Who’s scoffing now: As constant readers of these pages know, we have been advocating impeaching President Bush since before the fall of Iraq. (Shorter: The promotion of the war was either based on lies or the grossest case of official negligence and incompetence in the history of modern warfare. Either option represents a threat to our national security and urgently requires corrective measures - even more urgently than, say, punishing a president for lying about sex. )
– Barrons
Until recently, our clamor to impeach President Bush has been greeted with eye-rolling, nervous titters, groans and name calling - including being pegged as “liberal extremists” by an odd little troll.
What has changed regarding impeachment lately, of course, is the fact that Mr. Bush has openly admitted that he committed an impeachable offense. He chose to break a law that prevented him from spying on U.S. citizens, and not just once - Mr. Bush has confessed to violating the Foriegn Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) hundreds of times.
As a result, no less than Barrons magazine (via Echidne of the Snakes) is discussing the “I word” –
Willful disregard of a law is potentially an impeachable offense. It is at least as impeachable as having a sexual escapade under the Oval Office desk and lying about it later. The members of the House Judiciary Committee who staged the impeachment of President Clinton ought to be as outraged at this situation. They ought to investigate it, consider it carefully and report either a bill that would change the wiretap laws to suit the president or a bill of impeachment.
It is important to be clear that an impeachment case, if it comes to that, would not be about wiretapping, or about a possible Constitutional right not to be wiretapped. It would be about the power of Congress to set wiretapping rules by law, and it is about the obligation of the president to follow the rules in the Acts that he and his predecessors signed into law.
Bush is done.
Watch the legal stuff get really interesting :)
Merry Christmas and a safe and happy 2006 to everyone :)
Jackie
Whole lotta talking going on…All this is a hat without cattle. If Bush were to be impeached it would have to be for lying about Iraq, or being a klutz, but the spying bit isn’t going to do it. He’d be irresponsible not to spy given the threat of nuclear bombs hidden around (most likely nuclear power plants, Los Alamos, etc.). In fact, he has not gone far enough in protecting the borders. Hell, if I thought my country faced nuclear and WMD threats, I’d declare martial law–and to hell with the Constitution…But if he used the results of the spying to hurt political opponents, then he should be booted.
That’s a crock, weathervane. If Bush felt the situation required a change in the law, he could have proposed that. He didn’t–he broke the law.
And don’t give me that crap about his protecting us: you and I both know he’s an incompetent nitwit who likes to play dress-up.
If he was serious about terror, he would have caught or killed Osama instead of playing into the islamofascist’s hand with his foolish and inept invasion of Iraq.
For 200 years, the american flag has stood for freedom, decency and the rule of law. All of a sudden, now, we’re supposed to chuck all that because of a tiny band of crazies? I don’t think so.
Go put on a dry pair of pants and stand up for America, for crissake.