Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Impeachalypse Now?

A "target-rich environment" of crimes. Impossible to walk very far and not "trip over crimes." So says Constitutional Law expert Jonathan Turley of George Washington University regarding the Articles of Impeachment introduced into the House yesterday by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). Destruction of evidence, illegal surveillance, unlawful torture. Turley says:
And what's amazing is that the President is hiding in plain view. He hasn't really denied the elements of these offenses. So all that is lacking is political will.

The long-awaited/GOP-suppressed Phase II of the Senate Intelligence Committee's Report on Prewar Iraq Intelligence came out this week and the only surprising thing is that there is absolutely nothing surprising in it. The gang in the White House these past eight years were exactly as bad as expected all along. And bald-faced about it.

There's co-sponsor support for the 35 articles from Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) as well, and some arguments that it would be good for Republicans to vote for them, although admittedly far-fetched. It's far-fetched to think the articles will even come up for a vote or, if they do, any of them ever pass.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has long kept impeachment off the table, if only as a political tool so as not to let the steam out of the kettle before November 4th when we'll really need to throw them out.

The uses of impeachment include just threat value, per John Nichols a way to stop Presidents before they do something worse. Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) gets it, having threatened impeachment should President CheneyBush attack Iran in any way without direct Congressional authorization.

The core question is whether we believe that we should let George Bush get away with breaking the law or not. There are a zillion reasons why not, but all of them are ultimately strategic. In some sense, the core reasoning deal seems to be, "Don't do anything else big and stupid before January 20th, and we'll let you run out the clock."

On the other hand, the Iraq War, based on their willful lies and manipulation of intelligence for opportunistic purposes, is now in its sixth year.

What about justice for them?

No comments: