Admit it, we've had some pretty rotten presidents. Johnson? Nixon? Clinton? Sure, each has contributed something positive to the presidency; but let's face it - their accomplishments far outweigh their negative impact on the Presidency, undermined our trust, and those are the memories that live on. Most people can't tell me a good thing about Nixon - but almost every one has heard of WaterGate.
And now there appears to be cases mounting for an impeachment of President Bush. I've been hearing these rumors since the first conspiracy theories of the FBI working in league with Al Qaeda started appearing. But now, it seems as though some people are planning on seeing this through:
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Impeaching George W. Bush
Interview with Michael Ratner
by Onnesha Roychoudhuri
Until recently, talk of ousting President George W. Bush has proved little more than a distant rumbling. For too long, impeachment has been deemed implausible. It’s not going to happen with a Republican Congress, so the argument goes. Not with the president finishing his second term, not while we're at war.
But the distant rumbling is growing louder by the day, creating a resonant echo that is rapidly taking root in public discourse. “Impeach Him,” reads the cover of this month’s Harper’s magazine. And in a public forum in New York City last week, journalists, lawyers, and political figures came together to discuss the case against our president.
Since September 11th, 2001, there has been no shortage of news regarding this administration’s involvement in torture, lies, secrecy and obstruction of the law. Yet, there has been little discussion in the mainstream media of holding those in power accountable for the actions so diligently catalogued by the press. It is a conspicuous vacuum that helps to explain why calls for impeachment are rapidly gaining currency.
In fact, the case for the impeachment of President Bush is arguably the strongest in American history. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) makes this amply clear in its recent book, a concise indictment of President Bush that lays out four clear legal arguments that point to impeachment as a necessary remedy for the gross violation of our Constitution. The Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush covers illegal wiretapping, torture, rendition, detention and the Iraq war. An appendix compares the impeachment proceedings of Andrew Johnson, Nixon and Clinton to the comparatively more powerful case against Bush.
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You can follow the link for the whole interview, but there are some highlights for you.
What do you think? It seems people are on their way with carrying out this thought, with ermany filing charges against Rumsfield and others. Should Bush be facing the court room? Will impeachment result in his removal from the Presidency? Should it? If it were up to you - would you follow-through with impeachment or not?
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I am not quite up on the impeachment process, but if Bush is removed won't Cheney be the president? Frankly Cheney strikes me as smarter, meaner and all around nastier than Bush. If anything he is the power behind the throne and Bush is the amiable mask put over the top. Do we have time to impeach Cheney too?
I don't know that anything could be proven as impeachment grounds. Do we have enough legally viable evidence against Bush? I doubt he could be linked to 9/11 true or not. Many presidents have pushed unconstitutional laws, if the process works those get struck down when they get to the Supreme Court. I think the best bet would be Iraq or human rights issues. The only viable option, I think would be to prove that he knowingly used false or inaccurate intelligence to support invading Iraq.
I personally think we just need to tough out 2 more years and raise a decent goddamn candidate against the Repubs. An impeachment trial will do little to shake his supporters and waste a lot of time and effort that could be spent repealing the PATRIOT Act and the other nastiness Bush has put in place.
Res ipsa loquitur.
memor mori, mahalo.