Democracy Has Prevailed.

June 11, 2008

In Case You Missed It

Representative Dennis Kucinich introduced Articles of Impeachment into the Congressional Record yesterday.

While we firmly believe that someone has to be held accountable for this administration's high crimes and that it's the Congress' duty to impeach Bush for the sake of the integrity of the system, we don't think that anything will come of this.

Especially since Nancy Pelosi declared back in mid-2006, months before the Democrats took over the House that impeachment was "off the table." She reiterated this the day after the Democrats won back the House.

Congressman Doyle, in February 2007, felt that he did not want his legacy to be getting Dick Cheney into the Oval Office. As I wrote back then:
Doyle feels that impeachment would be a diversion that would only serve to boost the president's approval ratings as his core would rally around him, taking with them, probably, a sizeable number of moderate republicans with them.

The real damage to be done is through strict oversight (and on this we, of course, agree). Once all the corruption is uncovered (for example how much taxpayer money's been wasted in Iraq) those guilty will be leaving office humiliated. Impeachment would inevitably be spun as a political circus. Oversight hearings will prove the charges.
There's probably not enough time to hold dubya accountable for his many impeachable acts. There're probably not enough Republicans willing to do the right thing either.

And as of about 3:20 this afternoon. the resolution, H.Res 1258, was sent to the Judiciary Committee.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

John K. says: LOL LOL LOL I can't believe you posted the fact that Rep. Kucinich made a fool of himself. I read those charges. They sound like a person whining because Bush did not run the White House the way they wanted it run. You want to be President, get elected. Short of that come up with something substantial so that even your own party does not think you are a joke. LMAO This one was funny. And Kucinich should grow up.

Anonymous said...

Bush misled the American People into the war. That's simply a fact.

McClellan's book shows it, the Senate report shows it.

Bush should be impeached. The blood of 4,000 American heroes (and countless Iraqis) are on his hands.

The fact that the Congress is too cowardly to do it is not Kucinich's problem.

Anonymous said...

Retired Millhunk-
Aside from Wexler and Kucinich the whole Congress should be impeached, starting with Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. They held all these different hearings about the illegal actions of the Bush administration and then sit on their thumbs. Pitiful

CB Phillips said...

Millhunk, please add Russ Feingold to your "not impeach" list and you're right on.

Anonymous said...

I have gone back and forth on the impeachment thing over the past two years, but I think I have settled on an argument that I can't think of a way to reverse.

It is over-simplifying to assume that the point of an impeachment would be simply to remove Bush and/or Cheney from office, and to ignores other benefits that would ensue from an impeachment.

Most importantly, an impeachment would place an historical mark against the Bush administration. This mark would tell our progeny that Congress sees the specified behavior as unconstitutional and/or illegal. Failure to express such disapproval might be interpreted by future Unitary Executive wannabes as condoning the usurpation of power and encourage further injury to the Separation of Powers.

OTOH -- and this is the epiphany that lead me to my conclusion -- impeachment on any such charges followed by a very likely acquittal in the Senate might actually exacerbate the problem by setting an unfortunate precident. This could have consequences that might be almost as disasterous as the Bush Administration itself.

So my recommendation is that the House not impeach the evildoers that infest the White House. An impeachment's long-term deleterious effects would seem to outweigh the benefits to our posterity.

Anyone care to try to change my mind about this? I'd be very interested in a spirited debate.

Anonymous said...

Retired Millhunk-
You're right on JW I forgot about Mr. Feingold. My feelings are that if you don't at least try to impeach them you're giving the ok on future misuse of government. I feel the pardon of Nixon left us with this situation.

Anonymous said...

Retired Millhunk-
I mean ftc, not JW. Hey I'm gettin old, what can I say.By the way, it's good to see you posting again Mr. Schmuck. I think you had a little too much of Hillary v Barack.