Impeachment -- Born on the 4th of July

By Keith Schmitz

Wait long enough and everyone does something you like as with Dennis Kucinich's proposal to open up impeachment proceedings to examine the behavior of Lord Dick Cheney. Jessica McBride is happy about this but of course for perverse reasons.

Jessica is delighted that despite efforts of spineless House Democrats trying to snuff out the proposal and the GOP being too clever by half in resurrecting the measure.

In an act of breathless clueless, she proclaims,

I'd love to have that debate. Bring it on. Let's debate it. Liberal readers, prove that Bush & Cheney "lied" or "misled" the country into war.

Um, guess Jessica has been too busy teaching news to read the news. Her glee should turn to gloom at the thought of the floor boards being yanked up to unearth Lord Cheney's largely secret deals for all to see during an election year, and the sweat pouring down the sweat of many GOP brows as whacks are taken at a man whose popularity rivals that of fried liver. This would be too easy.

I had the opportunity this 4th of July to hear the reading of the Declaration of Independence at the State House in Boston. Something seemed eerily familiar.

"WHEN, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the Causes which impel them to the Separation."

Among the many grievances listed against King George III were these:

"He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good."
"He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries."
"He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures."
"He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power."
"He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation."
"For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury."
"For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences."

A blog post from Jeffrey Kimball, professor of history at Miami University, indicates why:

"WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney conspired with others to defraud the United States of America by intentionally misleading Congress and the public regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify a war in violation of Title 18 United States Code, Section 371; and

WHEREAS, George W. Bush has admitted to ordering the National Security Agency to conduct electronic surveillance of American civilians without seeking warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, duly constituted by Congress in 1978, in violation of Title 50 United States Code, Section 1805; and

WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney conspired to commit the torture of prisoners in violation of the 'Federal Torture Act'; Title 18 United States Code, Section 113C, the UN Torture Convention, and the Geneva Convention, which under Article VI of the Constitution are part of the 'supreme Law of the Land'; and

WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney acted to strip American citizens of their constitutional rights by ordering indefinite detention without access to legal counsel, without charge and without the opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to challenge the detention, based solely on the discretionary designation by the President of a U.S. citizen as an 'enemy combatant', all in subversion of law. ...

Be it resolved that George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney, by such conduct, warrant impeachment and trial, and removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States."

After the circus of vengeance known as the Clinton impeachment, you wonder where people in the GOP get the spheres to act like "nothing to look at here folks, let's move along."

Impeachment is not conviction, but the prospect of the spectacle of evidence that would be paraded before the American voters would not be pretty if you are a fan of Lord Cheney, and would very much ensure the GOP minority status for years to come. As John Nichols has pointed out many times, with the suspicion of wrong-doing on the part of this administration the Constitution calls out for the process to happen for the good of our system of government.

This is no mere firing of a government employee as in the case of Andrew Johnson or lying about a stained dress as with you know who, but the possibility of our rights as Americans being hijacked and our resources being wasted in one of the worst foreign policy moves in our history. Some GI can get time in the brig for willful destruction of government property in the hundreds of dollars so I think we have our standard.

I would not call this invasion of Iraq a mistake as some would, because there is strong evidence that Cheney cherry picked intelligence to get us into the Iraq quagmire. Even if we do gain a "victory" there, it has been at an outlandish cost far exceeding whatever protection TeamBush tries to tell us we attained.

Jessica knows this, and also knows that our so-called leadership in the House will find a way to quash this inquiry despite the demands of a large majority of the American people. They demand it and so does our form of government.