Grounds for impeachment

"George W. Bush and his Administration have been so brazen in violating the law and asserting monarchical powers that we, as American citizens, must use the tool that the Constitution provides to reassert our rights, to reset the system of checks and balances, and to reestablish our democracy. That tool is impeachment.

"Article II, Section 4, states: '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.'

"Notice that the Vice President is specifically mentioned. So while we’re advocating the impeachment of George W. Bush, let’s not stop there. Impeach Dick Cheney, too. For Cheney has been in on every illegal act that Bush has committed.

"And notice the phrase 'other high crimes and misdemeanors.' At the Constitutional Convention, the drafters had originally restricted impeachment to 'treason' and 'bribery.' But George Mason, one of the influential delegates, found those terms insufficient, according to Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush, a new and highly informative book by the Center for Constitutional Rights. Those terms 'will not reach many great and dangerous offenses,' Mason said, including 'attempts to subvert the Constitution.' After some wrangling over wording, the founders agreed to James Madison’s phrase 'high crimes and misdemeanors.'

"And that is exactly what George W. Bush has been committing: He’s been subverting our Constitution, and he has repeatedly violated his oath of office to 'faithfully execute' his duties and to 'preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.'

"He has done so in four key areas: in the Iraq War, in detentions here at home and abroad, in the torture scandal, and in the NSA warrantless spying program.

"First, Iraq. Bush’s invasion was a war of aggression, prohibited by the U.N. Charter. Article 2 of that Charter says, 'All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.' Article 51 provides an exception for 'self-defense' but only 'if an armed attack' has already occurred against that state.

"Saddam Hussein had not attacked the United States.

"International law also provides an exception for imminence: if you’re just about to be attacked.

"Saddam Hussein was not about to attack the United States.

By waging this aggressive war, Bush was violating the U.N. Charter, as Kofi Annan himself has acknowledged.

"And by violating the U.N. Charter, Bush was violating Article VI of the Constitution, which says that treaties are 'the supreme law of the land.'

"But even beyond this, the way that Bush bamboozled the country into war is itself an impeachable offense. There can hardly be a more grave act imaginable than to dupe a democracy into going to war, but that is what Bush has done, as the Downing Street Memo clearly indicates ..."
The Progressive

Impeachment Talk Reaches the Mainstream
"The groundswell for President Bush's impeachment is growing, and last week the establishment media finally took notice.

"The Wall Street Journal ran a story analyzing how a planned impeachment of President Bush will play out as an 'election issue,' including a helpful pie chart showing 51 percent of Americans support Congress in considering Bush's impeachment if he 'didn't tell the truth about the reasons for the Iraq war.'

"The Washington Post published a commentary acknowledging that support for impeachment is now 'reaching beyond the usual suspects,' and the Associated Press covered the spike in pro-impeachment resolutions from local officials across the country. Resolutions recently passed in Vermont and California, and this weekend Democratic Party officials in Michigan voted to urge local officials to pass another. Meanwhile, 14 Democratic candidates for Congress have announced their support for impeachment ..."
AlterNet

Fascism Anyone?

Tagged: impeach, impeachment, impeach+bush, bush