February 23, 2007 at 17:14:34

Why Congress Must Reauthorize the Use of the Constitution

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By David Swanson (about the author) Page 2 of 2 page(s)

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4.-One reason Nixon did not veto a bill ending funding of the Vietnam war, and one reason Congress had the nerve to pass it in the first place, was the advance of the impeachment process in the Congress. Crawford is probably right that impeachment is needed to end the war, but not exactly for the reasons he imagines. Impeachment is needed to remove an outlaw who will disobey Congress even in the face of a veto-override, but it is also needed to steel Congress to the task of ending the war in the first place.

5.-Impeachment is not less likely than other approaches to ending the war. Impeachment is not just about the war, but unites concerns over the war with others about illegal spying, detentions, torture, signing statements, Katrina, and much more. Impeachment is about reauthorizing the Constitution. Impeachment is likely to begin with Cheney, and his impeachment will reshape all the above calculations in favor of the peace movement. Congress will grow a spine, and Bush will lose a puppet master.

6.-Since the public and the Democratic base oppose almost every aspect of the Bush Cheney agenda at home and abroad, and since Bush can veto or signing-statement any bill, Crawford's argument appears to be for Congress to simply go on vacation for two years, which is - of course exactly what the White House wants. But our democracy will only survive the assaults of this unitary executive and the big man pulling his strings if Congress grows more, not less, active.

7.-The reason impeachment is more likely than other proposals to get off the ground is not just the clarity of the case (confessing to FISA violations, reversing laws with publicly posted signing statements, planning an illegal war based on fraud with Tony Blair in a January 2003 meeting with a note taker present, etc.). That case wouldn't matter if impeachment proceedings never begin. Impeachment is likely to begin because one or more state legislatures are likely to petition the U.S. House to begin it (which legally does begin it, upon acceptance of the petition by a single Congress Member). Washington, New Mexico, and Vermont have bills making their way to passage.

The Jefferson Manual rule book for the US House allows for this way of initiating impeachment, but is silent on states' abilities to initiate nonbinding reauthorizations of genocides with or without strict expressions of hesitation or troop equipment.

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David Swanson is the author of the upcoming book "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" by Seven Stories Press and of the introduction to "The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. (more...)

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