George Mason (1725-1792), the father of the Bill of Rights (1791-2002),
argued at the Constitutional Convention in favor of providing the House of
Representatives the power of impeachment by pointing out that the President
might use his pardoning power to "pardon crimes which were advised by
himself" or, before indictment or conviction, "to stop inquiry and prevent
detection."
James Madison (1751-1836), the father of the U.S. Constitution (1788-2007),
added that "if the President be connected, in any suspicious manner, with
any person, and there be grounds to believe he will shelter him, the House
of Representatives can impeach him; they can remove him if found guilty."
Of course, Bush has long been connected in a suspicious manner to Dick
Cheney, Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, and others. Madison would probably have
called for Bush's impeachment when Bush first refused to investigate or hold
anyone accountable for leaking Valerie Plame's identity, or rather when Bush
lied us into the war in the first place, or when he confessed to illegal
spying, or when he detained people without charge and tortured them, or when
he overturned laws with signing statements or refused to comply with
subpoenas, and so on and so forth. Madison wouldn't have wanted to see his
Constitution tossed aside until the moment Bush commuted Libby's sentence.
But he certainly would have acted now if not before.
The trial of Scooter Libby produced overwhelming evidence that Vice
President Cheney personally led the campaign to attack Joe Wilson through
the media. This "get Wilson" campaign included telling numerous reporters
that Wilson was sent to Niger by his wife Valerie Plame, a CIA operative.
Cheney was told by the CIA that Plame worked as a covert agent in the CIA's
Nonproliferation Division, which is the critical division of the CIA
responsible for stopping the spread of nuclear, biological, and chemical
weapons. Cheney's efforts to expose Plame actually exposed her entire covert
network, at tremendous cost to the CIA's secret war against terrorism. If
Plame's work had been exposed by a double-agent in our government like
Aldrich Ames or Robert Hanssen, that person would face prosecution for
espionage and treason. The evidence of Cheney's role is more than enough to
start an impeachment investigation. And, of course, a hand-written note
from Cheney, introduced as evidence in the trial, implicated the President.
The Libby trial also exposed the lead role of Vice President Cheney's office
in manipulating pre-war intelligence to defraud Congress into authorizing
the invasion of Iraq. Sworn testimony revealed that Cheney's office managed
the evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, all of which proved to
be lies. Cheney personally visited the CIA several times before the invasion
to pressure the CIA to distort pre-war intelligence. And Cheney exerted
"constant" pressure on the Republican former chairman of the Senate
Intelligence Committee to stall an investigation into the Bush
administration's use of flawed intelligence on Iraq, according to the new
chairman, Senator Jay Rockefeller.
Libby's crime was obstructing an investigation that appeared to be headed
for Cheney and possibly Bush. The proper course of action for Congress, in
the face of Bush commuting Libby's sentence, is to begin impeachment
hearings against Cheney and then Bush. With the White House openly
disobeying a stack of subpoenas, it is finally clear that impeachment is the
only possible check on Bush-Cheney power remaining to Congress. In fact, in
the wake of Bush's Scooter commuting, the following people all released
statements condemning Bush's action and recommending that Congress and the
public do absolutely nothing about it: Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary
Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson. In contrast, Joe
Biden recommended that the public phone the White House and complain. That
ought to show them!
Bush has just obstructed justice. His act of commuting Libby's sentence
itself adds one more small item to the pile of impeachable offenses.
Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (D-IL), had the right reaction, releasing
the following statement:
"In her first weeks as leader of the Congress, Speaker Nancy Pelosi withdrew
the notion of impeachment proceedings against either President Bush or Vice
President Cheney [actually she did that 8 months earlier, and Jackson began
parroting her line right away, but who's counting]. With the president's
decision to once again subvert the legal process and the will of the
American people by commuting the sentence of convicted felon Lewis 'Scooter'
Libby, I call on House Democrats to reconsider impeachment proceedings.
Lewis Libby was convicted of lying under oath to cover up the outing of
active, undercover CIA agent, Valerie Plame. It is beyond unthinkable that
the president would undermine the legal process to protect a man who engaged
in treason against the United States government, threatening the security of
the American people. In November's election, voters put Democrats in charge
of Congress because they believed our pledge of oversight and
accountability. Now it's time for us to honor that pledge. The Executive
Branch should be held responsible for its illegalities. Our democratic
system is grounded in the principle of checks and balances. When the
Executive Branch disregards the will of the people, our lawmakers must not
be silent. Today's actions, coupled with the president's unwillingness to
comply with Senate and House inquiries, leave Democrats with no other option
than to consider impeachment so that we can gather the information needed to
achieve justice for all Americans."
Very well said. It's tremendous to see Jackson come around. There's only
one problem. Congressman Dennis Kucinich has introduced articles of
impeachment against Cheney. Ten other Congress Members have signed on. And
Jackson isn't one of them. Rep. Jackson and every other member of Congress
needs to do one of three things now: Sign onto Kucinich's bill, H Res 333,
www.impeachcheney.org , or introduce new articles of impeachment against
Cheney or Bush, or crawl out of town in fear and eternal shame.
Now, the articles that Kucinich has introduced focus on war, and some
Congress Members, terrified as they might be to fight in a war, are equally
terrified of NOT sending other people to kill and die. Now would be the
moment to introduce new articles of impeachment against Cheney for his role
in the retribution against Wilson, for illegal spying, for torture, and for
refusing subpoenas. Or take your pick of the available menu of offenses and
choose your three favorites:
www.impeachcheney.org
And now would be the time for Nancy Pelosi to announce that she could not
possibly have meant that impeachment would stay off the table no matter
what, that she meant it was not on the table at that time. Numerous crimes
and abuses have come to light since that table clearing moment. Pelosi is
in the clear. She can renew her oath to uphold the Constitution. Or she
can go down in history as the appeaser of the new dictatorial U.S. regime,
as the person who looked fascism in the face and said "That looks worth
allowing to happen as long as we win in 2008," and whose party went down in
bitter flames in 2008 because the American people still cared about their
democracy.
Now is the moment for members of the public to act. Go to your Congress
Member's office. Sit down. Read the U.S. Constitution aloud. Do not leave
until they take you to jail. Or come to Washington, D.C., and do the same
thing - but do it in the office of Congressman John Conyers, who is in the
position to save this Republic in a week, who has the knowledge and the
skill to do it, and who has absolutely no constitutional duty to step and
fetch or bow and scrape for Miss Nancy.
