As an advocate of immediate impeachment hearings, I hear all the arguments against proceeding with such hearings, starting at the top, with Nancy Pelosi and John Conyers, Jr. I will list each argument and its rebuttal.
ARGUMENT- Impeachment is time-consuming, and will tie Congress up so it can't do other business.
REBUTTAL- 1 - Congress can walk and chew gum at the same time. There are 435 members; investigation into impeachable offenses takes place in one committee- Judiciary.
REBUTTAL- 2 - If investigations were to start, the evidence would quickly become overwhelming, and the public outcry so great that Bush and Cheney would be forced to resign, as Nixon did.
REBUTTAL - 3 Other business would proceed much more quickly if the occupant of the White House was friendly, a Democrat, rather than hostile.
ARGUMENT- Impeachment would divide the country; it's better to work together.
REBUTTAL 1- Bush has divided the country; the election proved that the people overwhelmingly want him and Cheney out, impeachment hearings would unite the people behind the new Congress, and the replacement president.
REBUTTAL 2- Bush and Cheney have very little support as shown by the polls- less than a third of the country are behind them, and it would be miniscule once their crimes were displayed in Congress. The country would unite against them.
REBUTTAL 3- A healthy democracy encourages disagreement and debate. The one - party system we actually have, with the Democrats covering for Bush, is a sham democracy.
ARGUMENT- Bush has only two more years- we need to concentrate on a Democratic president in 2008.
REBUTTAL 1- Bush and Cheney are still incredibly dangerous. They have gotten the previous rubber-stamp Congress to give them almost unlimited power over every individual in this country, via the Military Commissions Act. This Act gives Bush the power, on any grounds, to label any American citizen an "illegal enemy combatant" and strip him/her of all rights, even habeas corpus. They also have almost unlimited power over the nation as a whole, via the The Fiscal Year 2007 Defense Authorization Bill, which GUTS posse comitatus, giving Bush the power to use the National Guard of each state against the people of any other state, bypassing the governers' authority, in case of a socalled "domestic emergency". Powerhungry people like Bush and Cheney should be removed from power and access to power ASAP.
REBUTTAL 2- It's already clear that Bush has no intention of leaving Iraq. As long as he and Cheney are in office, they will continue to bleed away the wealth of our country via this illegal, immoral, expensive occupation.
REBUTTAL 3- If Bush's war against the environment and against the pocketbooks, rights, and liberties of ordinary Americans is fought piecemeal by the incoming Congress, he can do a lot more damage in all these areas over the next two years. Much better to get rid of him and Cheney, and then set things right.
ARGUMENT - Rather than seek revenge or retribution, the Democrats are taking "the high road" of forgiveness and cooperation.
REBUTTAL 1- Impeachment, properly conducted, is not revenge, it's justice. It is a legal proceeding, designed to protect the American people from criminals or incompetents in high office, people like Bush and Cheney.
REBUTTAL 2- All members of Congress swear an oath to uphold the Constitution, and defend it from all enemies, foreign AND DOMESTIC. Bush and Cheney are the greatest enemies the Constitution has known to date; our Representatives have a duty to keep their oath and impeach the shredders of the Constitution.
Carol S. Wolman, MD is a psychiatrist in Northern California. A lifelong peace activist, she has written extensively on the psychology of our times. She is a cochair of Bay Area Impeach Bush-Cheney. You can join or form a local group at http://impeachbush.meetup.com/
She ran for Congress in '06, and is now a Gteen candidate for Congress in CA district 1. She is a coordinator of The New Broom Coalition, for a clean sweep of Congress.
I want to know what happened to John Conyers. He was hot for impeachment and now he turned cold.
When Mr. Conyers was having hearings in the basement I thought there would be a chance to get rid of this dangerous regime.
Hellava good article. Thank you Ms Wolman.
If this regime with two more years of screwing up the world is not impeached then it would be good in my book to have both Bush and Cheney forced to resign.
And what this country needs is a good third party to screw up this two party dictatorship.
I still have a lot of respect for Waxman and even Conyers.
I still wonder why they would let Bush get away with anything, the way Clinton was treated was almost criminal in nature. Also what keeps me awake at night is this listening in on phone calls. This might be why some congress people are not going through with the impeachment. Bush and Company have got something on someone, you know like FOLEY went down just before the elections. They must have some dirt. This was the whole point of the wire tapping. I Think.....................
by
anthny (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 39 comments)
on Thursday, November 23, 2006 at 2:01:50 PM
Eloquent and concise. We won't know the true plan of the Democratic Congress until the session begins and their investigative choices commence. Until then it is our patriotic duty and moral obligation to continue demanding that those investigations be comprehensive and that the truth is brought to light.
You brought out an excellent point about Democratic complicity in the following rebuttal:
"REBUTTAL 2- All members of Congress swear an oath to uphold the Constitution, and defend it from all enemies, foreign AND DOMESTIC. Bush and Cheney are the greatest enemies the Constitution has known to date; our Representatives have a duty to keep their oath and impeach the shredders of the Constitution."
In it you made perfectly clear what out duty is toward each and every signer of the Military Commissions Act.
Along with impeachment of Bush and Cheney, we must seek to recall each and every Senator and Congressperson who sold out our Constitution. They are treasonous traitors - each and every one - and are unworthy of continuing to hold public office in Washington D.C.
Mikael Rudolph
www.ImpeachforPeace.org
by
Mikael Rudolph (50 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 79 comments)
on Friday, November 24, 2006 at 2:18:48 AM
2 comments
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