Tag: Impeachment

Conservative Icon Willam F. Buckley Worries Bush Is Killing GOP

Jon Ponder

William F. Buckley, ancient founder of the National Review and leading light of the once powerful country-club wing of the GOP, is worried that Pres. Bush is destroying the Republican Party:

“The parallel [to Iraq insurgency] even comes to mind of the eventual collapse of Prohibition, because there wasn’t any way the government could neutralize the appetite for alcohol, or the resourcefulness of the freeman in acquiring it.”
— Bill Buckley

The political problem of the Bush administration is grave, possibly beyond the point of rescue.

Buckley sees the fatal issue as Bush’s war in Iraq and fears that while the president’s aggressive campaign to win short-term political victories at home — like vetoing his own “emergency supplemental” war funding bill — may bolster his hardcore, mostly Christian nationalist base, it is all just a misdirection meant to hide the fact that Bush and his team know that the war is lost:

[Beyond] affirming executive supremacy in matters of war, what is George Bush going to do? It is simply untrue that we are making decisive progress in Iraq. The indicators rise and fall from day to day, week to week, month to month.

Buckley compares the Iraqi insurgency to the spread of early Christianity, casting America in the role of the faltering Roman Empire:

When the Romans were challenged by Christianity, Rome fell. The generation of Christians moved by their faith overwhelmed the regimented reserves of the Roman state. It was four years ago that [Vice Pres.] Cheney first observed that there was a real fear that each fallen terrorist leads to the materialization of another terrorist. What can a “surge,” of the kind we are now relying upon, do to cope with endemic disease?

He even suggests the insurgents’ cause is as unstoppable as your typical country clubbing freeman’s need for drink:

The parallel even comes to mind of the eventual collapse of Prohibition, because there wasn’t any way the government could neutralize the appetite for alcohol, or the resourcefulness of the freeman in acquiring it.

Finally:

There are grounds for wondering whether the Republican party will survive this dilemma.

Buckley ignores the source of his party’s affliction. Bush would have never reelected without the votes of the Christian nationalists, especially the ones in Ohio who turned out in droves to vote for Karl Rove’s anti-gay marriage amendment. These same easily fooled voters are largely still behind Bush and his lost cause.

Murtha: It May Take Impeachment to Get Bush’s Attention

Jon Ponder

Rep. John Murtha, D-Penn., is being scoffed at by the likes of Tucker Carlson on his MSNBC show today for suggesting that it might take impeachment to get through to Pres. Bush about ending the war. On “Face the Nation” yesterday, Murtha said:

[We] need to make this president understand, Mr. President, the public has spoken. There’s three ways or four ways to influence a president. One is popular opinion, the election, third is impeachment and fourth is, and fourth is the purse.

Bush is impervious to popular opinion and election, and his Republican enablers in the Senate have the votes to keep money flowing to Iraq until he leaves office. Tactically, impeachment is the only viable option.

Tucker did his patented faux astonished outrage at the idea Democrats would propose impeachment now because it would shut the government down during wartime — as if Bush has anything to do with running either the government or the war.

Kucinich Files Articles of Impeachment against Cheney

Jon Ponder

Back in the Clinton era, Rep. Bob Barr filed articles of impeachment against Pres. Clinton in the fall of 1997, fully a year before the momentum was in place to proceed to the actual impeachment. Keep that in mind as you read this:

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a candidate for president, introduced articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney to the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

Under the House impeachment process, Kucinich’s articles would be reviewed by the committee, which would decide whether to conduct an impeachment inquiry. The committee would seek authority from the entire House before beginning an inquiry.

The Ohio congressman said Cheney manipulated and fabricated intelligence on weapons of mass destruction to justify the Iraq war.

Kucinich said it was important to introduce the legislation “because the threat of war against Iran is very real.”

“This vice president cannot be permitted to continue to violate both the U.S. Constitution and the U.N. Charter,” he added.

Vermonters Pushing for Bush’s Impeachment

Buck Banks

If only there were more of them: Bolstered by a recent state senate bill to impeach President George Bush, Vermont activists are heading back to the state capital of Montpelier Wednesday to ramp up pressure on the the state house of representatives to pass a similar bill. More than 130 people (a significant portion of the state’s population) showed up last week to urge lawmakers to pass the impeachment resolution. Organizers are hoping for even more people to show up at the Statehouse cafeteria Wednesday morning.

‘We will descend upon them and lobby them actively, politely and vociferously.’
— Dan DeWalt

The resolution calls for the impeachment of both Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

You go, Vermonters!

Kucinich to File Articles of Impeachment against Cheney on April 25

Jon Ponder

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio and 2008 presidential candidate, reportedly will introduce articles of impeachment against Vice Pres. Dick Cheney on Wednesday:

Mary Ann Akers reported at her blog, The Sleuth, on Monday that the Congressman had sent a “dear colleague” letter to fellow Members of Congress informing them of his plan to introduce the articles of impeachment against the Vice President. However, he had postponed the plan in the wake of the killing of 32 students, faculty, and staff at Virginia Tech on Monday.

Multiple congressional offices confirmed to RAW STORY that they had received the letter, but none had been apprised of the impeachable offenses with which the Ohio Democrat would charge the Vice President.

Additionally, a spokesman for the House Judiciary Committee, which would receive and consider Kucinich’s charges against the Vice President once they are filed, was not yet aware of them.

Vice President Cheney’s office would not comment to the Cleveland Plain Dealer on the reports about the charges because they had not yet seen the articles.

Nobody Said Impeaching Cheney Was ‘Off the Table’

Jon Ponder

During last year’s campaign season, Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared impeachment to be “off the table.” But everybody knew she meant impeaching Pres. Bush was off the table. It’s not too great a stretch to say that she didn’t mean it was off the table for Vice Pres. Cheney.

Now Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) is proposing just that — impeaching Cheney:

Earlier this week, according to media reports Kucinich emailed House colleagues with a note that began, “I intend to introduce Articles of Impeachment with respect to the conduct of Vice President Cheney.”

Kucinich put the plan on hold after the Virginia Tech shooting massacre. But the general expectation is that he will raise the issue anew after a decent interval.

Cheney’s office sees no grounds for impeachment. “The vice president has had nearly 40 years of government service and has done so in an honorable fashion,” says Megan McGinn, Cheney’s deputy press secretary.

McGinn got that line out with a straight face.

Americans of who are not on the vice president’s payroll are inclined to recognize Cheney’s manipulation of intelligence prior to the Iraq War, his active role in going after administration critic Joe Wilson and Wilson’s wife Valarie Plame, and his ongoing links to the Halliburton war-profiteering cartel as arguments against giving the vice president any prizes for “honorable” government service.

Impeachment activists have in recent months pushed an “Impeach Cheney First” message, in part to counter the complaint that impeaching Bush would put an even darker figure in charge. Of course, going after the most powerful vice president in history has consequences, as well. In the unlikely event that Cheney were removed from office, one line of reasoning goes, Bush would for the first time find himself in charge.

What If Vice Pres. Gore Had Outed a Covert CIA Specialist in Terror Weapons?

Jon Ponder

Imagine the reaction from the media and the Republican Party if this story had been in the news ten years ago:

Looks like Cheney will get away with jeopardizing our national security without punsihment, or even a mild rebuke.

Sworn testimony has revealed that Vice Pres. Al Gore masterminded the unmasking of a covert CIA agent who specialized in the terrorist blackmarket for weapons of mass destruction — and that Gore’s motive was to exact political retribution against the agent’s husband, an outspoken critic of Clinton-Gore policies.

It is hardly an exaggeration to suggest that Vice Pres. Gore would have been hounded from office within weeks of such headlines — as Vice Pres. Mondale or any other Democratic vice president would have been.

And yet we now know from testimony by an FBI agent and others at Scooter Libby’s perjury trial in the CIA Leak scandal that it was not Karl Rove who masterminded the campaign to reveal agent Valerie Plame’s identity, as most of us assumed — it was Libby’s boss, Dick Cheney, the vice president of the United States.

It also clear from the evidence that Cheney was fully aware that Plame worked undercover for the CIA’s Counter-Proliferation Division, where she was involved hands-on in tracking of illegal sales and shipments of WMD around the world. It is also clear that Cheney was more than willing to risk whatever intelligence assets Plame had developed in order to retaliate against her husband, former Amb. Joe Wilson, who had dared to call the Cheney-Bush administration on its lies about Iraq’s purported nuclear capabilities.

If Cheney were a Democrat, and these accusations had been made against him as part of sworn testimony, the reaction in Washington would be as clamorous as it would be swift:

  • Investigations would be launched by both the Senate and House committees on national security and government affairs.
  • Even in advance of the hearings, the House would have drawn up Bills of Impeachment against the vice president and probably the president as well.
  • Fox News would be leading with the story wall-to-wall, couching the news as a deliberate, pro-terrorist security breach orchestrated from the White House.
  • Rush Limbaugh and his cohorts would be hammering away at the vice president, calling his patriotism into question and implying that he was revealing national secrets at the behest of his boss, the president.

Instead, what we have gotten from the media and the Congress is bascially, “So what? It’s just Cheney being Cheney.” It is apparent that the vice president will get away with jeopardizing our national security without punsihment, or even a mild rebuke.

Cult of Personality Around Bush Has Broken Down

Jon Ponder

Gene Lyons:

Bush is wrecking the GOP everywhere but in the South.

Although polls show slight majorities favoring impeachment, the votes just aren’t there. Even so, it’s not hard to imagine how it could happen. Because to allow an arrogant, arguably delusional president and his shrinking band of ideologically driven aides to double-down in Iraq, gambling the “lives and sacred honor” of American soldiers to save face in a misbegotten war also would do incalculable harm to the idea of self-government.

To remove Bush, however, Republicans would have to take the lead. As Bush is currently wrecking the GOP everywhere but the Deep South, chances may not be as remote as they seem.

The cult of personality surrounding the White House has broken down. Last November, American voters delivered as clear a verdict on Iraq as an offyear electorate can possibly render. No Democratic incumbent lost anywhere. Yet Bush acts as if it never happened.

Christmas Milestone in Iraq: More Dead than 9/11

Trish

Merry Christmas from George Bush:

The milestone in Iraq came on Christmas, nearly four years after the war began

In a span of a few hours, 2,973 people were killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In a span of 45 months, the number of American troops killed in Iraq exceeded that grim toll as the war continues.

The milestone in Iraq came on Christmas, nearly four years after the war began, according to a count by The Associated Press.

The U.S. military on Tuesday announced the deaths of six more American soldiers, pushing the U.S. military death toll since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003 to at least 2,977, four more than the number killed in the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.