A Call To Censure

(The Nation)  This column was written by Katrina Vanden Heuvel.

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On Meet the Press Sunday, Senator Russ Feingold, D-Wis., announced that he will be introducing two censure resolutions in the next few days, aimed at holding President Bush, Vice President Cheney and other administration officials responsible for the damage done to our country — weakening our security by misleading us into the disastrous war in Iraq and shredding our Constitution.

When "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert asked, "Isn't this futile?" (sounding every bit like the arbiter of inside-the-beltway realism that he is), Feingold spoke eloquently of the need to set the historical record straight. What message does it send, he asked, if elected representatives do not hold accountable a President and Vice President who have used mistruths, spin, manipulated intelligence reports and fear to drag this country into a war that is the most colossal foreign policy mistake in our history? What message does it send if we do not hold them accountable for weakening our security through relentless assaults on the rule of law on which our country was founded?

History must therefore record, Feingold argued, that when faced with an administration which doesn't recognize or respect the separation of powers, which perpetually acts as if the executive branch is above the laws of our nation, the people and their elected officials stood up and demanded accountability.

While Feingold believes that Bush and Cheney have committed what our Founding Fathers would have thought of as "high crimes and misdemeanors," at this time he does not believe it is in the nation's best interest to put important issues confronting our country on the back burner to go through months of a divisive impeachment process. That is a view shared by many progressives.

At the same time, however, a growing majority of the country disagrees — in fact, a majority believe Cheney should be impeached. And many progressives as well as conservatives — including Bruce Fein, former Reagan Justice Department official — make a coherent and impassioned case for the value of pursuing the impeachment process. The case for impeachment was given the airtime it richly deserves in an extraordinary July 13 Bill Moyer's Journal, program featuring The Nation's John Nichols in conversation with Fein.

Feingold needs citizens' help to develop and push these resolutions forward. E-mail your representatives, bombard them with your appeals and demands that they stop this White House from shredding the Constitution and, as Feingold puts it, "thumbing their noses at the American people."

By Katrina Vanden Heuvel
Reprinted with permission from The Nation

[r9119111]

Censure is not strong enough. Put on a real show like the Republicans did. My message to Congress is, "We are paying you good money represent us. Do your job." Show this administration that our Constitution takes precedence over their imperialism because you must. Show them it isn't just a damned "piece of paper." I call on Republicans to put your country before your party. Times like this demand it.

[xzavierbrown]

should we censure feingold for this one?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/07/24/terror/main3092171.shtml

blind support for the enemy..and I am sure this is not an isolated event nor will it be the last AND will not be the only situation that these liberals WILL SUPPORT THE ENEMY by attacking anything and everything that weakens our enemy.

[xzavierbrown]

Dont worry Katrina Vanden Heuvel, all those radical muslim clerics agrees with you 100%.
How dare Bush and Channey, making it harder and harder to kill americans such as you and feingold. Making allah's wishes to impose a strick islamic law onto the world virtually impossible with people like Bush are around.
Oh yeah make sure that you and feingold has enough brownie points from them so when they do start imposing thier demands, or else they will threaten you guys and you guys will obviously give in, that you get your share of power and money

[twylacrat]

Bush and Chaney have spent all of our money, they have committed our children to a quagmire where they are getting killed, they have squandered our standing in the rest of the world. What exactly do they have to do to be told where to get off? If they open fire on the American people...oh yea, Chaney did that already. If they tell us "I'll do what I want and I don't care what you think"...Oh yea, Bush did that already. THEY ARE OUR EMPLOYEES!!!!!

[hwk_i67]

As far as I'm concerned, Bush and Cheney need to be at least censured as well as impeached. As for congresses low approval rating, the Dems are just as guilty. Ever since they've 'taken charge' they have accomplished nothing except rattle their sabres. It's like they're doing nothing for fear of making a mistake. Impeach them all, the white house and both side of congress and start over from scratch.

[jn122736]

Quote:
%u201CWhile Feingold believes that Bush and Cheney have committed what our Founding Fathers would have thought of as "high crimes and misdemeanors," at this time he does not believe it is in the nation's best interest to put important issues confronting our country on the back burner to go through months of a divisive impeachment process.%u201D
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This may well be the major reason Bush is so adamant about not ending the Iraq fiasco;
To keep congress too preoccupied to have time for impeachment proceedings.

However, as I have said several times on this and other sites, Pelosi%u2019s action of taking away any possibility for impeachment has made Bush even more arrogant and dismissive of the bill of rights.

As far as I can see he has never had to answer for any of his actions whether incompetent or illegal. He has always been protected, first by his parent%u2019s constant bailouts, and lately by the republican controlled congress.

Now that impeachment is %u201Coff the table%u201D he is, in effect, being protected by the democratically controlled congress too.

That, probably, is the major reason congress now has a lower approval rating than does Bush.

[drbgood]

Impeachment is America's road to redemption. If we do not impeach these imperealists, then we have failed to live up to the founding principles of this once great nation.

[adventurepa]

E-mail your representatives, bombard them with your appeals and demands that they stop this White House from shredding the Constitution and, as Feingold puts it, "thumbing their noses at the American people."

No finer words spoken on this subject.

[johnpatrick9]

I march with you tejasdemo as to millions of thinking Americans.

[johnpatrick9]

What is wrong with you?? The Republican party has been hijacked by these corporate-imperialists who have weakened us strategically as well as morally by their mismanagement, lies and absurd war built on lies. I and most Americans would be more than glad to see this crew of neo-nazis Impeached and driven from office along with their cronies for selling the gullible among us a pack of lies and denigrating our once beloved land. The RIGHT WING NUTS have got to go for good into the dustbin of history.