-Caveat Lector-
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: July 16, 2007 7:05:18 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Impeachment: The Time Has Finally Come
http://www.opednews.com/articles/
opedne_andrew_b_070716_impeachment_3a__the_ti.htm
Op Ed News, July 16, 2007
Andrew Bard Schmookler
Impeachment:
The Time Has Come!
From other people on the anti-Bushite blogosphere, hearing the idea
that it's time to impeach Bush and Cheney would hardly be
noteworthy. A great many commentators have been saying that for
some time.
I think they've been mistaken -- UNTIL NOW.
While I've agreed that Bush and Cheney deserve impeachment --have
said, indeed, that no one in American history has deserved it
more-- I've never considered that to be a sufficient basis for
making such a judgment about what should be done. My approach has
always been more strategic than that. I'm concerned not only with
the rightness of an action, but with its impact. And a premature
effort to move toward impeachment, I thought, might actually have
strengthened the Bushites by weaking their opponents.
When many were condemning Nancy Pelosi for declaring impeachment to
be "off the table," I did not join in the criticism. I thought it a
politically prudent statement to make, given the apparent
skittishness of the American electorate at that time about
impeachment and, more generally, about so-called "partisanship."
For that time, it was probably reassuring to many in the public and
it in no way impaired the ability to put impeachment back onto the
table when circumstances changed.
Well, now they've changed. And now it is time to begin the drumbeat
and the march toward impeachment. (Pelosi's situation does remain
delicate, however: if Bush and Cheney are both impeached, guess who
is next in the line of succession.)
There have been three important changes since last November's
election.
First, in the first half year of this Congress, after years of
virtually no congressional oversight, the investigative hearings
conducted by the Democratic Congress have brought a whole stream of
administration wrong-doing to the attention of the American people.
Second, and likely at least partially as a result of the first, the
proportion of the American public now favoring movement toward
impeachment has reached a stunning level. Almost half of the public
(46%) favors the impeachment of the president, and more than half
(54%) favors the impeachment of the vice president. These are
already numbers that greatly limit the political risk to the
Democrats in pressing forward with impeachment. And it can be
assumed that the actual impeachment process --if it is conducted
with reasonable political and prosecutorial skill- would raise
those numbers considerably. It looks as though about 30% of the
public will support Bush regardless of any facts presented about
any high crimes he has committed, but there remains an additional
quarter of the public whose support might still be won over to
supporting impeachment.
Then there's the third important change --and in some respects it
might be the most important one. And that is that the Bushites --by
their arrogance, their stonewalling, their imperial usurpations--
have quite blatantly and publicly blocked every other recourse.
Just in the past month:
**Their indefensible assertions of "executive privilege" are
thwarting the other, lesser forms of congressional investigation
into the wrongdoings of the Bush presidency. Battling these issues
out in the courts would drag on for so long as to give this lawless
regime a victory by default.
**Meanwhile the vice president's machinations have compounded the
message of contempt for the public's right to oversee what is being
done by their elected leaders with the power entrusted to them.
**The president's commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence has made
a mockery of the ability of the justice system to deal with
criminal activity on the part of this cabal and, moreover, has
blocked the ability of prosecutors to get to the root of the crimes
committed.
With all these maneuvers, the Bush administration has laid down the
gauntlet. It has precipitated the ultimate in constitutional crises
--will America be ruled by an all-powerful president, accountable
neither to Congress, nor to the courts, nor to the American public?
The answer to that question must be "No!"
For the sake of future generations, American cannot afford to allow
this profound constitutional challenge to go unmet.
And it is the Bushite regime, by blocking every other recourse --
for oversight, for accountability, for checks and balances-- that
has finally made impeachment
the sole remaining way to defend the integrity
of America's constitutional system and
the rule of law.
So, the impeachment solution is now necessary.
The polls show that, while inevitably risk, that course of action
should be politically viable. And so it is now up to the American
body politic --the public, the Congress, the media-- to summon up
the will.
Authors Website: http://nonesoblind.org/
Authors Bio: Andrew Bard Schmookler's website www.nonesoblind.org
is devoted to understanding the roots of America's present moral
crisis and the means by which the urgent challenge of this
dangerous moment can be met. Dr. Schmookler is also the author of
such books as The Parable of the Tribes: The Problem of Power in
Social Evolution (SUNY Press) and Debating the Good Society: A
Quest to Bridge America's Moral Divide (M.I.T. Press). He also
conducts regular talk-radio conversations in both red and blue states.
Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL.com.
www.ctrl.org
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