Talk of Impeachment Gets Louder

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was quick to quash any such idea after the Democratic sweep of Congress in last November’s election. And the full-page ads from such groups as Why We Can’t Wait, calling for the impeachment of the president, were dismissed as just more national noise from the Looney Left — hardly to be taken seriously in the raging maelstrom of last fall’s election politics.

But that was six months ago. Now, in midsummer and on the eve of a congressionally mandated assessment of the unending madness in Iraq, strange and ominous signs are beginning to appear in all sorts of odd and curious quarters, suggesting that this nation should not have to endure another 18 months of the George W. Bush administration and that, if we do, it well might be at the nation’s peril.

Much of the current dismay swirls around Vice President Dick Cheney, who is busily ignoring rules of government he doesn’t like and declaring his office to be beyond the purview of anyone’s scrutiny, while actively setting about to demolish any government agency that has the impertinence to suggest otherwise. Cheney’s advocacy of interrogation techniques for “enemy combatants” that many think tantamount to torture, of monitoring phone calls and e-mails without bothering about warrants, and of ignoring the niceties of the Geneva Conventions when dealing with terrorists has put him out of favor even with a growing number of conservatives. Some want to jettison him as a hopeless drag on the Republican Party’s electoral prospects next year; others are beginning to join the throng that is convinced Cheney is out of control and needs to be dispatched for the heath and safety of the republic itself.

According to a senior U.S. diplomat, Cheney “kind of runs by his own rules”; he should, therefore, be a prime target for indictment for having cynically broken a whole bucket of U.S. laws. He has become an arrogant symbol for all that is despicable about the current administration and a contemptible example of the danger of letting such a high office fall into the hands of an ideologue.

The media are also speaking these days of a looming constitutional crisis as committee chairs in the House and the Senate confront a White House refusal to provide requested documents regarding the firings of U.S. attorneys by the Justice Department. The chairs of the two judiciary committees are seasoned, tough-minded Democrats who are not likely to take kindly to a flouting of their authority to look over the shoulder of the executive and his minions as they go about managing and manipulating the affairs of government. It’s hard to imagine either of them blinking if the White House tries to stare them down.

The last time the nation heard talk of constitutional crises was in the tumultuous second term of the Nixon administration, when first a vice president and then the president himself bit the dust. That’s why an op-ed piece in The New York Times last month takes on heightened significance as yet another warning rumble about the Bush White House and its future.

The op-ed was written by Egil Krogh, a Seattle attorney whose name figured prominently in the Nixon years when he was deputy assistant to the president. Krogh, by his own account, wrote the memo that recommended, in the name of “national security,” the burglary in 1971 that ultimately led to the Watergate scandal. Krogh incurred a two- to six-year sentence and spent almost five months in prison for his efforts.

In the closing paragraph of his column, Krogh describes sending a memo to the White House staff, shortly after the inauguration of George W. Bush, reminding those who would serve the current president of the importance of personal integrity and of relying on “well-established legal precedents and not some hazy, loose notion of what such phrases as ‘national security’ and ‘commander in chief’ could be tortured into meaning.” In his last sentence, he wonders “if they received my message.”

Six months ago, the mayor of Salt Lake City — a Democrat no less — appeared before a committee of our state Senate to speak on behalf of a resolution asking Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against Bush for “heinous human rights violations, breaches of trust, abuses of power injurious to the nation, war crimes and misleading Congress and the American people.” Six months ago, hardly anyone took such talk seriously.

What a difference six months can make!

Hubert G. Locke, Seattle, is a retired professor and former dean of the Daniel J. Evans Graduate School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington.

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52 Comments so far

citizen a July 27th, 2007 10:50 am

war is peace
torture is a family value.
health care for children is not.

gotta love those pro-life, compassionate conservatives.

Jefferson's Guardian July 27th, 2007 12:16 pm

When once a republic is corrupted there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption . . . every other correction is either useless or a new evil.
- Thomas Jefferson

The groundswell is happening. Keep calling and writing your elected representatives. Tell them what you feel. Tell them that you support the commencement of impeachment proceedings.

As I’ve mentioned in other postings, the Constitution was hardly seven paragraphs old before the founding fathers gave the people’s elected representatives the power to impeach the president and whomever in the executive branch for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” This should cover all, if not most, of the transgressions listed in Mr. Locke’s article (“Heinous human rights violations, breaches of trust, abuses of power injurious to the nation, war crimes and misleading Congress and the American people.”).

The Framers never intended impeachment to be either extreme or rare. It was meant to be used forcefully and unapologetically and as often as necessary to check the excesses of power or wanton corruption of the temporary occupants of the White House.

Call today.

Evelyn Smith July 27th, 2007 12:19 pm

A senior U.S. diplomat states that Cheney sort of plays by his own rules and therefore, “should be” a prime target for indictment for breaking a whole bucket of U.S.laws.

Should be?___ Uhhh, how about__ “must be”.

mcpete July 27th, 2007 12:25 pm

If voting will not work, bullets will. The way it is going, debating gun laws will prove to be a waste of time when it turns out that the only way to protect the Constitution is by being well armed. The Bush/Cheney regime needs to visit the Hague. Forget impeachment, force those idiots to obey the law or put them where they belong. IN PRISON. Write your legislatures and urge them to no longer fund any security for the Bush crime family. Once georgy and his pals are out on the street, they can answer to the people that DID NOT vote for them.

Coyotita July 27th, 2007 12:41 pm

Si! Talk of impeachment is getting, bien laden!

nwfisher July 27th, 2007 12:52 pm

oh oh ooooooh….. Dreamweaver….

mmeo July 27th, 2007 1:15 pm

You know when impeachment, if the United States were a functioning republican form of government, would have been appropriate, don’t you?

Once it was known, in the winter 2003/2004, that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. No rhetorical flourishes here. Impeachment at that point was clearly the appropriate thing.

But, failing that — the Republicans controlled not only Congress but also the mass media — the only appropriate result of the finding of no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, in (as I say) a functioning republican democracy would have been the total repudiation of the Bush Administration at the ballot box.

A clear signal that the so-called “system” was working would have been the entirely appropriate refusal of the Republican Party in 2004 to renominate Bush for President. Heh.

As you know, Bush was not repudiated at the ballot box in 2004. But the reality of the situation is much worse than that bare statement. He was renominated by a Repbulican Party unapologetic about having been led to an aggressive foreign war by means of lies, which was bad enough; the opposition party, the Democrats, put up as candidate a nominee who declared his war-readiness in every way, and objected only to the incompetence of the present administration in conducting an illegal, aggressive, criminal war.

And the result? It almost doesn’t matter, since the lack of fit between appropriate response to outrageous violations of longstanding national and international legal norms (not to mention simple humanity) and the business-as-usual Campaign of 2004, was so striking.

But the result was that more people voted for Bush than had ever voted for a President in U.S. history. Some of that result came from demographic increase of the electorate, yes, but . . .

The fact is, the whole episode show that the country does not have a functioning republican form of government in any way. Perhaps a plebiscitory tyranny would be a fair description. Kind of like the Second Empire in 19th-century France, presided over by Napoleon III. Tyrannical rule, completely undemocratic, but approved now and again by a rigged election.

Perhaps the author of this post, Professor Locke, is enthused by the illusion of Constitutional rule that the recent talk of impeachment generates. I am unfortunately unimpressed.

claudius July 27th, 2007 1:16 pm

Dr. Locke,

I appreciate your article. But yesterday I was listening to Pat Leahy and he did not seem in that much of a hurry to begin impeachment. In fact, he mentioned that it would take too long. However, given the groundswell mood among the public, the Democrats may have no choice because it no longer becomes a partisan issue, but an issue of criminality. I just get the sense that in addition Bush’s misleading the public about the war, Gonzales’s perjury, the Pat Tillman cover-up scandal, what else do the Democrats need to grow a spine and go after these guys, and put them in jail. In my mind, we are way beyond impeachment. It is time to set aside the platitudes (”my good friend and colleague…”), and start enforcing the law. The pathos no longer is collegial because it is abundantly clear to anyone at least with some intelligence that the Bush gang conspired to and fulfilled its mission: hijacked the Executive branch. These people should no longer be wearing $2,000 pinstripe Armani suits, but cheaper suits of a different kind with much larger and more visible stripes. Those are my thoughts.

To all the Commondreamers:

It has been fun. I need to disappear for a while. Keep up the great discussions and get out there and fight, at least to preserve the Constitution. May God bless all of you. Peace.

Best regards,
Claudius

Evelyn Smith July 27th, 2007 1:32 pm

Claudius___Claudius__ come back Claudius, we need you.

Not One More July 27th, 2007 1:46 pm

The democratic party is either working towards justice, or they aren’t. I would have to think that keeping impeachment off the table when it is a just thing to do is an example of not working towards justice.

www.NotOneMore.US - Pledge for Peace, IMPEACH

“I’d rather vote for what I want and not get it than vote for what I don’t want, and get it.” - Eugene Debs

Amos July 27th, 2007 1:58 pm

You can call

You can call your members of Congress now toll free at 866-338-1015, 800-459-1887 or 800-614-2803. Phone Chairman Conyers at 202-225-5126 and ask him to support HR 333 and to start the impeachment of Dick Cheney; and phone your own Congress Member at 202-224-3121 and ask them to immediately call Conyers’ office to express their support for impeachment.

“Agitate, agitate, agitate”

EveningLand July 27th, 2007 2:08 pm

Place: White House, the Oval Office

Time: November 2005

Occasion: Meeting of Congressional Republican leaders and President Bush regarding the renewal of the USA Patriot Act

Tell-tale exchange between Bush and one of the visitors:

“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

Telling, isn’t it, that Honorable Bush thinks of the Constitution as damned by God, not blessed by God?

I suppose God has a better constitution in store for us.

newageartist July 27th, 2007 2:14 pm

No impeachment, no end to the Iraqi occupation, Democratic controlled Congress. They are all tied together in one big knot.

http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2007_07_26.shtml

conscience July 27th, 2007 4:27 pm

Jefferson’s Guardian –

Quote: As I’ve mentioned in other postings, the Constitution was hardly seven paragraphs old before the founding fathers gave the people’s elected representatives the power to impeach the president and whomever in the executive branch for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” UNQUOTE

They’re all involved in treason and high crimes …
all of them!!

And I would venture to say that we should also be impeaching the Supreme Court which stopped the vote count in Florida and put George Bush in office.

Let’s get back also to that Republican-fascist rally outside Miami-Dade Election HQ which was successful in stopping the vote count!!!

This was a highly aggressive MOB . . . with one purpose —
to stop the official counting of presidential ballots!!!

The fact that it was an ORGANIZED MOB under control of the Republicans make it even more astonishing and worthy of investigation and prosecution.

Bladerunner —
QUOTE: We have called, we have petitioned, and its not working. How about we get the Red, White and Blue Flu. From about the Friday before Labor day to about Wednesday of the next week. Take your vacation days, call in sick. Maybe your car doesn’t work. Don’t take to the streets. Don’t do anything. What will they declare martial law, because we didn’t go to work for a day or two? UNQUOTE

Ideal — all we need to do is hear an agreed upon “click” — and basically, since we are dealing with corporate-fascism and their elite hand-servants . . . we can stop corporations in their tracks — Don’t move your car over a weekend; don’t buy gas. How many weekends?
Pull your car over to a safe stop — parking lot — whatever — at the stated signal.

These I think would be the kind of resistance measures that Ghandi would have approved.

And, there are probably tons more ideas like this which can be used.

Basically, the power of the powerless.

petalumadeadhead July 27th, 2007 4:51 pm

I AM YELLING!

Jefferson's Guardian July 27th, 2007 5:14 pm

RE: conscience entry @ 4:27PM

Agreeably, there have been a number of reasons to attach “impeachment” to the current administration, going back to the supreme court’s highjacking of the presidential election in 2000. Our Constitution allows for the “bringing of charges” (impeachment), and potential conviction, when transgressions appear warranted. What the Constitution says:

“The House of Representatives…shall have the sole power of impeachment.” - U.S. Constitution, Article I, Sec. 2

“The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present.

“Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, the disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States: but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law.” - U.S. Constitution, Article I, Sec. 3

“The President, Vice-President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” - U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 4.

The frustration, for everyone here on this discussion forum, is that it appears our elected officials are not listening. As previously mentioned, the groundswell has begun, the movement’s underway, it’s not a fringe element calling for proceedings any longer. It’s happening.

To keep up the momentum, call your elected representative.

“Reflection,… with information, is all which our countrymen need, to bring themselves and their affairs to rights.” –Thomas Jefferson to James Lewis, Jr., 1798.

micki July 27th, 2007 5:25 pm

I just re-sent an idea to Thom Hartmann at Air America….with the new intro

Okay….apparently you didn’t like my idea, but how about coupling a National Strike Day (perhaps the Friday before Labor Day or the Tuesday after) with a National Ice Cream Social to educate Americans on the importance of impeachment? Even if impeachment doesn’t happen, it would be a great civics lesson.

Please, Thom, you have a voice…many of us feel we don’t. You and your colleagues at Air America have a soapbox…

July 12, 2007

Mr. Thom Hartmann
c/o KPOJ Radio
4949 Southwest Macadam Avenue
Portland, OR 97239

Dear Thom:

I am one of your regular listeners (on AM1090, Seattle).

For a long time, I felt that Bush and Cheney deserve impeachment, but was reluctant to get on the impeachment bandwagon. However, a critical mass of impeachable offenses has come together and I am 100% in favor of a serious effort to remove them from office.

This may seem like a silly idea, at first reading, but as Ethel Merman said in Gypsy, “ya gotta have a gimmick.”

I would like to propose that someone (such as YOU), call for citizens to host National Ice Cream Socials over the Labor Day Weekend. They would serve MmmmmPeachMint ice cream. (Preferably made with Texas peaches and mint chocolate chunks.) A rallying slogan could be, “Enjoy MmmmmmPeachMint — it’s good for your Constitution.”

Using the Ice Cream Social as the venue for this effort would be reminiscent of early America where the ice cream social was often a gathering spot to discuss social, charitable, political activities. I have tried to get some local ice creameries to feature MmmmmPeachMint as a “short term” flavor, but so far none of them have put it on their menu.

It is time to launch a surge for impeachment. This could be the start of the first massive grassroots’ effort to inform Americans on the importance of impeachment. Town, city, county, state politicians would be invited to attend. If these National Ice Cream Socials were held throughout the land, brought to the attention of local and national media, and fueled with the sweet taste of MmmmmmmPeachMint, this could be the start of something big!

Thanks,

micki July 27th, 2007 5:33 pm

According to Hartmann’s website, here’s how to call in:

The caller comment line, which you can call and on which you can leave a message 24 hours a day, is 503 323-6620. The toll-free number to call into the show (the only reliable way to actually talk with Thom if you’re a listener and want to discuss politics) is 866-303-2270.

Jefferson's Guardian July 27th, 2007 5:34 pm

micki…

What a great idea! I have a tin of flavored mints in my car. If I’m entertaining someone, after the meal I offer up a “peach mint”. Always gets, at least, a smile.

Thanks for your input.

Dr. Zimmerman Robert July 27th, 2007 5:52 pm

“(Bush) was so charming,” said Pelosi, daughter of House Minority Whip Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco. “I thought some of us were in love with him.”

http://www.dailycal.org/printable.php?id=8486

alamac July 27th, 2007 6:02 pm

Nice one, Dylan Bob (”Zimmerman Robert”). (Could it be?…nah. He was lost to the theonuts decades ago)

I had not heard that quote from Shillosi’s daughter. The apple don’t fall far from the tree, does it??

John F. Butterfield July 27th, 2007 6:13 pm

His Heinous George W. Bush (Bush was never elected President.) should be impeached.

His Heinous Dick Cheney (Cheny was never elected vice president.) should be impeached.

richard young July 27th, 2007 6:37 pm

I am thankful for the PI’s publication of this article and for most of the article, but I can’t quite understand Mr. Locke’s inability “to imagine them [Senator Leahy and Congressman Conyers] blinking if the White House tries to stare them down.” In the world I inhabit, it is difficult NOT to imagine these two gentlemen blinking, averting their eyes, or extending yet another plaintive plea that the President PLEASE cooperate so that they are not compelled to resort to unpleasant legal proceedings to compel compliance with their humble requests. Our current President’s reading list is not terribly long, but I presume he has read (or had read to him) the Uncle Remus Tale in which the rabbit asks not to be thrown into the briar patch. If for “briar patch” you substitute “several years of litigation in friendly federal courts,” perhaps you may begin to imagine how threatened President Bush must feel.

huckleberry July 27th, 2007 6:41 pm

The Tao is falling! The Tao is Falling!

claudius July 27th, 2007 6:44 pm

huckleberry,

Check out my reply to you on the Conyers thread. Nothing implied, my friend. It is all good. It is refreshing to see someone else out there fighting as well. Unfortunately, I have to temporarily give up the fight. Take care.

Best,
claudius

KEM PATRICK July 27th, 2007 6:53 pm

Did I miss something?

I remember Nancy Pelosi, The Speaker of The House, firmly stating, that impeachment is off the table. Then the congressman who is holding the impeachment bill, says he will hold it, __ forever__ and then he had Cindy Sheehan arrested.

So tell me, is this article or any comments written actually going to help any more than hundreds of others have?

grandma July 27th, 2007 7:02 pm

Hi all - The people of this country are more than ready for impeachment. Two things that our reps should notice -

1) try googling for “impeachment, cities, towns” and stand back - a LOT of people have stopped talking and taken grassroots action.

2) Today I watched c-span’s call-in show Washington Journal - the question was whether or not it was good for the country for Congress to be investigating the White House. I was amazed - of 12 callers (more or less) only 2 supported the Bush/Cheney gang (and one of them was either drunk or high, so doesn’t count). All the rest sounded furious and fierce and used words like fascist, dictatorship, taking away our rights, criminals, and other words and phrases familiar to CD bloggers. In fact it seemed like I was “watching” CD, not c-span. The moderator was bemused and (I think) shocked and kept trying to change the subject by reading other items from the papers for folks to comment on, but no one took the bait. Finally they just switched to the Senate, where nothing much was going on (of course).

I think we should stop philosophizing about the meaning of democracy and analyzing how we got into this mess and instead start to pull all these angry people out there together. I posted this on another thread and someone suggested afterdowningstreet.org as the right place to do that, but I’m not sure that’s the best idea. Any other suggestions?

stiv July 27th, 2007 7:05 pm

I’m getting a little sick of this whole chit chat abot impeachment. The votes aren’t there. IT’s not going to happen— and Pelosi and Reid know this— that articles of impeachment are DOA in congress, especially the senate. Plus, there isn’t time. And the Dems aren’t going to risk failure on an impeachment hearing and risk a political defeat and effect ‘08.

Sure, I wish Bush would fall down a hole and Cheney on top of him (as long as Cheney hadn’t shapeshited out of human form), but this is politics. These discusssions are so often about right and wrong, and we bemoan the Bush experiment for being dirty, crooked, illegal, etc… that’s all true, but if we can’t stop it (which we can’t) then what? These guys are bullys.

brucetylerwick July 27th, 2007 7:12 pm

A detail, but an important one: Nancy Pelosi gave her public pledge to keep impeachment “off the table” in a CBS’ 60 Minutes’ interview, broadcast BEFORE the November 2006 House and Senate elections. That public pledge was, I believe, part of the deal, which ALLOWED Democrats to take control of House and Senate. It would not have happened otherwise, because the usual electoral fraud would have prevented it.

For that reason alone–”the Deal” (and there are others)–Ms. Polosi can never, will never, allow the House to vote on an impeachment resolution. She will stand in the proverbial schoolhouse door to prevent impeachment. Even if House Democrats were to repudiate the Deal, say, because the nation were in extremis; Democrats would either have to REMOVE Ms. Polosi as Speaker or BYPASS her with a Speaker pro tem, when she refused to allow the House to impeach Messrs. Bush and Cheney.

madcow July 27th, 2007 8:47 pm

There’s ample proof that election fraud did occur in 2006, just as it did in 2004(Ohio) and 2000(Florida). The difference was apathy on the part of the republican base, which led to a gap that was too great to breach by the usual neocon fraud. With a clean election in 2006 the Dems would have a much larger majority today.

TomAmity July 27th, 2007 8:53 pm

Gore should have been impeached when he failed to support the congressional Black Caucus in its call for an investigation of the allegations of ballot tampering in Florida in 2000. John Kerry should have been impeached for the same thing in regard to Ohio in 2004.

Lyndon Johnson should have been impeached for the lies that resulted in the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, and for the interference in the Dominican Republic resulting in the overthrow of Juan Bosch. Dwight D. Eisenhower should have been impeached for authorizing the overthrow of the government of Guatemala in 1954.

The list of things George W. Bush should be impeached for is endless. But his daddy should have been impeached for provoking a war with Iraq in 1991. when he deliberately gave Saddam Hussein the impression that the the US would “have no position” on an Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

micki July 27th, 2007 8:57 pm

Some people may be a little sick (and tired) of the talk of impeachment, but the reality is if impeachment was “talked about” more widely it might gain momentum.

I realize the votes aren’t there to convict in the Senate (for now), but it’s worth “talking about” impeachment to educate the American people about how the process works.

It’s also worth “talking about” impeachment because it might wake (some) people up to the fact that we’re heading towards a Constitutional crisis.

Enjoy MmmmmmPeachMint! It’s good for your Constitution!

mary lou July 27th, 2007 10:32 pm

what is “autodelete@democrats.com”? that is what you get if you send your petition to dennis kucinich to impeach dick cheney. the other email is activist@democrats.com. somebody internet savvy please explain to me: who are they?

Jeff Moehring July 27th, 2007 10:47 pm

Either we impeach these bastards or we will see either an allowed terrorist attack or a false-flag operation in the near future.

The groundwork is in place.
They certainly don’t want to go that route.
It would unmask the fascist nature of the movement for all to see. Better to maintain the facade of Democracy.

But they aren’t gonna see the White House AND the Congress slip from their grasp. They have already come too close to achieving their goals to allow the sort of full scale repudiation of the Neo-Con agenda that is almost certain to happen in 2008 if free elections are allowed.

I for one am doing all that I can to scrape a few bucks together to get the hell out.
Call me a coward if you will. I did my bit fresh outta high school when I enlisted during the Vietnam War.
I owe nothing more in my opinion.

We have allowed our greed, laziness, religious fervor, self-deluded “exceptionalism” and general disregard for the rights of our fellow citizens of the planet to bring us to this all too deserved end.

I for one believe that our come-uppence is well deserved and long overdue. And I further believe that unless we as a Nation are spanked good and hard the future of the planet is in doubt.

I hope and pray that the awakening that is taking place in this country is not too late.
But I wouldn’t bet a cup of warm spit on it.

The time for awakening was way back when Reagan ascended to power. Anyone who couldn’t see that he was a harbinger of the current sorry state of things was a fool or an accomplice.

I ain’t highly educated but even a dumb hick from Alabama like myself could see where we were heading.
And I am tired of having my tin-foil hat slapped off my head for trying to tell folks this for the past 3 decades or so.

If it sounds like I am trying to pat myself on the back I apologize.
It is with deep sadness that I have to say I told ya’ so.
I could fuckin’ cry right now as I survey the wreckage of the greatest experiment in self-rule the world has ever known.
Once this great Nation falls I fear for the entire concept of Democracy in this world.

all the best

grandma July 28th, 2007 12:03 am

Kem Patrick - You ask
“So tell me, is this article or any comments written actually going to help any more than hundreds of others have?”

Answer - Probably not. But I’d rather try than say “Oh well, it won’t work anyway so why bother.” I have to face my grandchildren, after all.

brucetylerwick July 28th, 2007 12:07 am

Responding to Mad Cow’s evening post, there are of course limits to the possible, so far as electoral fraud is concerned–though I wonder if those limits keep shrinking with each passing election. But whatever fraud was done or forborne in 2006, Ms. Pelosi’s pre-election pledge, and subsequent intransigence, on impeaching Messrs. Bush and Cheney, can be explained ONLY by a pre-election agreement NOT to impeach.

The most likely promise on the other side: to withhold enough of Diebold’s wizardry to allow the electorate to work its will. One possibility Mad Cow evidently hasn’t considered: that the GOP was either bluffing or exaggerating its capabilities. But no matter, if the Democrats bought into the bluff and made the deal.

The “Deal” I posit has become clearer with time–and will become clearer still with the passage of even more time and our mushrooming national crisis. Eventually, someone is bound to ask Ms. Pelosi about a deal, and we’ll all get to see how she responds to the charge. Nor should she be asked just once. Instead, let the questioning be persistent, unending, until the truth emerges.

abbybwood July 28th, 2007 12:07 am

To Claudius:

Hope you’ll only be gone about as long as Cindy was.

I’ve enjoyed reading your comments.

KEM PATRICK July 28th, 2007 1:06 am

Hi grandma, me too. My grandkids talk about the electronic balloting and no paper trail. It isn’t who votes or how many vote, it is how the votes are counted that counts.

Few talk about that problem and both Gore and Kerry may have won a lot more states than they were credited with. But with the electronic balloting, we will never know.

We just won’t know and that is the most important subject for us to talk about and our congress has shelved the discussion.
Will it be corrected before 08?___ No, and the fraud will be worse next time, because more states will have the electronic ballots and no paper trail.__ It’s rigged, that is what we should discuss.

Raster July 28th, 2007 3:00 am

Every member of the House that is not ready to stand up Monday morning in Congress and say “We Must Impeach” is either a coward or a collaborator. Or both. Fully half of this country is FIRMLY in favor of impeaching bush*. More so for cheney*. And more join the impeachment throngs every day. Further delay by Congress marks our Representatives as accomplices and enablers. Every member of Congress swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. Now most are wiping their asses on it.

Gail July 28th, 2007 9:41 am

Saturday, July 28th: New York Times has an article on Bush’s proposed $20 Billion arms deal to Saudi Arabia and their neighbors.

What next…..if not impeachment?

Siouxrose July 28th, 2007 11:47 am

MMEO: You make good points of analysis with the exception of your contention that BUSH actually had a large number of votes. Given the nature of the computer models used to code/count the votes, and the cases made by Robert Kennedy, Jr. as well as Beverly Harris ANY numbers are suspect at best.
JEFF MOEHRING: I understand what you are saying (and ultimately endeavoring to do, as I am contemplating likewise). My father, a man with high ideals of justice, was also a believer in Judaism. As a young man who went on to serve in WWII, he was aghast at the level of inhumanity that drove a seemingly normal (German) society to routinely round of persons of a different religion (and ethnicity) in broad daylight and shoot them. I was conditioned from a young age to be very suspect of authority figures and recognize that a majority of persons can be swept along into a kind of manic group conformity and do outrageous things (we see this is many parts of Africa today, the film HOTEL RWANDA made it painfully clear.) The best analogy frequently used on this site is that of the frog left in water that is drawn to a boil so slowly, the frog does not recognize the danger it’s in until it’s too late. If matters are not turned around by serious impeachment hearings SOON, WE citizens become THOSE frogs. There comes a point where if you don’t jump out, you are doomed… unless you can find the way to turn down the flame.

Dr. Zimmerman Robert July 28th, 2007 2:04 pm

Statement on the Articles of Impeachment

Barbara Charline Jordan Statement on the Articles of Impeachment

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/barbarajordanjudiciarystatement.htm

When Pelosi speaks, she speaks for the Democrats in Congress; when Jordan spoke she spoke for the American people.

ezeflyer July 28th, 2007 2:05 pm

The corporate media worried about their fascists? I think they’re worried about the negative perception about themselves that their fascists are giving their subscribers. All about their bottom line, as usual.

zazmo July 28th, 2007 3:10 pm

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/video_popups/pop_vid_impeachment1-2.html

In this PBS interview, John Nichols of the Nation magazine says, “Impeachment isn’t a constitutional crisis. It’s a cure for a constitutional crisis” and “The Founders said monarchical behavior — the behaviour of a king, acting like one — is an impeachable offense. You need not look for specific laws or statutes. What you need to look for is a pattern of behavior that says the presidency is superior not merely to Congress but to the laws of the land — to the rule of law.”

Using Campaign Spending Limits to Get America Better Politicians is the Only Way to Solve America’s Problems Enough

grandma July 28th, 2007 7:08 pm

Kem Patrick - The gods have answered you! Talk about power! See the headline article in today’s (Saturdays) CD. Went up very late -

sungoddess July 28th, 2007 11:17 pm

Dear CommonDreams; 2 of my comments did not appear! They were relatively printable, at least compared to some, so, what gives?

KEM PATRICK July 29th, 2007 1:42 am

We all know both Cheney and Bush should be impeached. The only road block now is Congressman Conyers. If 50 million people peacefully marched on DC tomorrow and loudly demanded they be impeached, what earthly difference would it make, if Conyers sits on the Bill and refuses to enact it?

Answer: ___ Not one bit of difference.

We can write, bitch and scream till our brains run out of our ears. Conyers is the road block and if we want to see an impeachment process begin, Conyers will have to be convinced and submit the bill for a vote.

Cindy failed to convince him and was arrested for trying.___ She is some gal.

BillB July 29th, 2007 3:00 pm

I can add that I was so pleased to see a bumper sticker of “Bush/Cheny ‘04″ but with a new sticker over the top that read “Impeach “07″

auspiciousbunny July 29th, 2007 9:30 pm

I keep trying to use the edit function, to no avail here…

I may also be sick to death of Bush, Cheney, the war, and all their crimes, but it is necessary to keep pushing for impeachment and uphold the law in this country. I mean I can’t just lie down in my grave and be a (wage) slave. It feels like crap to do that anyway. I’ll serve ice cream to the vicitms of the simulated RW&B Flu.

Think I feel a fever coming on… what date?

Turner July 31st, 2007 7:06 am

There’s a reason why impeachment is in the Constitution. It is not just a tool; by not using those powers, it is in fact disobeying the Constitution.

SallyUUKent July 31st, 2007 10:20 am

Impeachment? Not gonna happen. Ever. And here’s why:

D-Day Is Off the Table
By Representative Major R. Owens
The Huffington Post

Friday 27 July 2007

“There will be no invasion of Normandy. Such an action might distract from the overall war effort.”

Impeachment is off the table. Ordinary House Members will not be exposed to the opportunity to become the “Greatest Generation” of legislators.

In June 1944, upon hearing that the Americans would not try to capture Omaha Beach, imagine the joy among the Nazi leaders. At Bertesgarten there would have been the grossest banquet and celebration ever experienced by humankind.

With impeachment “off the table,” Carl Rove spends a few hours celebrating every day as he prepares his war plans for the 2008 elections.

With D-Day off the table and no second front, imagine the plight of the Russians who had already sacrificed millions. They would have probably been forced to accept a humiliating truce. And certainly the world would have expected the Third Reich to position itself for a more advantageous final confrontation with America.

Following the blunder of sweeping impeachment off the table, there is now a clarification of the Democrats’ solo strategy for capturing public opinion and driving forward to victory in 2008. For the master plan there are a myriad of “commando raids”:

*Subpoena Harriet Miers

*Subpoena Chief of Staff Bolton

*Try Gonzalez for contempt of congress

*Hold more hearings on the slow pace of outfitting combat vehicles for better protection

*Assure better benefits for the 2/3rds of the casualties who do survive

*Pass amendments against permanent bases

*Pass amendments limiting the amount of time soldiers must spend in the path of death - at least half their lives should be reserved for home.

“Thumpin” Rahm reasons that since the media is covering these “commando raids” and the voters’ attention is riveted upon these Democratic Party initiatives; Democrats are guaranteed an informed electorate to return them to power in 2008. Rahm further reasons that it is impolite and bad manners to start a proceeding that cannot be finished within the session schedule. Rahm reasons that the President should not have charges and an indictment hanging over his head if there is no time for a Senate trial.

Impeachment is off the table. There will be no D-Day. There will be no messy Battle of the Bulge. The Bush citadel is too Big to fail. Let’s march forward and capture fortress Gonzalez instead. For not being untidy, maybe Rahm and Democrats expect voters in 2008 to throw flowers at their feet?

BillB July 31st, 2007 11:13 pm

Sally, Hitler had no idea how to really lead the people or command the troops but some of the guys under him knew how to command the troops ( none knew how to lead the people only scare the shit of them).. but the point is that there were at least three US men who did not want germany to fail so soon cuz they were making money on both sides.
Those guys were CEO of general motors; Henry Ford and the banker named Prescott Bush. Fords and Chevs ??? but the money was banked long after we got into the war. That banker Bush is the grandfather to Geo W. Bush…..You are so very right the Bush shitadel is too big to fail… they play both sides for money is all
bill brown

citizen a July 27th, 2007 10:50 am

war is peace
torture is a family value.
health care for children is not.

gotta love those pro-life, compassionate conservatives.
Jefferson's Guardian July 27th, 2007 12:16 pm

When once a republic is corrupted there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption . . . every other correction is either useless or a new evil.
- Thomas Jefferson

The groundswell is happening. Keep calling and writing your elected representatives. Tell them what you feel. Tell them that you support the commencement of impeachment proceedings.

As I’ve mentioned in other postings, the Constitution was hardly seven paragraphs old before the founding fathers gave the people’s elected representatives the power to impeach the president and whomever in the executive branch for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” This should cover all, if not most, of the transgressions listed in Mr. Locke’s article (“Heinous human rights violations, breaches of trust, abuses of power injurious to the nation, war crimes and misleading Congress and the American people.”).

The Framers never intended impeachment to be either extreme or rare. It was meant to be used forcefully and unapologetically and as often as necessary to check the excesses of power or wanton corruption of the temporary occupants of the White House.

Call today.
Evelyn Smith July 27th, 2007 12:19 pm

A senior U.S. diplomat states that Cheney sort of plays by his own rules and therefore, “should be” a prime target for indictment for breaking a whole bucket of U.S.laws.

Should be?___ Uhhh, how about__ “must be”.
mcpete July 27th, 2007 12:25 pm

If voting will not work, bullets will. The way it is going, debating gun laws will prove to be a waste of time when it turns out that the only way to protect the Constitution is by being well armed. The Bush/Cheney regime needs to visit the Hague. Forget impeachment, force those idiots to obey the law or put them where they belong. IN PRISON. Write your legislatures and urge them to no longer fund any security for the Bush crime family. Once georgy and his pals are out on the street, they can answer to the people that DID NOT vote for them.
Coyotita July 27th, 2007 12:41 pm

Si! Talk of impeachment is getting, bien laden!
nwfisher July 27th, 2007 12:52 pm

oh oh ooooooh….. Dreamweaver….
mmeo July 27th, 2007 1:15 pm

You know when impeachment, if the United States were a functioning republican form of government, would have been appropriate, don’t you?

Once it was known, in the winter 2003/2004, that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. No rhetorical flourishes here. Impeachment at that point was clearly the appropriate thing.

But, failing that — the Republicans controlled not only Congress but also the mass media — the only appropriate result of the finding of no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, in (as I say) a functioning republican democracy would have been the total repudiation of the Bush Administration at the ballot box.

A clear signal that the so-called “system” was working would have been the entirely appropriate refusal of the Republican Party in 2004 to renominate Bush for President. Heh.

As you know, Bush was not repudiated at the ballot box in 2004. But the reality of the situation is much worse than that bare statement. He was renominated by a Repbulican Party unapologetic about having been led to an aggressive foreign war by means of lies, which was bad enough; the opposition party, the Democrats, put up as candidate a nominee who declared his war-readiness in every way, and objected only to the incompetence of the present administration in conducting an illegal, aggressive, criminal war.

And the result? It almost doesn’t matter, since the lack of fit between appropriate response to outrageous violations of longstanding national and international legal norms (not to mention simple humanity) and the business-as-usual Campaign of 2004, was so striking.

But the result was that more people voted for Bush than had ever voted for a President in U.S. history. Some of that result came from demographic increase of the electorate, yes, but . . .

The fact is, the whole episode show that the country does not have a functioning republican form of government in any way. Perhaps a plebiscitory tyranny would be a fair description. Kind of like the Second Empire in 19th-century France, presided over by Napoleon III. Tyrannical rule, completely undemocratic, but approved now and again by a rigged election.

Perhaps the author of this post, Professor Locke, is enthused by the illusion of Constitutional rule that the recent talk of impeachment generates. I am unfortunately unimpressed.
claudius July 27th, 2007 1:16 pm

Dr. Locke,

I appreciate your article. But yesterday I was listening to Pat Leahy and he did not seem in that much of a hurry to begin impeachment. In fact, he mentioned that it would take too long. However, given the groundswell mood among the public, the Democrats may have no choice because it no longer becomes a partisan issue, but an issue of criminality. I just get the sense that in addition Bush’s misleading the public about the war, Gonzales’s perjury, the Pat Tillman cover-up scandal, what else do the Democrats need to grow a spine and go after these guys, and put them in jail. In my mind, we are way beyond impeachment. It is time to set aside the platitudes (”my good friend and colleague…”), and start enforcing the law. The pathos no longer is collegial because it is abundantly clear to anyone at least with some intelligence that the Bush gang conspired to and fulfilled its mission: hijacked the Executive branch. These people should no longer be wearing $2,000 pinstripe Armani suits, but cheaper suits of a different kind with much larger and more visible stripes. Those are my thoughts.

To all the Commondreamers:

It has been fun. I need to disappear for a while. Keep up the great discussions and get out there and fight, at least to preserve the Constitution. May God bless all of you. Peace.

Best regards,
Claudius
Evelyn Smith July 27th, 2007 1:32 pm

Claudius___Claudius__ come back Claudius, we need you.
Not One More July 27th, 2007 1:46 pm

The democratic party is either working towards justice, or they aren’t. I would have to think that keeping impeachment off the table when it is a just thing to do is an example of not working towards justice.

www.NotOneMore.US - Pledge for Peace, IMPEACH

“I’d rather vote for what I want and not get it than vote for what I don’t want, and get it.” - Eugene Debs
Amos July 27th, 2007 1:58 pm

You can call

You can call your members of Congress now toll free at 866-338-1015, 800-459-1887 or 800-614-2803. Phone Chairman Conyers at 202-225-5126 and ask him to support HR 333 and to start the impeachment of Dick Cheney; and phone your own Congress Member at 202-224-3121 and ask them to immediately call Conyers’ office to express their support for impeachment.

“Agitate, agitate, agitate”
EveningLand July 27th, 2007 2:08 pm

Place: White House, the Oval Office

Time: November 2005

Occasion: Meeting of Congressional Republican leaders and President Bush regarding the renewal of the USA Patriot Act

Tell-tale exchange between Bush and one of the visitors:

“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

Telling, isn’t it, that Honorable Bush thinks of the Constitution as damned by God, not blessed by God?

I suppose God has a better constitution in store for us.
newageartist July 27th, 2007 2:14 pm

No impeachment, no end to the Iraqi occupation, Democratic controlled Congress. They are all tied together in one big knot.

http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2007_07_26.shtml
conscience July 27th, 2007 4:27 pm

Jefferson’s Guardian –

Quote: As I’ve mentioned in other postings, the Constitution was hardly seven paragraphs old before the founding fathers gave the people’s elected representatives the power to impeach the president and whomever in the executive branch for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” UNQUOTE

They’re all involved in treason and high crimes …
all of them!!

And I would venture to say that we should also be impeaching the Supreme Court which stopped the vote count in Florida and put George Bush in office.

Let’s get back also to that Republican-fascist rally outside Miami-Dade Election HQ which was successful in stopping the vote count!!!

This was a highly aggressive MOB . . . with one purpose —
to stop the official counting of presidential ballots!!!

The fact that it was an ORGANIZED MOB under control of the Republicans make it even more astonishing and worthy of investigation and prosecution.

Bladerunner —
QUOTE: We have called, we have petitioned, and its not working. How about we get the Red, White and Blue Flu. From about the Friday before Labor day to about Wednesday of the next week. Take your vacation days, call in sick. Maybe your car doesn’t work. Don’t take to the streets. Don’t do anything. What will they declare martial law, because we didn’t go to work for a day or two? UNQUOTE

Ideal — all we need to do is hear an agreed upon “click” — and basically, since we are dealing with corporate-fascism and their elite hand-servants . . . we can stop corporations in their tracks — Don’t move your car over a weekend; don’t buy gas. How many weekends?
Pull your car over to a safe stop — parking lot — whatever — at the stated signal.

These I think would be the kind of resistance measures that Ghandi would have approved.

And, there are probably tons more ideas like this which can be used.

Basically, the power of the powerless.
petalumadeadhead July 27th, 2007 4:51 pm

I AM YELLING!
Jefferson's Guardian July 27th, 2007 5:14 pm

RE: conscience entry @ 4:27PM

Agreeably, there have been a number of reasons to attach “impeachment” to the current administration, going back to the supreme court’s highjacking of the presidential election in 2000. Our Constitution allows for the “bringing of charges” (impeachment), and potential conviction, when transgressions appear warranted. What the Constitution says:

“The House of Representatives…shall have the sole power of impeachment.” - U.S. Constitution, Article I, Sec. 2

“The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present.

“Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, the disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States: but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law.” - U.S. Constitution, Article I, Sec. 3

“The President, Vice-President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” - U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 4.

The frustration, for everyone here on this discussion forum, is that it appears our elected officials are not listening. As previously mentioned, the groundswell has begun, the movement’s underway, it’s not a fringe element calling for proceedings any longer. It’s happening.

To keep up the momentum, call your elected representative.

“Reflection,… with information, is all which our countrymen need, to bring themselves and their affairs to rights.” –Thomas Jefferson to James Lewis, Jr., 1798.
micki July 27th, 2007 5:25 pm

I just re-sent an idea to Thom Hartmann at Air America….with the new intro

Okay….apparently you didn’t like my idea, but how about coupling a National Strike Day (perhaps the Friday before Labor Day or the Tuesday after) with a National Ice Cream Social to educate Americans on the importance of impeachment? Even if impeachment doesn’t happen, it would be a great civics lesson.

Please, Thom, you have a voice…many of us feel we don’t. You and your colleagues at Air America have a soapbox…

July 12, 2007

Mr. Thom Hartmann
c/o KPOJ Radio
4949 Southwest Macadam Avenue
Portland, OR 97239

Dear Thom:

I am one of your regular listeners (on AM1090, Seattle).

For a long time, I felt that Bush and Cheney deserve impeachment, but was reluctant to get on the impeachment bandwagon. However, a critical mass of impeachable offenses has come together and I am 100% in favor of a serious effort to remove them from office.

This may seem like a silly idea, at first reading, but as Ethel Merman said in Gypsy, “ya gotta have a gimmick.”

I would like to propose that someone (such as YOU), call for citizens to host National Ice Cream Socials over the Labor Day Weekend. They would serve MmmmmPeachMint ice cream. (Preferably made with Texas peaches and mint chocolate chunks.) A rallying slogan could be, “Enjoy MmmmmmPeachMint — it’s good for your Constitution.”

Using the Ice Cream Social as the venue for this effort would be reminiscent of early America where the ice cream social was often a gathering spot to discuss social, charitable, political activities. I have tried to get some local ice creameries to feature MmmmmPeachMint as a “short term” flavor, but so far none of them have put it on their menu.

It is time to launch a surge for impeachment. This could be the start of the first massive grassroots’ effort to inform Americans on the importance of impeachment. Town, city, county, state politicians would be invited to attend. If these National Ice Cream Socials were held throughout the land, brought to the attention of local and national media, and fueled with the sweet taste of MmmmmmmPeachMint, this could be the start of something big!

Thanks,
micki July 27th, 2007 5:33 pm

According to Hartmann’s website, here’s how to call in:

The caller comment line, which you can call and on which you can leave a message 24 hours a day, is 503 323-6620. The toll-free number to call into the show (the only reliable way to actually talk with Thom if you’re a listener and want to discuss politics) is 866-303-2270.
Jefferson's Guardian July 27th, 2007 5:34 pm

micki…

What a great idea! I have a tin of flavored mints in my car. If I’m entertaining someone, after the meal I offer up a “peach mint”. Always gets, at least, a smile.

Thanks for your input.
Dr. Zimmerman Robert July 27th, 2007 5:52 pm

“(Bush) was so charming,” said Pelosi, daughter of House Minority Whip Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco. “I thought some of us were in love with him.”

http://www.dailycal.org/printable.php?id=8486
alamac July 27th, 2007 6:02 pm

Nice one, Dylan Bob (”Zimmerman Robert”). (Could it be?…nah. He was lost to the theonuts decades ago)

I had not heard that quote from Shillosi’s daughter. The apple don’t fall far from the tree, does it??
John F. Butterfield July 27th, 2007 6:13 pm

His Heinous George W. Bush (Bush was never elected President.) should be impeached.

His Heinous Dick Cheney (Cheny was never elected vice president.) should be impeached.
richard young July 27th, 2007 6:37 pm

I am thankful for the PI’s publication of this article and for most of the article, but I can’t quite understand Mr. Locke’s inability “to imagine them [Senator Leahy and Congressman Conyers] blinking if the White House tries to stare them down.” In the world I inhabit, it is difficult NOT to imagine these two gentlemen blinking, averting their eyes, or extending yet another plaintive plea that the President PLEASE cooperate so that they are not compelled to resort to unpleasant legal proceedings to compel compliance with their humble requests. Our current President’s reading list is not terribly long, but I presume he has read (or had read to him) the Uncle Remus Tale in which the rabbit asks not to be thrown into the briar patch. If for “briar patch” you substitute “several years of litigation in friendly federal courts,” perhaps you may begin to imagine how threatened President Bush must feel.
huckleberry July 27th, 2007 6:41 pm

The Tao is falling! The Tao is Falling!
claudius July 27th, 2007 6:44 pm

huckleberry,

Check out my reply to you on the Conyers thread. Nothing implied, my friend. It is all good. It is refreshing to see someone else out there fighting as well. Unfortunately, I have to temporarily give up the fight. Take care.

Best,
claudius
KEM PATRICK July 27th, 2007 6:53 pm

Did I miss something?

I remember Nancy Pelosi, The Speaker of The House, firmly stating, that impeachment is off the table. Then the congressman who is holding the impeachment bill, says he will hold it, __ forever__ and then he had Cindy Sheehan arrested.

So tell me, is this article or any comments written actually going to help any more than hundreds of others have?
grandma July 27th, 2007 7:02 pm

Hi all - The people of this country are more than ready for impeachment. Two things that our reps should notice -

1) try googling for “impeachment, cities, towns” and stand back - a LOT of people have stopped talking and taken grassroots action.

2) Today I watched c-span’s call-in show Washington Journal - the question was whether or not it was good for the country for Congress to be investigating the White House. I was amazed - of 12 callers (more or less) only 2 supported the Bush/Cheney gang (and one of them was either drunk or high, so doesn’t count). All the rest sounded furious and fierce and used words like fascist, dictatorship, taking away our rights, criminals, and other words and phrases familiar to CD bloggers. In fact it seemed like I was “watching” CD, not c-span. The moderator was bemused and (I think) shocked and kept trying to change the subject by reading other items from the papers for folks to comment on, but no one took the bait. Finally they just switched to the Senate, where nothing much was going on (of course).

I think we should stop philosophizing about the meaning of democracy and analyzing how we got into this mess and instead start to pull all these angry people out there together. I posted this on another thread and someone suggested afterdowningstreet.org as the right place to do that, but I’m not sure that’s the best idea. Any other suggestions?
stiv July 27th, 2007 7:05 pm

I’m getting a little sick of this whole chit chat abot impeachment. The votes aren’t there. IT’s not going to happen— and Pelosi and Reid know this— that articles of impeachment are DOA in congress, especially the senate. Plus, there isn’t time. And the Dems aren’t going to risk failure on an impeachment hearing and risk a political defeat and effect ‘08.

Sure, I wish Bush would fall down a hole and Cheney on top of him (as long as Cheney hadn’t shapeshited out of human form), but this is politics. These discusssions are so often about right and wrong, and we bemoan the Bush experiment for being dirty, crooked, illegal, etc… that’s all true, but if we can’t stop it (which we can’t) then what? These guys are bullys.
brucetylerwick July 27th, 2007 7:12 pm

A detail, but an important one: Nancy Pelosi gave her public pledge to keep impeachment “off the table” in a CBS’ 60 Minutes’ interview, broadcast BEFORE the November 2006 House and Senate elections. That public pledge was, I believe, part of the deal, which ALLOWED Democrats to take control of House and Senate. It would not have happened otherwise, because the usual electoral fraud would have prevented it.

For that reason alone–”the Deal” (and there are others)–Ms. Polosi can never, will never, allow the House to vote on an impeachment resolution. She will stand in the proverbial schoolhouse door to prevent impeachment. Even if House Democrats were to repudiate the Deal, say, because the nation were in extremis; Democrats would either have to REMOVE Ms. Polosi as Speaker or BYPASS her with a Speaker pro tem, when she refused to allow the House to impeach Messrs. Bush and Cheney.
madcow July 27th, 2007 8:47 pm

There’s ample proof that election fraud did occur in 2006, just as it did in 2004(Ohio) and 2000(Florida). The difference was apathy on the part of the republican base, which led to a gap that was too great to breach by the usual neocon fraud. With a clean election in 2006 the Dems would have a much larger majority today.
TomAmity July 27th, 2007 8:53 pm

Gore should have been impeached when he failed to support the congressional Black Caucus in its call for an investigation of the allegations of ballot tampering in Florida in 2000. John Kerry should have been impeached for the same thing in regard to Ohio in 2004.

Lyndon Johnson should have been impeached for the lies that resulted in the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, and for the interference in the Dominican Republic resulting in the overthrow of Juan Bosch. Dwight D. Eisenhower should have been impeached for authorizing the overthrow of the government of Guatemala in 1954.

The list of things George W. Bush should be impeached for is endless. But his daddy should have been impeached for provoking a war with Iraq in 1991. when he deliberately gave Saddam Hussein the impression that the the US would “have no position” on an Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
micki July 27th, 2007 8:57 pm

Some people may be a little sick (and tired) of the talk of impeachment, but the reality is if impeachment was “talked about” more widely it might gain momentum.

I realize the votes aren’t there to convict in the Senate (for now), but it’s worth “talking about” impeachment to educate the American people about how the process works.

It’s also worth “talking about” impeachment because it might wake (some) people up to the fact that we’re heading towards a Constitutional crisis.

Enjoy MmmmmmPeachMint! It’s good for your Constitution!
mary lou July 27th, 2007 10:32 pm

what is “autodelete@democrats.com”? that is what you get if you send your petition to dennis kucinich to impeach dick cheney. the other email is activist@democrats.com. somebody internet savvy please explain to me: who are they?
Jeff Moehring July 27th, 2007 10:47 pm

Either we impeach these bastards or we will see either an allowed terrorist attack or a false-flag operation in the near future.

The groundwork is in place.
They certainly don’t want to go that route.
It would unmask the fascist nature of the movement for all to see. Better to maintain the facade of Democracy.

But they aren’t gonna see the White House AND the Congress slip from their grasp. They have already come too close to achieving their goals to allow the sort of full scale repudiation of the Neo-Con agenda that is almost certain to happen in 2008 if free elections are allowed.

I for one am doing all that I can to scrape a few bucks together to get the hell out.
Call me a coward if you will. I did my bit fresh outta high school when I enlisted during the Vietnam War.
I owe nothing more in my opinion.

We have allowed our greed, laziness, religious fervor, self-deluded “exceptionalism” and general disregard for the rights of our fellow citizens of the planet to bring us to this all too deserved end.

I for one believe that our come-uppence is well deserved and long overdue. And I further believe that unless we as a Nation are spanked good and hard the future of the planet is in doubt.

I hope and pray that the awakening that is taking place in this country is not too late.
But I wouldn’t bet a cup of warm spit on it.

The time for awakening was way back when Reagan ascended to power. Anyone who couldn’t see that he was a harbinger of the current sorry state of things was a fool or an accomplice.

I ain’t highly educated but even a dumb hick from Alabama like myself could see where we were heading.
And I am tired of having my tin-foil hat slapped off my head for trying to tell folks this for the past 3 decades or so.

If it sounds like I am trying to pat myself on the back I apologize.
It is with deep sadness that I have to say I told ya’ so.
I could fuckin’ cry right now as I survey the wreckage of the greatest experiment in self-rule the world has ever known.
Once this great Nation falls I fear for the entire concept of Democracy in this world.

all the best
grandma July 28th, 2007 12:03 am

Kem Patrick - You ask
“So tell me, is this article or any comments written actually going to help any more than hundreds of others have?”

Answer - Probably not. But I’d rather try than say “Oh well, it won’t work anyway so why bother.” I have to face my grandchildren, after all.
brucetylerwick July 28th, 2007 12:07 am

Responding to Mad Cow’s evening post, there are of course limits to the possible, so far as electoral fraud is concerned–though I wonder if those limits keep shrinking with each passing election. But whatever fraud was done or forborne in 2006, Ms. Pelosi’s pre-election pledge, and subsequent intransigence, on impeaching Messrs. Bush and Cheney, can be explained ONLY by a pre-election agreement NOT to impeach.

The most likely promise on the other side: to withhold enough of Diebold’s wizardry to allow the electorate to work its will. One possibility Mad Cow evidently hasn’t considered: that the GOP was either bluffing or exaggerating its capabilities. But no matter, if the Democrats bought into the bluff and made the deal.

The “Deal” I posit has become clearer with time–and will become clearer still with the passage of even more time and our mushrooming national crisis. Eventually, someone is bound to ask Ms. Pelosi about a deal, and we’ll all get to see how she responds to the charge. Nor should she be asked just once. Instead, let the questioning be persistent, unending, until the truth emerges.
abbybwood July 28th, 2007 12:07 am

To Claudius:

Hope you’ll only be gone about as long as Cindy was.

I’ve enjoyed reading your comments.
KEM PATRICK July 28th, 2007 1:06 am

Hi grandma, me too. My grandkids talk about the electronic balloting and no paper trail. It isn’t who votes or how many vote, it is how the votes are counted that counts.

Few talk about that problem and both Gore and Kerry may have won a lot more states than they were credited with. But with the electronic balloting, we will never know.

We just won’t know and that is the most important subject for us to talk about and our congress has shelved the discussion.
Will it be corrected before 08?___ No, and the fraud will be worse next time, because more states will have the electronic ballots and no paper trail.__ It’s rigged, that is what we should discuss.
Raster July 28th, 2007 3:00 am

Every member of the House that is not ready to stand up Monday morning in Congress and say “We Must Impeach” is either a coward or a collaborator. Or both. Fully half of this country is FIRMLY in favor of impeaching bush*. More so for cheney*. And more join the impeachment throngs every day. Further delay by Congress marks our Representatives as accomplices and enablers. Every member of Congress swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. Now most are wiping their asses on it.
Gail July 28th, 2007 9:41 am

Saturday, July 28th: New York Times has an article on Bush’s proposed $20 Billion arms deal to Saudi Arabia and their neighbors.

What next…..if not impeachment?
Siouxrose July 28th, 2007 11:47 am

MMEO: You make good points of analysis with the exception of your contention that BUSH actually had a large number of votes. Given the nature of the computer models used to code/count the votes, and the cases made by Robert Kennedy, Jr. as well as Beverly Harris ANY numbers are suspect at best.
JEFF MOEHRING: I understand what you are saying (and ultimately endeavoring to do, as I am contemplating likewise). My father, a man with high ideals of justice, was also a believer in Judaism. As a young man who went on to serve in WWII, he was aghast at the level of inhumanity that drove a seemingly normal (German) society to routinely round of persons of a different religion (and ethnicity) in broad daylight and shoot them. I was conditioned from a young age to be very suspect of authority figures and recognize that a majority of persons can be swept along into a kind of manic group conformity and do outrageous things (we see this is many parts of Africa today, the film HOTEL RWANDA made it painfully clear.) The best analogy frequently used on this site is that of the frog left in water that is drawn to a boil so slowly, the frog does not recognize the danger it’s in until it’s too late. If matters are not turned around by serious impeachment hearings SOON, WE citizens become THOSE frogs. There comes a point where if you don’t jump out, you are doomed… unless you can find the way to turn down the flame.
Dr. Zimmerman Robert July 28th, 2007 2:04 pm

Statement on the Articles of Impeachment

Barbara Charline Jordan Statement on the Articles of Impeachment

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/barbarajordanjudiciarystatement.htm

When Pelosi speaks, she speaks for the Democrats in Congress; when Jordan spoke she spoke for the American people.
ezeflyer July 28th, 2007 2:05 pm

The corporate media worried about their fascists? I think they’re worried about the negative perception about themselves that their fascists are giving their subscribers. All about their bottom line, as usual.
zazmo July 28th, 2007 3:10 pm

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/video_popups/pop_vid_impeachment1-2.html

In this PBS interview, John Nichols of the Nation magazine says, “Impeachment isn’t a constitutional crisis. It’s a cure for a constitutional crisis” and “The Founders said monarchical behavior — the behaviour of a king, acting like one — is an impeachable offense. You need not look for specific laws or statutes. What you need to look for is a pattern of behavior that says the presidency is superior not merely to Congress but to the laws of the land — to the rule of law.”

Using Campaign Spending Limits to Get America Better Politicians is the Only Way to Solve America’s Problems Enough
grandma July 28th, 2007 7:08 pm

Kem Patrick - The gods have answered you! Talk about power! See the headline article in today’s (Saturdays) CD. Went up very late -
sungoddess July 28th, 2007 11:17 pm

Dear CommonDreams; 2 of my comments did not appear! They were relatively printable, at least compared to some, so, what gives?
KEM PATRICK July 29th, 2007 1:42 am

We all know both Cheney and Bush should be impeached. The only road block now is Congressman Conyers. If 50 million people peacefully marched on DC tomorrow and loudly demanded they be impeached, what earthly difference would it make, if Conyers sits on the Bill and refuses to enact it?

Answer: ___ Not one bit of difference.

We can write, bitch and scream till our brains run out of our ears. Conyers is the road block and if we want to see an impeachment process begin, Conyers will have to be convinced and submit the bill for a vote.

Cindy failed to convince him and was arrested for trying.___ She is some gal.
BillB July 29th, 2007 3:00 pm

I can add that I was so pleased to see a bumper sticker of “Bush/Cheny ‘04″ but with a new sticker over the top that read “Impeach “07″
auspiciousbunny July 29th, 2007 9:30 pm

I keep trying to use the edit function, to no avail here…

I may also be sick to death of Bush, Cheney, the war, and all their crimes, but it is necessary to keep pushing for impeachment and uphold the law in this country. I mean I can’t just lie down in my grave and be a (wage) slave. It feels like crap to do that anyway. I’ll serve ice cream to the vicitms of the simulated RW&B Flu.

Think I feel a fever coming on… what date?
Turner July 31st, 2007 7:06 am

There’s a reason why impeachment is in the Constitution. It is not just a tool; by not using those powers, it is in fact disobeying the Constitution.
SallyUUKent July 31st, 2007 10:20 am

Impeachment? Not gonna happen. Ever. And here’s why:

D-Day Is Off the Table
By Representative Major R. Owens
The Huffington Post

Friday 27 July 2007

“There will be no invasion of Normandy. Such an action might distract from the overall war effort.”

Impeachment is off the table. Ordinary House Members will not be exposed to the opportunity to become the “Greatest Generation” of legislators.

In June 1944, upon hearing that the Americans would not try to capture Omaha Beach, imagine the joy among the Nazi leaders. At Bertesgarten there would have been the grossest banquet and celebration ever experienced by humankind.

With impeachment “off the table,” Carl Rove spends a few hours celebrating every day as he prepares his war plans for the 2008 elections.

With D-Day off the table and no second front, imagine the plight of the Russians who had already sacrificed millions. They would have probably been forced to accept a humiliating truce. And certainly the world would have expected the Third Reich to position itself for a more advantageous final confrontation with America.

Following the blunder of sweeping impeachment off the table, there is now a clarification of the Democrats’ solo strategy for capturing public opinion and driving forward to victory in 2008. For the master plan there are a myriad of “commando raids”:

*Subpoena Harriet Miers

*Subpoena Chief of Staff Bolton

*Try Gonzalez for contempt of congress

*Hold more hearings on the slow pace of outfitting combat vehicles for better protection

*Assure better benefits for the 2/3rds of the casualties who do survive

*Pass amendments against permanent bases

*Pass amendments limiting the amount of time soldiers must spend in the path of death - at least half their lives should be reserved for home.

“Thumpin” Rahm reasons that since the media is covering these “commando raids” and the voters’ attention is riveted upon these Democratic Party initiatives; Democrats are guaranteed an informed electorate to return them to power in 2008. Rahm further reasons that it is impolite and bad manners to start a proceeding that cannot be finished within the session schedule. Rahm reasons that the President should not have charges and an indictment hanging over his head if there is no time for a Senate trial.

Impeachment is off the table. There will be no D-Day. There will be no messy Battle of the Bulge. The Bush citadel is too Big to fail. Let’s march forward and capture fortress Gonzalez instead. For not being untidy, maybe Rahm and Democrats expect voters in 2008 to throw flowers at their feet?
BillB July 31st, 2007 11:13 pm

Sally, Hitler had no idea how to really lead the people or command the troops but some of the guys under him knew how to command the troops ( none knew how to lead the people only scare the shit of them).. but the point is that there were at least three US men who did not want germany to fail so soon cuz they were making money on both sides.
Those guys were CEO of general motors; Henry Ford and the banker named Prescott Bush. Fords and Chevs ??? but the money was banked long after we got into the war. That banker Bush is the grandfather to Geo W. Bush…..You are so very right the Bush shitadel is too big to fail… they play both sides for money is all
bill brown

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