to America and its citizens.

That behavior shouldn't be all that surprising: That's what happens
when vicious animals are cornered.

Domestically, they're no longer even trying to hide their aversion to 
democracy and the Constitution.  With his new Executive Order on 
"executive privilege,"  for example, Bush openly proclaims that he is 
untouchable by the rule of law; now there are only two branches of 
government-- the Legislative Branch is ignored as irrelevant -- and 
CheneyBush more or less control them both. More on this issue below.

Abroad, the CheneyBush Administration is preparing in the Fall to
escalate the Iraq War yet again, at the same time the propaganda
machine is being revved-up in preparation for a coming attack on Iran.

Both actions will help jihadi-recruiting and thus put at risk even more 
U.S. troops abroad and citizens at home. Plus, an attack on Iran will
have far-reaching consequences with regard to Russia, China, the
availability of oil, the rise of the Euro in international trade and
the concomitant fall of the dollar, the impact on the U.S. economy,
etc.  etc.; has Bush&Co. given any thought to any of these, and other,
ramifications?

So, once again, I pose the question to previous Bush voters, to
centrists and traditionally conservative Republicans: Do you finally
get it?  Do you understand now why the HardRight CheneyBush
Administration has sunk so low in the polls and has little hope of ever
getting out, thus taking the Republican Party (and, if you're an
elected official, you)  down the drain with them in 2008? Do you
understand why, since CheneyBush will not resign, impeachment is the
only constitutional way to pry their corrupt, itchy fingers from the
levers of power?

Some examples here of why we're near the impeachment tipping-point, and 
why more and true conservative Republicans (among them many elite
movers and shakers) are abandoning this sinking ship in record numbers
and coming to understand that it's too risky to permit Cheney and Bush
to stay in power through January 2009.

FOUNDING FATHERS & IMPEACHMENT

Though they tried for the longest time to hide it, the Bush
Administration is operating on the discredited claim that the President
is above the law -- nay, IS the law. (Nixon tried the same assertion
when he was President -- "If the President does it, it is not illegal"
-- and the Supreme Court shot him down quickly.) Cheney and Alberto
Gonzales devised a theory of governance that claims the President can
do whatever he wants, violate whatever laws he wants, when he's acting
as "Commander-in-Chief" during "wartime." Since the self-proclaimed
"war" is an open-ended, permanent "war on terror,"  this theory
effectively turns the presidency into an 17th-century monarchy.
(Further evidence of how far into the cult of personality we've come:
According to former Surgeon General Richard Carmona, his press releases
had to mention Bush "three times per page.")

The Founding Fathers came to this country because they'd been
maltreated by despotic rulers and then, as colonists, fought a war to
establish their independence from a tyrannical king. There was no way
to legitimately overthrow a dictatorial monarch, but they noted six
times in the Constitution the one way it could be done in the new
United States of America: impeachment. If an elected leader went way
beyond the constitutional limits, or was endangering the country, or
was involved in high crimes and misdemeanors, he could be, he should
be, impeached before the House and tried in the Senate.

Impeachment of the president has happened only three times in our
nation's history, most recently when the Republicans went after Bill
Clinton for sexual behavior that most Americans agreed did not rise to
the level of a high crime affecting the state.

But the alleged high crimes and misdemeanors of Cheney and Bush are 
directly tied to authoritarian behavior that led to, and continues to 
result in, death and destruction of our soldiers abroad and the
mangling and shredding of our Constitutional protections and the rule
of law.

EVIDENCE OF CRIMES IS SECRET

This week, pursuant to Congressional committee subpoenas for documents 
with which to investigate various White House scandals, Bush upped the 
Constitutional crisis. He is preparing to assert in an Executive Order 
that the Legislative Branch could pass all the contempt citations it 
wants, but U.S.  Attorneys would be instructed not to pursue these 
criminal charges when the President says that documents are off-limits 
because of "executive privilege."  In short, the Legislative Branch
would be receiving no documents, nada, zilch.

Cheney, several weeks earlier, had refused to produce documents
demanded under law by the National Archives since, he claimed, he was
not part of the Executive Branch. Former White House Counsel Harriet
Miers likewise refused for the second time to abide by a subpoena to
appear before a House investigatory panel examining the politicized
firing of U.S. Attorneys. Yep, "executive privilege" again.

What Bush and Cheney are saying, clearly and arrogantly, is: You'll
never get the evidentiary documents or testimony you're looking for. If
you want 'em, you'll have to take us to court, and we can stall and
appeal forever until one of our hand-picked courts backs our position.

Or you can put impeachment back "on the table" and try to get us in 
front of your House panel, and that ain't gonna happen either. Just lie 
back and enjoy it.

BUSH: "L'ETAT C'EST MOI"

In the CheneyBush Administration, there will be no oversight of the 
Executive Branch.  Ever.  We are honest public servants in the White 
House;  you must trust us when we say that we are not engaged in 
wrongdoing. L'Etat c'est moi. Just move along, nothing to see here.

Since there is no way to vote this corrupted crew out of power until
the next general election 15 months from now, the only Constitutional
method for some restoration of our representative democracy is, indeed, 
impeachment and removal upon conviction.

Only then might we return to the Founders' brilliant
checks-and-balances system, where no one branch of government would be
able to exercise too much power over the others.

SHUTTING DOWN DISSENT

Bush also issued two other ambiguous, problematic executive orders this 
past week. Each seems to be one thing but the ramifications may make
them something else again.

The first executive order deals with cracking down on those
organizations and individuals that, in the Administration's eyes,
"threaten stabilization efforts in Iraq"; but the wording is so vague
as to leave open the possibility that legitimate dissenters might have
their property seized and/or will be arrested for opposing the war. In
other words, this executive order gives the Executive Branch yet
another weapon with which to deal with its political enemies, should it
choose to do so.  It already has the power, approved by the Congress,
to enter your computer and read your mail and spy on your phone calls
and also the power to declare a national emergency and rule by martial
law. Can anyone spell the F-word?

The second executive order last week seemed to be bowing to public 
pressure to end the Administration's fascination with torture and 
humiliation of "unlawful combatants" in its care. But a closer reading
of this ambiguous document reveals that it never really goes into what
forms of "enhanced interrogation techniques"  are still permitted.
   "Waterboarding"  (nearly drowning a prisoner), for example, may or
may not be on the approved list.  But without Congress insisting on
carrying out its mandated oversight responsibilities, we may never find
out.

ABUSING THE POWER TO MAKE WAR

Another compelling reason for moving quickly now to bring Cheney and
Bush before an impeachment panel of the House is their reckless,
dangerous behavior in having started one war and their movement towards
starting another.

The first war, on Iraq, was based on lies and deceptions. Their
continual escalation, and their current "do-over" war, demonstrate that
no amount of "surging" and draconian occupation can bring peace to a
land wracked by major civil/sectarian divisions.

The war they are planning, probably in coordination with Israel, is
aimed at destroying Iran's nuclear installations and scientific
infrastructure, thus setting back by at least a decade or two Iran's
military ambitions and growing political influence in the Middle East.

The Bush Administration's neo-conservatives -- of which Cheney is the
most ideological and bloodthirsty adherent -- are working like crazy to
foment that war against Iran.

IRAN WAR WOULD BE LUNATIC

These  guys  never  learn.  They  gave  up  on  the one war they might 
possibly  have  won  -- the one in Afghanistan against the Taliban and 
Al-Qaida -- and moved their troops precipitately to Iraq, which was no 
danger  to the U.S.; now the Afghanistan war has flared up again, with
the Taliban re-energized. Based on lies and deceits, they invaded and
occupied Iraq  with no real understanding of that society and with no
Plan  B  in case  they  ran  into  trouble; now they're in deep, deep
trouble and won't change course.

The CheneyBush desire to start a third war in Iran is absolutely nuts,
and will  further damage America's military and political position in
the region and around the world, and will lead to even more terrorist
activity directed at the U.S.

This  analysis  does not even go into the likelihood that Turkey might 
well  invade  Iraq  to keep the Kurds from gaining enough military and 
political  strength  to  move on Kurdistan statehood. Or that the U.S.

might  unlilaterally  attack  the  resurgent  Al-Qaida  forces  in the 
northwest  tribal areas of Pakistan, or force the Musharaff government
to do so, in either instance leading to the fall of that government  to 
Islamist extremists who would then have their hands on deliverable
nuclear weaponry. Or that Russia, anxious to slow down the further
deterioration of  its old empire and influence, including in the
Greater Middle East, is starting to take on Western Europe and the U.S.

CheneyBush  policy  is  all of reckless piece. Stick an iron pipe into
the Greater  Middle  East bees' nest, move it around agitatingly, and
see  if you  can  extract  the honey. Little or no thought about what
horrific stinging  and  chaos  might  follow. Just keep sticking more
pipes into more bees' nests all around the region. Then, a year or two
later,  wonder about how this mess happened and whom to scapegoat for
all the death and destruction.

                              ***

[Ernest Partridge and Bernard Weiner are co-editors of The Crisis
Papers, and have published their essays on Democratic Underground since
2001.

Bernard Weiner, an activist journalist and public speaker, holds a
Ph.D.in government and international relations, has taught at various 
universities, worked as a writer/editor with the San Francisco
Chronicle, and currently co-edits The Crisis Papers.

Visit Bernard Weiner's blog:
<http://www.crisispapers.org/features/bw-blogs.htm>

Dr. Ernest Partridge is a consultant, writer and lecturer in the field
of Environmental Ethics and Public Policy. He has taught Philosophy at
the University of California, and in Utah, Colorado and Wisconsin. He 
publishes the website The Online Gadfly and co-edits the The Crisis 
Papers.  He is at work on a book, Conscience of a Progressive, which
can be seen in-progress here.

Visit Ernest Partridge's blog 
<http://www.crisispapers.org/features/ep-blogs.htm> ]