March 27, 2007
Impeachment Threat Is Real
The Nation: Growing Scandals And Abuses Force Impeachment Into Discussion
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Bush Backs Attorney General
As calls continue for the attorney general's resignation, President Bush in turn accused Democrats of political grandstanding and again declared his support for Alberto Gonzales. Bill Plante reports.
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Bush Fires Back At Dems
President Bush urged Democrats to accept his offer to have Karl Rove and Harriet Miers testify in a private hearing that wouldn't be under oath or risk a constitutional showdown. Jim Axelrod reports.
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Notebook: Bush's 2-Term Blues
Only On The Web: Second-term presidents often see their agendas get sidetracked by scandals. Katie Couric says in this regard George Bush has proved himself the rule, not the exception.
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Bush Presidency
The president's agenda, plus facts, figures, major events and key personalities.
Former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough had me on his MSNBC show Monday night to talk about impeachment.
It was smart, civil discussion that treated the prospect of impeaching the president as a serious matter.
Scarborough took the lead in suggesting that Bush's biggest problem might be that Republicans in the House and Senate who — fearful of the threat Bush poses to their political survival — do not appear to be rallying 'round the president. The host's sentiments were echoed by two other guests, columnist Mike Barnicle and Salon's Joan Walsh.
The impetus for the show was Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel's ongoing discussion of the impeachment prospect — Hagel's not quite a supporter of sanctioning Bush, more a speculator about the prospect — and a new column by Robert Novak that suggests Bush has dwindling support within the congressional wing of the GOP.
Speaking about impeachment on ABC's "This Week," Hagel said, "Any president who says 'I don't care' or 'I will not respond to what the people of this country are saying about Iraq or anything else' or 'I don't care what the Congress does, I am going to proceed' — if a president really believes that, then there (are) ways to deal with that."
Novak wrote "The I-word (incompetence) is used by Republicans in describing the Bush administration generally. Several of them I talked to described a trifecta of incompetence: the Walter Reed hospital scandal, the FBI's misuse of the Patriot Act and the U.S. attorneys firing fiasco. 'We always have claimed that we were the party of better management,' one House leader told me. 'How can we claim that anymore?'"
Scarborough drew the two statements together for the purpose of asking whether Bush could count on Republicans to block moves by Congressional Democrats to hold Bush to account for high crimes and misdemeanors.
When a conservative commentator who was on the frontlines of Newt Gingrich's "Republican revolution" entertains a thoughtful conversation about the politics and processes of impeachment on a major cable news network, it should be clear that the cloistered conversation about sanctioning this president has begun to open up.
No, Scarborough is not jumping on the impeachment bandwagon.
He is simply treating the prospect seriously, as did CNN's Wolf Blitzer earlier in the day.
What I told Scarborough is what I have been saying in public forums for the past several weeks: We are nearing an impeachment moment. The Alberto Gonzales scandal, the under-covered but very real controversy involving abuses of the Patriot Act and the president's increasingly belligerent refusals to treat Congress as a co-equal branch of government are putting the discussion of presidential accountability onto the table from which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has tried to remove it.
Does this mean Bush and Cheney will be impeached? That, of course, will be decided by the people. Impeachment at its best is always an organic process; it needs popular support or it fizzles — as with the attempt by House Republican leaders to remove former President Clinton in a process that, fairly or not, seemed to be all about blue dresses.
While the people saved Clinton — by signaling to their representatives that they opposed sanctioning a president's personal morals — it does not appear that they are inclined to protect Bush.
With each new revelation about what Gonzales did at the behest of the Bush White House to politicize prosecutions by U.S. Attorneys, the revulsion with the way this president has disregarded the Constitution and the rule of law becomes more intense. And citizens are not cutting their president much slack.
A new USA Today/Gallup Poll — conducted over the weekend — shows that, by close to a 3-to-1 margin, Americans want Congress to issue subpoenas to force White House officials to testify in the Gonzales case. Sixty-eight percent of those surveyed say the president should drop his claim of executive privilege in this matter, while only 26 percent agree with the reasoning Bush has used to try and block a meaningful inquiry.
If the president wants to get in a fight with Congress over how to read the Constitution, it appears that the people will back Congress. And that backing is what will begin to restore the backbones of House members who, despite Pelosi's attempts to quiet talk of impeachment, are getting more and more intrigued by the prospect of holding this president to account.
As Hagel says, "This is not a monarchy. There are ways to deal with (executive excess). And I would hope the president understands that."
If Bush doesn't recognize this reality now, he soon will.
By John Nichols
Reprinted with permission from the The Nation.
| If you like this article, check out www.thenation.com for more investigative reports, timely editorials and incisive columns |
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See all 294 CommentsIMPEACH BUSH/CHENEY NOW!!
WE CAN'T WAIT
TILL 2008!!
I think it would be wise for EVERYONE in the administration to fall back on their 4th and 5th ammendment rights rather than expose themselves to Democrat blood-thirst.
President Bush and Vice President Cheney have committed high treason against the United States of America and must be impeached and removed from office according to the rules and laws set forth in our Constitution.
They have claimed that they are no longer subject to the authority of the judicial or legislative branches of our government, and may ignore any law they wish at anytime. They have even claimed that the President may "sign" a law, while simultaneously signing another statement claiming he is free to ignore it. They have established a network of unconstitutional secret prisons, where both foreign and domestic citizens who have been illegally abducted are sent indeterminately, without charge or representation. Some have been tortured, and some have even been murdered. They have single handedly erased our sacred and traditional right to privacy by claiming they may place anyone they wish under surveillance at any time, even going so far as to specifically claim they may ignore FISA laws. They have started an illegal preemptive war that has needlessly taken the lives of more than 3,000 of our bravest and most noble fighting men and women.
And this is just the short list. Never before has America been faced with such an insidious enemy with more contempt for our Constitution and our American way of life, and these enemies occupy the highest levels of our own government.
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Excerpt from ST's blog
A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com
Clinton's big crime, Monica, was of a personal nature yet the Republicans were foaming at the mouth to impeach that president while giving the current regime a broad pass for all its real misdeeds. But, of course, Clinton's crime was *** related and anything of a sexual nature just drives Conservatives beyond the edge of reason.
The only problem I see with impeaching Bush is that we are then left with Cheney as president. But since Cheney has actually been acting as president all this time, what's the difference?
Interesting that Halliburton is now headquartered in Dubai. Does that make it more difficult for the United States to prosecute the company for war profiteering? Is that perhaps related to Bush wanting to place our ports under the authority of Dubai?
Why should Congress accept testimony behind closed doors without the oath of law? Nothing quite says "something-to-hide" like an offer like Bush's.
The invocation of executive privilege is a mighty thin veil to hide behind now, isn't it? I look forward to many years of uncovering the corruption and disgrace of Bush and Cheney, et al. May they live long, healthy lives to face the disgrace of their "service".
But this is now. Send him back to Texas to let him rule cattle. Today!
America has gone FASCIST. The Elite run everything. Our Government. Our Schools. Our Churches. Our Corporations.
WE HAVE NO SAY IN OUR OWN GOVERNMENT. The ELITE AND AIPAC/ISRAEL RUN OUR GOVERNMENT. OUR VOTES DO NOT MATTER. OUR GOVERNMENT DOES NOT CARE WHAT WE THINK. OUR GOVERNMENT DOES NOT CARE ABOUT US.
FREE AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
- St. Matthew 19:24
We simply must make sure that they do not bring America down with them!!!
It's about time someone had the balls to stand up and say something. However, it will take a hugh effort to impeach and probably won't happen.
The American people can accept a president that makes mistakes.
What we cannot accept is the inability or uncaring position of this administration to fix the mistakes.
I have head many discussions about this. There is a reason that Nancy Pelosi has taken impeachment off the table. She's a smart woman. And God knows she IS aware that the overwhelming majority of her California constituency are in favor of impeaching both George W. Bush and D i c k Cheney. But here's the real rub and why I believe she is hesitant on this issue. The Speaker of the House is third in line to assume the presidency behind the President and Vice President. If she were to put impeachment on the table, she would have to make sure that the investigations have been conducted and that the evidence is in order.
And no matter what Pelosi does, the right is going to viciously smear her as someone who is trying to make a power grab. Trust me - they are definitely working on their arguments, smears and theories, in the event this occurs. You can bet money on it. I really believe Pelosi doesn't want to get caught up in all that. But the Department of Justice scandal is shaping up to possibly be Bush's Watergate. And if it does, all bets are off and Pelosi will be forced to act.
And as for this "perjury trap" baloney, you can't commit perjury if you tell the truth--something that seems to be hard to get at with this administration.
"WE HAVE NO SAY IN OUR OWN GOVERNMENT. The ELITE AND AIPAC/ISRAEL RUN OUR GOVERNMENT. OUR VOTES DO NOT MATTER. OUR GOVERNMENT DOES NOT CARE WHAT WE THINK. OUR GOVERNMENT DOES NOT CARE ABOUT US.
FREE AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Impeach "King" George!!! That would be a start.
THAT is the question!
For Clinton appointee of the CIA, George Tenet, telling our President that it was a "slam dunk" Mr. President that Iraq has WMDs?
For the repeated lies by the Nation magazine and our courrpt liberal MSM wolfpack that our President "lied" and that he "mislead the country into war". These are OLD LIES repeated OVER and OVER again by our "free left-wing press" and their close buddies in the Democrat party. What Americans have been seeing, hearing, and reading for the past several years is the same type of "propaganda" methods that the Nazis used on the German people during the 1930's where they demonized the Jews...... though TIME this propaganda worked the German people into a "frenzy" to where they did unspeakable crimes..... this is JUST like the propaganda that our corrupt liberal wolfpack puts out daily, trying to work the American people into a frenzy based on ALL LIES. This article by the socialist Nation magazine is just one example.
It's really sad that in this great nation millions of people can live a LIE perpetuated by what should be a "free press".
- Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002
"We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction."
- Sen. Ted Kennedy (D, MA), Sept. 27, 2002
"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program.
He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members
It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons."
- Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct 10, 2002
"Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime . He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to iscalculation . And now he is miscalculating America's response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction
...So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real .."
- Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Jan. 23. 2003
I pray that they can recover from their illnesses.
I think the American Public have to come to their senses and realize that we have a cancer
in this country, which like human cancer, is endemic and metatasizes throughout the nation from the top of the executive branch to all
social institutions, and to the ambient nature
of people's well being. If left untreated it will like human cancer, kill the rest of functioning organisms of this country. Just Look
at how much money was spent on a war which is bogus is cost between $500 billion-possibly $2 Trillion dollars. The national debt is between 8-9 trillion and if it continues will bankrupt this country and will face a crises that far dwarfs the depresion of 1929 when the national debt was only 32 billion dollars under (FDR). Also we won't have money for homeland security,
of any self defense, or any social programs. We will be completely defenseles against any atttacks which might come come from terrorists.
The mathematical model here is (1- (National debt)/Gross Domestic Product)). When the national
- (approches) the gross domestic product, the value of the dollar - (appproches 0.) It's over!!! and yes I believe in fighting terorism but if we stay in Afganistan or Iraq another year, ironically we will be fighting on on own soil and our government won't be able to protect us. !!!!!!
There is a plethora of books and literature that lay out exact actions that would be considered impeachable offenses.
In my opinion, lying about WMD aside, his negligent response to Katrina, and continued lack of action to really assist those still in need is enough to impeach him. He was directly responsible for the poor response in Katrina, many died because of it. There is no dispute on the facts that he botched response to a major disaster that leveled an American city. While he vacationed, people died on the streets of New Orleans.
Every other stupid, dis-honest and lying action is just icing on the cake. (WMD, Plame, the attorney general scandal)
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From the Downing Street Memo to Cheney directly pressuring the CIA for fabricated info. From perpetually linking Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, though no link whatsoever existed. From lying in the State of the Union address (the infamous 16 words) to Condi4s "smoking gun / mushroom cloud" references. From Colin Powell4s silly "Adlai Stevenson moment" at the United Nations sans real photos replaced by crayon drawings. From covering up Pat Tillman4s death to Jessica Lynch4s "daring rescue" to lying about the Mission Accomplished banner. If you truly believe we have not been misled, manipulated, and consistently lied to since the outset of this charade you have not been paying much attention. Oh, and by the way, Valerie Plame wasn4t covert, right? Good news for you though, as I hear Jeff Gannon has a softball question and a sleep-over in store for you to reward your blind loyalty.
Good points and quotes - having seen what I have seen over the last four years, I would agree with most people that the invasion of Iraq was a bad idea; if we knew THEN there were no WMD and that the Iraqis would rather bloodlust after each other than fight for the freedom we gave them, then we shouldn't have wasted our soldiers and treasure. BUT, we went in there based on the best intelligence we had, a strong knowledge of Saddam's past actions (which supported our intelligence), and the noble intentions of supplanting tyranny with democracy in order to give many Muslims something to look towards other than extremism!! Old rhetoric like "Bush Lied" and "Bush and Cheney went there for make money for Halliburton and Big Oil" is worthless. Rhetoric like that is only cover for ignorance and lack of any ideas of their own for the right path FORWARD from where we are now.
Posted by perception5
LMAO!!!
You are one of the few blockheads that will still be screaming "Leave our 'Dear Leader' alone!" while the little monkey and his sidekick 'Piglet' are doing the 'frogwalk'.
ROFLMAO!!!
It's really sad that in this great nation millions of people can live a LIE perpetuated by what should be a "free press".
Posted by perception5 at 02:03 PM : Mar 27, 2007
Typical Fascist. You try to find someone to blame or an excuse for all the mess this God awlful excuse for a leader has made. It will do YOU no good sparky. The American People, for the most part, pay little attention to Washington except for Election time, preferring instead to take care of home and family. They are NOT stupid and they know what is a LIE and what is WRONG. George Bush stood in front of them, told them he could NOT allow those Inspectors to Continue because HE had the Smoking Gun. He had NO choice but to send our kids out into that Desert. Bush SAID that not someone else and BUSH is Responsible for that and ALL the screw ups afterward, PERIOD. He's a done and the longer he stays on the more long term damage he does to the Republican Party. Sieg Heil
And no matter what Pelosi does, the right is going to viciously smear her as someone who is trying to make a power grab. Trust me - they are definitely working on their arguments, smears and theories, in the event this occurs. You can bet money on it. I really believe Pelosi doesn't want to get caught up in all that. But the Department of Justice scandal is shaping up to possibly be Bush's Watergate. And if it does, all bets are off and Pelosi will be forced to act.
Are you serious? What would the charge be: "failure to help those in need?"
Do you have any idea what the criteria for impeachment are? I'm no Bush fan myself, but this movement to impeach him is a joke.
Save your effort people; he'll be gone in less than 2 years anyway. And do you really want Cheney running this country instead?
But regardless of how you feel, pro impeachment, against impeachment or somewhere in between ... how did we ever get so divided as a nation, and more importantly...HOW CAN WE AVOID DOING THIS AGAIN? Is this our destiny in the future? I cannot remember in my 51 years our nation being so divided.
Did the terrorists do this to us, or did we do this to ourselves.
The hell with left wing, right wing adjectives, impeach or not.....how can we avoid being in this same position 10 years from now? Are we doomed to implode?
Let us never forget that President Bush, Vice President Cheney and ex-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld flat-out lied to the American people and to Congress as to the rationale for the war in Iraq.
Let us never forget that al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein were never in cohorts, and quite the opposite at that. Let us never forget that we were told there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
And all the while, we are less secure as a nation than ever before in our history, with our military stretched thinner than it should in such a tumultuous age.
Well...where do I begin? This war in Iraq is a war that we were lied into based on faulty intel. The USA PATRIOT Act usurps or compromises 6 out of 10 of our Bill of Rights (and he really did say the Constitution is just a "********* piece of paper," you can research that, if you do not believe me). As much as I disagree with his choices for the courts, that is his prerogative, but I think the courts are tilted way to far to the right now. He has done everything he can to insure that corporations have close to a laissez-faire environment, even to the detriment of middle class Americans - many of whom have careers that are being outsourced to other countries that can and do pay much less for the same work (and I'm not talking about factory workers, really, but white collar work is being outsourced to India...just to give an example). Then there is Scooter Libby and the whole Valerie Plame mess. The blatant STEALING of elections and trying to rig the system in favor of Republicans, which seems to also find roots in the DOJ scandal.
And that's not even nearly all of it. Bush, Cheney, Rove, et al....They are rotting our country at its core.
It is true that I am a liberal and that the Bush presidency is an anathema to everything I stand for. But I love America to the depths of my soul. I thank God that I still have the freedom to speak my mind. At least I did the last time I checked....
If we do impeach Bush, I suggest we impeach him the day after the 2008 elections. That should book-end his presidency quite nicely.
That's just within the last month, this criminal and his thugs have been robbing this country blind from day one.
Did Mr. Bush really say that? There are about a million Google hits on this, but all in the blogosphere. I could not find one news service that has reported on this, so as much as I wish it were true I must consider this statement as unfounded rumor and innuendo.
...
Posted by mbburch at 02:50 PM : Mar 27, 2007
How old are you... six?
You were alive and conscious during the Clinton administration. Just like that... only this time it's not an aggregious mis-use of taxpayer dollars to abuse Section 4 Article II of the Constitution, but exactly the extreme opposite, a mandate for a collective of Impeachable offenses, which if Congress does not act on, will set a precedent, a bar so high of what a sociopathic President will know that he can get away with, that we, the American people, will have irrevocably eroded the integrity of our government well into the future. Which isn't looking so bright economically, environmentally, internationally..oh the list goes on and on... and will be a dangerously fertile climate for another sociopathic President to feed. All you flag-worshipers out there, who would use the Constitution to wipe your behind, will probably be wondering what hit you.
The reason the framers left the specific definition of impeacable offenses vague was to allow for the removal of a president for any reason that the congress determined was agregious enough to warant his removal whether it was an actionable crime or not.
Bottom line - Congress can impeach the president for anything, including lying, firing an attorney, incompetance or staining a blue dress.
And no matter what Pelosi does, the right is going to viciously smear her as someone who is trying to make a power grab. Trust me - they are definitely working on their arguments, smears and theories, in the event this occurs. You can bet money on it. I really believe Pelosi doesn't want to get caught up in all that. But the Department of Justice scandal is shaping up to possibly be Bush's Watergate. And if it does, all bets are off and Pelosi will be forced to act." - scott4261
Dude, I couldn't put it better myself...
Impeachment should be done if we really think Bush will do THAT much more damage in the remaining 2 years.
The right time to get rid of him was during the last Presidential elections!
"In our religion, there is a special place in the hereafter for those who participate in jihad."
Osama bin Laden
Time magazine May 6, 1996
"It is far better for anyone to kill a single American soldier than to squander his efforts on other activities."
Osama bin Laden
Afghanistan, May 1998
"To kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it..."
--Osama bin Laden
In Fatwa Statement, February 28, 1998
So in my mind, nothing Pelosi or Kerry, or Edwards, or Clinton would do would change anything materially in this struggle. Sure, our approach would change, but the enemies of the USA care not for any of our reproachfulness. Anything short of our conversion to fundamentalist Islam and civil law based upon the Koran (Sharia)is unsatisfactory to them.
I still have not heard one single proposal from any Democrat that addresses this issue in a realistic way, i.e, one that would have a snowball's chance in hell of actually defeating our enemies.
I'm at work or I'd google myself (I can only go to certain sites on the internet here). Of course, I wrote this while I am work. Now perhaps I AM wrong about it and a mea culpa, if I am.
But that statement, true or not, does kind of fit the attitude of this corrupt administration, doesn't it? Could someone confirm this?
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