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Bush and Cheney Go Down the Nixon Slide
Bush and Cheney are going down the Nixon slide.
Bush has decided not to comply with the House and Senate Judiciary Committees' subpoenas for documents dealing with the firing of the U.S. attorneys.
And he's likely to do the same over subpoenas on Cheney's and Gonzales's role in the NSA spying scandal.
Bush invoked "executive privilege."
That's got a vague ring to it, doesn't it?
Patrick Leahy, head of the Senate Judiciary, called it "Nixonian stonewalling," and said, "Increasingly, the President and the Vice President feel they are above the law."
John Conyers, head of the House Judiciary Committee, added: "This is reckless. It's a form of governmental lawlessness that is really astounding."
Conyers should know.
He sat on the Judiciary Committee when it voted to impeach Richard Nixon in 1974.
And let's remember, one of the three articles that Nixon was impeached on concerned just this kind of stonewalling.
Article Three says: Richard M. Nixon "failed without lawful cause or excuse to produce papers and things as directed by duly authorized subpoenas issued by the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives . . . and willfully disobeyed such subpoenas. . . . In refusing to produce these papers and things, Richard M. Nixon … acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government."
You can cut and paste Bush and Cheney's names and put them right in there.
It is incumbent upon John Conyers now to begin impeachment hearings on Bush and Cheney.
Not only for disobeying these subpoenas.
But also for the following:
Lying the country into war.
Waging an aggressive war that violated the U.N. Charter. (Article VI of the Constitution says treaties are the "supreme law of the land.")
Violating the Geneva Conventions, the Treaty Against Torture, the Eighth Amendment, and the War Crimes statute by countenancing torture and other cruel and degrading treatment of detainees.
Violating the Geneva Conventions by disappearing detainees.
Violating the U.S. Constitution by holding U.S. citizens as enemy combatants in solitary confinement and depriving them of access to the courts for years.
Violating the U.S. Constitution by depriving detainees in Guantanamo of their due process rights.
Violating the First and Fourth Amendment and the FISA Act by ordering the NSA to spy on U.S. citizens in the United States without a warrant.
Corrupting the legal and political process by ordering U.S. Attorneys to bring specious charges against officials or candidates so as to distort the outcome of elections.
Conyers surely knows that impeachment is the only constitutional remedy for wanton lawlessness on the part of the President and the Vice President.
He shouldn't let Nancy Pelosi gag him any longer.
Impeachment must be put back on the table.
Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive magazine.
© 2007 The Progressive
21 Comments so far
Show AllThe only way to conceivably win the war against terrorism is to impeach Bush and Cheney. The neo-conservative intent is to escalate war and incite future wars in order to maintain global hegemony and plutocratic rule over the USA as well. To the wealthy elite, US citizens are nothing more than consumers, wage-slaves and canon fodder. We are their mortal playthings. They divide and set us upon each other. And when the time comes, they will commit genocide upon the lower classes.
Let the Bushists leave; IMPEACH!
rothschild, this is all true. one problem: this has been going on for years, and there is a conspiracy in D.C. and the MSM to silence these issues.
is anybody surprised where we are today? w/the 2000 election theft, w/no intervention from the MSM or D.C., and utter complicity in an illegal war of aggression in iraq based totally upon deception.
The problem is that (with a SMALL handful of exceptions) neither the US Congress nor the nominally oppositional (now majority) Democratic Party have showed the least bit of political will in standing up to BushCo's attacks on constitutional principles, democratic and human rights, or the rule of law. In fact, they have been complicit in its murderous, destructive domination of the polity.
Have we already forgotten the theft of the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, the illegal/immoral Iraq war resolutions, the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, torture as a matter of U.S. policy, the on-going occupations of Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan, more dictatorial executive orders than will fill this space, etc., ad nauseum?
How in the hell can we expect the same people who have allowed and taken part in the above to, all-of-a-sudden, shed their history of complicity and corruption and impeach the mass murderers and destroyers of law who rule this nation on behalf of their corporate owners?
The Nixonian Era was benign compared to this one and there was still some honor among the thieves of the political elite. That time is long gone and we need to organize new forms of survival and progress if we are to have any hope at all. Another World IS Necessary. SOON.
If you don't already have an excisting Call To Impeach action, or you want to support another, than feel free to join the Shout Out action:
* weekly Shout Out email distribution.
* distributed Monday after Sunday's lies.
* commit to rolling editorial board or disitribution: 1-5 bulletin boards and/or on the street, forward down line, other.
* Call To Impeach.
* break dowm last 2 lies: al Quida, freedom for Iraqi - it's privatisation(especially in the minds of the troops and families).
* claim victories of civic responsability and respond ability, and human community.
* encourage public congressional contact.
* Help create a concentrated voice and mental energy around the word impeach.
* help present humanitarian invoking images.
Evansdadop@aol.com
Oh, I forgot:
* prepare for "tipping point" action.
anything else?
This should be sent to every congressman/woman and Senator by as many people as possible.
Its outrageous that Bush and Cheney have not been impeached already.
Until they are, lawlessness in high places will be our nation's modus operendi. At the expense of the rest of us.
I guess I was naive for most of my life. I never thought I would see another administration more corrupt than Nixon's.
tj: Good points!
In my home state of Minnesota, Congressman Keith Ellison has co-sponsored Kucinich's impeachment bill HR 333 (I think). He did this only because his constituents made it so damn clear that they wanted him too that he could no longer, in good conscience, ignore the call. He has said publicly that he himself does not agree with starting impeachment hearings, but that it is his responsibility to heed the call of his constituents. Every member of Congress and the Senate should take his lead. What could they possibly have to lose from at least co-sponsoring a bill to impeach a President who's favorable rating is lowest in recorded history?
The path to impeachment requires getting Nancy Pelosi out of the way.
Once that it done... Cheney first.
Nancy Pelosi cannot declare leadership in the impeachment process because she is first in line to the presidency. Furthermore, impeachment will require a revolt within the Republican Party. It's up to them to determine which is more important: the security of the nation, or allegance to their disgraced political party.
Bandjineer June 30th, 2007 10:56 pm
"Nancy Pelosi cannot declare leadership in the impeachment process because she is first in line to the presidency."
Nancy Pelosi doesn't need to declare leadership on impeachment. She just needs to get the h*ll out of the way and quit blocking it.
"Furthermore, impeachment will require a revolt within the Republican Party."
Impeachment doesn't require a revolt in the Repub party either. All it takes is a simple majority vote in the House to impeach. It does take a 2/3 majority in the Senate to convict. If the Repubs refuse to vote for conviction in the Senate in the face of what would be overwhelming evidence they would only hurt themselves at election time.
Lobo Gris
It took time to get rid of Nixon, but they did and it'll take a bit of time to get rid of Bush and Crime Inc. but it'll come they need to set the stage and withholding documents is such an easy one to get them on through he back door, they won't expect it..
Tick tock time is running out for Bush & Cheney
I wonder if Obama, Clinton and Edwards would like to see Nancy Pelosi sitting as the Democratic president in the 2008 election year; and the first "woman" president at that? Would Pelosi declare a Pelosi candidacy for president in 2008 off the table?
This happened sometimes after the invasion of Iraq, and when it was determined that there really were no weapons of mass destruction.
The TV showed President Bush at a party in the White House. He was bending down looking under the tables and smirking and playfully asking," Where are the weapons of mass destruction?" His guests laughed, but I didn't think it was funny. I thought it was the greatest disrespect and contempt that even a king could have towards his submissive subjects. How could he possibly be merrily joking in a matter of life and death? You would think the next day there would be a revolt and a call for IMPEACHMENT followed by IMPALEMENT. But people just took it lying down.
How does it go, land of the brave, home of brave, or something like that I guess?
We must bring articles of impeachment, although this Congress will not impeach Bush and Cheney. There is too little conscience in Congress for that. Nonetheless, the effort may slow down the next imperial president. If so, it will have been worthwhile.
Saila: For what it's worth, I apologize on behalf of this nation's DARK unelected leaders. I think it was the writer, Doctorow who explained how Bush exhibits the personality of a bona fide sociopath. They have neither conscience nor capacity to feel others' pain. I'm sure Cindy Sheehan sees Bush in that way. There has been a coup in our land, but many cannot see it. It has always reminded me of the police officer that a neighbor insisted knock on the door of a legendary serial killer because an incredible stench was emanating from his apartment. The policeman never checked the apartment, instead he believed the killer that a pot roast (it was human flesh!) had been burned. There is a factor in many people's make up that probably exists to protect them from emotional overload, a kind of blind incredulity. AMERICANS are feeling it... like deer in the headlights. THIS could never happen in OUR land of the free, home of the brave? And whenever CREDULITY manages like cream to rise to the surface, there's always Fox "news" and hate radio to blast it glibly away. When both fail, there are mass sports for hypnosis and/or anti-depressant drugs, plus sleep-oriented drugs, in the land of "Just say no" to, you guessed it, drugs. Rule by oxymoron, land of paradox, nothing IS what it seems, etc. But karma is no respecter of nations... we are not immune. A reckoning is not far off on the horizon, as Martin Luther King inspired, it arcs towards JUSTICE.
Hasn't the time come yet when Americans are willing to blow past the Congress and the Senate in order to make their voices heard? Crane Brinton, one of the best and certainly most charismatic revolutionary theorists ever, said that the beginning of a revolution comes when the wave of discontent and anger at the status quo is so strong that it become unavoidable to even the most elite. This can be seen in virtually every revolution in history. Everything starts with this wave and then, eventually, the masses decide they are willing to lose everything in order to rescue their country and for that matter their lives from the tyrannical grip of crooked leaders and misguided ideologies. At that point, nobody give a sh__t what the political leadership thinks about it. They are either with us or against us. Dig? That time should have already come and gone.
Did I miss something? An article calling for impeachment of Bush & Cheney, but no mention made that articles of impeachment have already been filed by Dennis Kucinich, Democratic Congressman and Presidential Candidate. Is the writer so ill-informed that he did not mention it or??
My god, you are right SkySonja. It is really strange that Matthew didn't even mention that. He's a great writer though, so I'm sure he just left it our for some particular reason. He absolutely MUST know that HR 333 is out there and that it is gaining more co-sponsors as the days roll on.