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Ref. : Local Newsbriefs
Ref. : Letters to the editor
03.05 Open Letter to Congressman Bart Stupak
Video National Health Care Systems In Other Countries
03.12 Slick Barry and the $100-Billion Medicaid/Medicare Fraud Claim
03.09 Kill Bill: Death to Obamacare!
03.09 Obama’s Rhetoric May Be “Fiery,” But His Health Care Reform Is Still Lukewarm
03.17 CNN Scrapes Bottom of Right-Wing Barrel With Erickson Hire
03.16 WPost Blames Obama First, on Israel
03.16 Letter to the New York Times' Editor: Stovepiping To Persia
03.12 Cud and Complicity: Burying the Alternatives to Empire's Dominion
03.11 NYT and the ACORN Hoax
03.05 Sorry, Rove, Bush Did Lie About Iraq
03.03 It's Snow News
03.03 The Woeful Washington Post
Ref. : The Daily Howler
02.26 America's Supremes: Court Over Constitution
03.11 Power Rangers: Policing the System With the "Fightin' Progressives"
03.09 Thinking About Countings
03.07 Unnatural Acts: Breaking the Fever of Militarism
02.25 Future Shock: A Better World Beyond the Imperium
03.18 The Lawfare Project's Anti-Democratic Agenda
03.16 America's Secret Prisons
03.13 Palestinian Dispossession in East Jerusalem
03.12 Israeli Settlement Expansions Continue
03.11 Brutalizing Palestinian Children
03.08 The Russell Tribunal on Palestine: Barcelona Session
03.05 Targeting Israeli Apartheid
03.01 America's Permanent War Agenda
02.25 Global Sweatshop Wage Slavery
03.14 The Crisis in America's Telecommunications Network
03.09 The Business of Water: Privatizing An Essential Resource
03.05 Is the Recovery Real?
03.04 IMF-Style Austerity Measures come to America: What “Fiscal Responsibility” Means To You
03.04 Barry C. Lynn's "Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and Economics of Destruction"
03.01 Thinking About Fees
03.15 Peace Process Hypocrisy: Stillborn from Inception
03.03 Muslim Disunity
03.02 Funding Israeli Militarism, Belligerence and Occupation
02.26 Iran Captures a 'Good' Terrorist
LEGAL ANALYSIS:
Why Impeachment, Sadly, Is a Non-Starter
If Holtzman is correct, what is the point of impeaching Bush if we wind up with Cheney? At the very least, it would likely take longer to paper a case against Cheney than it would Bush. And that brings me to the second point why impeachment is probably not doable--there are only two years left to this Administration. As 2008 is a Presidential election year, realistically there is only one year for the impeachment process to work itself through; nothing controversial happens in Congress in a Presidential election year. It took over two years from the Watergate break-in to Nixon's resignation at a time when the Democrats (and more than a few Republicans) were open to the possibility of impeachment. Now, we'd be starting from scratch in convincing a reluctant Congress to act.
But the most compelling reason why double impeachment is not realistic lies in the fact that, given the order of Presidential succession, an attempt at a double impeachment would be perceived--and spun--as a Democratic attempt to seize the White House without an election. I find myself particularly sensitive to Nancy Pelosi’s dilemma. Because she is next in line for the Presidency after Cheney, Pelosi really cannot lead, or even be seen to support, a movement to impeach Bush and Cheney. It has been twelve years since the Democrats controlled the Congress and Pelosi will be the first female Speaker ever; all eyes are on her as to how she will act. The moment she signs on to an impeachment drive, her credibility takes a big hit because of her perceived naked self-interest. This will become the issue instead of Bush's crimes. She will not risk her political reputation and Democratic gains after so many years of being in the political wilderness for an impeachment drive that would be over politically the moment she signed on to it.
Granted, Pelosi could take the issue off the table by renouncing any interest in the Presidency. But Robert Byrd, as President Pro Tempore of the Senate, is next in line. Given his position in the Democratic leadership and his passionate opposition to Bush, he is open to much the same charge of political grandstanding as is Pelosi. And his advanced age alone would make a few Congressmen and Senators reluctant to vote to impeach when Bush will be gone in no more than two years. And what if Byrd also renounces any interest in the Presidency? Under the Constitution, Condoleeza Rice is next in line; hardly a satisfactory candidate to correct the multiple constitutional abuses of the Bush Administration in which she personally participated.
This time, just replacing Bush with Cheney accomplishes nothing. But seeking to replace both opens the Democrats up to charges that they would be attempting a coup d’état. We will have to look elsewhere for justice, such as the criminal case just filed in Germany by the Center for Constitutional Rights. And the judgment of history.
A petition of support to the German prosecutor may be signed here.
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This story was published on November 15, 2006.
