Impeach Bush. And Cheney.

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For the good of the country, for the good of democracy, we should impeach President Bush. And also simultaneously impeach Vice President Cheney.


[The complete conversation is available online: video | transcript.]

It seems too little too late, as the most powerful people in America head into their final year in office. But as George W. Bush would argue, criminals should be prosecuted. Justice must be served.

We impeached Clinton. We almost impeached Nixon. We live in a country where no one is above the law.

And yet, Bush and Cheney have routinely flouted the law. They’ve sworn to uphold the Constitution (twice!), but in fact have disposed of it when convenient.

Their crimes so far:

• Bush commutes the sentence of Scooter Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff. The Constitution doesn’t allow the President to protect staff members under investigation for wrongdoing in the White House, and Bush keeps Libby out of trouble for keeping his mouth shut.

• Bush and Cheney defy Congress’ constitutional powers. Congress has the ability to investigate criminal activity in the Bush/Cheney administration, including the hundreds of lies spouted to lead us into Iraq or Cheney’s secret energy task force meetings.

Both have invoked executive privilege where they have none. That’s a direct violation of their Constitutional authority.

• Cheney clears the way for the president’s authorization of torture without congressional approval or judicial review. Torture, which is ineffective, happens to be against federal and international law.

He does this through the Office of Legal Counsel, essentially using legal memoranda to expand the powers of the presidency in secret. Those new powers included detaining, interrogating and spying on any of us without cause or warrant.

And Bush uses these new powers indiscriminately and without the proper checks and balances.

• Cheney gives the order to kidnap, detain and torture any suspects anywhere, sending them to Eastern European prisons.

This list represents the short version of a history of arrogance, defiance and crassness.

Make no mistake. A roll-over Congress and a do-nothing media have contributed to this situation. But Bush and Cheney alone must answer to the American public for their crimes against the world.

Without impeachment, the country will still stand, but for what? Whoever inherits the White House, Republican or Democrat, will have an unprecedented amount of power to bully U.S. citizens as well as foreign nationals, to continue to operate unchecked by the legislative or judicial branches.

Impeachment does not equal criminal trial, but merely the bringing of formal charges. The House indicts, the Senate conducts the trial.

Those Founding Fathers did think of everything, as our Constitution provides the very tool to cure this crisis. Impeachment reasserts congressional oversight on the executive branch. It ends this charade of made-up privileges and powers.

We should not be motivated by frustration or fear. We should demand justice with our loudest voices.

If you want accountability in our government and in individuals, if you want equal treatment under the law, and if you want our democratic form of rule to stand for something …

Impeach Bush and Cheney.

• • •

Also:

  • “Frontline: Cheney’s Law,” thwarting the Constitution to expand presidential powers: intro | video
  • “Bill Moyers’ Journal: Tough Talk on Impeachment” intro page
  • “Impeach Cheney” in Slate
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