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The Impeachment of George W. Bush by Elizabeth Holtzman
 | Remember Elizabeth Holtzman? She was a Congresscritter in the 70s and 80s. As I remember her, she was one of the nastiest, most vituperative people ever to =cough= grace the halls there. |
Finally, it has started. People have begun to speak of impeaching President George W. Bush--not in hushed whispers but openly, in newspapers, on the Internet, in ordinary conversations and even in Congress.
| Not a lot of people, of course, and only people of a certain stripe... |
As a former member of Congress who sat on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon, I believe they are right to do so.
| "After all, he's a Republican. You know what they're like!" |
I can still remember the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach during those proceedings, when it became clear that the President had so systematically abused the powers of the presidency and so threatened the rule of law that he had to be removed from office. As a Democrat who opposed many of President Nixon's policies, I still found voting for his impeachment to be one of the most sobering and unpleasant tasks I ever had to undertake. None of the members of the committee took pleasure in voting for impeachment; after all, Democrat or Republican, Nixon was still our President.| This is how you know she's lying: she took delight in this as she was one of the loudest Dems trying to bring Nixon down. |
At the time, I hoped that our committee's work would send a strong signal to future Presidents that they had to obey the rule of law. I was wrong.
| "Liars and thieves, the lot of 'em!" |
Like many others, I have been deeply troubled by Bush's breathtaking scorn for our international treaty obligations under the United Nations Charter and the Geneva Conventions.
| Thus demonstrating that she doesn't understand and hasn't read the Geneva Conventions. Even the Intl. Committee of the Red Thingy agrees that we haven't violated the GC in our handling of Gitmo thugs, etc. |
I have also been disturbed by the torture scandals and the violations of US criminal laws at the highest levels of our government they may entail, something I have written about in these pages.
 | The pages she's writing in, if you haven't clicked on the link, are in The Nation. I think they have a special section for hysterical caterwauling, though I can't tell for sure, making a point of never reading it... |
| But the multiple convictions of Clinton appointees didn't bother her a bit. |
These concerns have been compounded by growing evidence that the President deliberately misled the country into the war in Iraq. | Prime evidence that she's a moonbat. |
But it wasn't until the most recent revelations that President Bush directed the wiretapping of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)--and argued that, as Commander in Chief, he had the right in the interests of national security to override our country's laws--that I felt the same sinking feeling in my stomach as I did during Watergate.
| That was the tuna tetrazzini surprise, Liz. |
As a matter of constitutional law, these and other misdeeds constitute grounds for the impeachment of President Bush.  | But only if one looks at constitutional law from a particular angle. And squints. And it helps to wear special glasses... |
A President, any President, who maintains that he is above the law--and repeatedly violates the law--thereby commits high crimes and misdemeanors, the constitutional standard for impeachment and removal from office.
| Bush has never claimed to be exempt from the law or above it. And collecting intelligence on enemies who're actively at war with us, wherever they're located, is well within his powers as commander in chief. Unless, of course, one is standing well off to the left, squinting, and wearing special glasses... |
A high crime or misdemeanor is an archaic term that means a serious abuse of power, whether or not it is also a crime, that endangers our constitutional system of government.
| So the fact that Bush didn't maintain that he was above the law, only within it, and sought both legal review and Congressional oversight for what he did, must not have committed a high crime or misdemeanor. |
| Don't go throwing facts around. You'll confuse her. |
The framers of our Constitution feared executive power run amok and provided the remedy of impeachment to protect against it. While impeachment is a last resort, and must never be lightly undertaken (a principle ignored during the proceedings against President Bill Clinton), neither can Congress shirk its responsibility to use that tool to safeguard our democracy. No President can be permitted to commit high crimes and misdemeanors with impunity.| Since GWB didn't, it isn't an issue. |
But impeachment and removal from office will not happen unless the American people are convinced of its necessity after a full and fair inquiry into the facts and law is conducted. That inquiry must commence now.| And if that doesn't convince them then we need another inquiry. And then another. And another. |
Posted by: Steve White 2006-01-12 |
