Fein was there at Watergate. Fein helped draft the articles of impeachment for Clinton. This is stunning. Someone needs to send it to Nancy, tape her eyelids open and make her watch it. This is historic.
HERE'S THE BOTTOM LINE TAKE HOME TALKING POINTS:
- Impeachment is not a constitutional crisis. It is the CURE for constitutional crisis. (Nichols)
- Let unchallenged, these powers will be lying around like loaded weapons for future presidents. (Fein)
These are just some of the highlights I caught as Fein defends "The Fighting Constitution": He compares Bush to Nixon, King George III, and Hitler! There are several other gems I missed (e.g. Nichols' points comparing the US and Roman Empires)
Even Nixon said "Ok" when Congress said "No money for Laos and Cambodia." This is a guy who said "If I do it, it's ok."Even Nixon didn't have the audacity to tell John Dean, "No you can't testify."
When they get to Harriet Miers he says her failure to testify is:
Certainly an article in a bill of impeachment. This is obstruction of justice.
About Sarah Taylor's oath to the President: I was there at the time of Watergate. That was like the oath to the military in Germany. An oath to the Fuhrer.
Bush is totally heedless of any honor for law and accountability. He has special rules for him and his cabinet.
This is a sneering attitude. "I am king." Bush is over reaching and making claims that even George III would not make.
About congress giving up it's powers: It is not an option... they have walked away from their responsibilities. If you abandon that , you abandon the ship of state and it capsizes.
There is nothing to stop them from shutting down all of George Bush's and Dick Cheney's illegal operations. ILLEGAL OPERATIONS... his words.
We cannot trust the reins of power to these people they are unreliable.
Impeachment is not a constitutional crisis. It is a cure for that. Don't mistake the cure with the disease.
Nothing would gratify me more than they stand up and say "I was wrong" and give up the power. Then we could stop.
One of the lessons we learned from Nixon was he never repented. We have to get that.
This is why holding them to account now is important. If we don't do it, we are saying we can find out you have done harm to the republic and there is no penalty for that. That will hold. That will be a precedent.
I wish I could do a better job relaying this but it was like trying to read the numbers on train cars as they roll by and this train is ROARING past. Besides, I was typing with one hand while I used my other hand to pick my jaw up off the floor.
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