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Impeachment! (America yawns)

June 10th, 2008
By JAZZ SHAW, Assistant Editor

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I find myself wondering if timing might not have been a factor in Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s decision to bring articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush.

An Ohio Democratic lawmaker and former presidential candidate has presented articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush to Congress.

Thirty-five articles were presented by Rep. Dennis Kucinich to the House of Representatives late Monday evening, airing live on C-SPAN.

“Resolved,” Kucinich then began, “that President George W. Bush be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and that the following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the United States Senate. …

A few questions and observations for Representative Kucinich follow.

First of all, this has been attempted at least twice before. (Once by Kucinich himself and once by Cynthia McKinney.) It went nowhere and turned into little more than a political stunt. This Congress, even under a Democratic majority, lacks the goods - in terms of evidence - and, frankly, the will to carry out impeachment proceedings. If you were going to do it, you would have done it in 2003 shortly after the invasion of Iraq or last year as soon as the new majority was seated.

Second, waiting until five months before a presidential election immediately makes the move suspicious in all of our minds. Do we not have enough drama already without this? If you have some new information providing rock solid proof that the President is guilty of some actual crime, then please present it immediately. If not, this is a waste of the taxpayer’s time and money while Congress continues to accomplish virtually nothing, justly earning their eleven point approval rating.

And last, look… I’m no fan of President Bush. This is mostly because of the Iraq war, and I think many of his actions regarding signing statements and the conduct of the Justice Department in national security issues provide ample cause to open a new conversation on the limits of presidential power. But impeachment is a deadly serious course of action. Many of us still remember the 1990’s all too well and feel that the Republicans lowered the bar on impeachment to a point where the world’s champion limbo dancer couldn’t get under it. Will the Democrats break out a shovel and lower it further? When impeachment becomes nothing more than a political sideshow employed any time one party holds the White House and the other controls Congress, it ceases to have any meaning.

If you’ve got the goods, produce them sir. If not, what say you and your colleagues stop the nonsense and actually get down to work?



This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 4:24 am and is filed under Newsweek Blogitics, Dennis Kucinich, Impeachment, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 35 Comments

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    "...waiting until five months before a presidential election immediately makes the move suspicious in all of our minds."

    Yes, one may wonder whether Kucinich is a closet McCain supporter...or at least a drama queen absorbed in his own interests at expense of his party's. The looney left are all excited by this, of course, but Pelosi will certainly deep-six it. I imagine Conyers has been given instructions to keep a low profile.

    Senator Obama needs the swing states...and forcing him to answer questions and take a stand on the impeachment of his predecessor will not help Obama in projecting a non-partisan image and relegating toxic politics to the past.

    The great GOP hope, of course, is that the Democrats lack Jazz Shaw's common sense and move forward on this file...to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
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    They Impeached Clinton.

    Bush Should be impeached.

    Then we can Impeach Obama.

    And the next president.....

    And the next president....

    And the next president....

    All because we dont like them.
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    Will the Democrats break out a shovel and lower it further?


    Did you really write this? You may not think it is a good idea to impeach at this time. But impeaching Bush in NO way would lower the bar. Impeaching Bush is orders of magnitude above the BJ impeachment.
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    If you’ve got the goods, produce them sir.


    The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office

    Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush (Paperback)

    The Constitution in Crisis: The High Crimes of the Bush Administration and a Blueprint for Impeachment (Paperback)

    Need more?



    If not, what say you and your colleagues stop the nonsense and actually get down to work?


    What work? Nothing of any importance is going to be done between now and January 20, 2009.

    Neocon,

    Cause there is no real difference between a blow-job between consenting adults and the lies that lead to the invasion and occupation that causes at least half a million dead civilians, two million or more refugees.
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    Listen folks... as stated, I am no fan of GWB. I opposed the Iraq war from the beginning and was one of those "loons" out there marching in the streets back in 2003. But impeachment has rules. You have to be able to prove convincingly that the president actually committed a crime, not just did something that most civilized people found abhorrent. If Congress could prove that the commander in chief actually broke the law by launching that invasion after getting Congress to sign on with an authorization to use military force, I think they would have done it by now. This just smells of political showmanship. They'll never get a conviction. So why are we wasint our time? And do you really want a President Cheney finishing out the term?
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    Speculating about Kuciniche's timing may or may not have solid ground to stand on. If his timing may be politically motivated, so may be speculations about it.
    I can't see that it matters a great deal.

    The legacy of Clinton's impeachment is that it cheapened the role of impeachment procedings. It also tore the country apart.

    Add that to the division over the war, and the Dem. leadership had their hands tied when it comes to Bush, An impeachmetnt earlier, or even now, would have been like throwing dynamite into a fire.

    Pragmatism prevailed, and I side with pragamtism, but it comes with a high price.
    Clinton's impeachment arose from persoanl behavior in a personal matter
    The case against .Bush concerns the Constitution and the balance of powers between the three branches of government. The first,less important, killed the second, more important one,,before birth.

    In my view, it's not about punishing Bush. It's about his legacy for future presidents. In suppor of some of Bush's actions, FDR and Lincoln are cited as examples of what a president can do. Now Bush has been added to the list of those that can be cited to support or excuse the actions of a future president.

    Whatever Kuciniches motives are, I'm glad his articles of impeachment are in the record. I hope they may be the basis for a serious discusssion about the substance of them one day, before they're forgotten.

    Future presidents should have this warning as well as the precedents set by Bush as references. .
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    "High Crimes or Misdemeanors" pretty much means whatever you want it to mean and if lying to Congress isn't a good enough reason for impeachment, say good-bye to Democracy.
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    Huh?? This country has moved into a parallel universe or something... The prozak has rotted the nation's brains... Apparently especially the so-called "moderates".

    To the article's Author: Yawn, eh? Maybe if you had published the 38 counts, and let these good people read them, then there would be slack jaws from shock instead. But u really don’t want them to read those, do you... You will do that for them, and decide for them. You want to tell them it's OK, go back to sleep, nothing to get upset about, its just a silly aberration.

    Included there, were the indictments that the bush regime, through the CIA, has hired and armed ARAB TERRORISTS to cause murder and mayhem in Iran......

    What say u now, o last-standers for bush? Your last moral high ground pimple has been popped; and the abyss having to admit to supporting pure evil "yawns" under you.

    To infer there was EVER anything but the right thing to do regarding Impeachment and upholding the Rule Of Law shows what a cynical, self-centered, brain-washed, utterly morally bankrupt country we have become.....

    "Oh, its messing up our Mc Cain vs. Obama show!" Lol. Well, bush's criminal activities, and his trying to get us into ANOTHER illegal war in Iran, is messing up my children's future.... So you and your silly rained-on party can go cry about it all u like… Meanwhile something REAL is very likely going to happen for once.

    Attacking Kucinich for doing the only morally right thing to do is typical (when there is dim lack of reasoned arguments, personal attack is the holy way of the right and their water-carriers), but it still amazing to see what a ridiculous extent people will go to self-justify and excuse... To keep from having to say they were wrong for supporting this CRIMINAL MURDERING USURPER in the past.

    Its a sad day for America. Not because 38 well-documented and easily proven Articles of Impeachment were read in the Congress last night; but because the mainstream media (and even blogs like this one) are trying their utmost to down-play, discount, or outright ignore it... Pretend it didn’t happen and it will go away… Instead of honestly reporting on it. No, not this time, it’s not going to go away. Prayer won’t help you now. Maybe a good lawyer can.

    It won’t go away, and your worse nightmare is about to become real: That soon you will have to admit to yourself that you followed evil, and allowed it to flourish.

    Dick: “Dammit, we should of closed-down CSPAN like I told you! And killed that commie too when we had the chance! Now it’s all been entered into the public record!”

    Dubba-u: “Don’t worry, its too late. Nobody cares what we’ve done anymore... All they care about is themselves. At least we’ve done that right.”
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    Getting emotional (I wanted to say hysterical) isn't going to help.

    I think an attempt at impeachment would do more harm than good.
    At any rate, it's not going to happen.

    As a consequence, though, we are left with the legacy of Bush's precedents.

    Instead of getting stuck on what can never be, why aren't there any ideas about how to prevent the worst of Bush's precedents from being adopted by his successors?

    It's time to think about Plan B.
    Any ideas?
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