This country has learned to be afraid... of Dick Cheney. The number one reason a significant minority of Americans still hesitates to get behind impeachment of Bush is fear of Dick Cheney. This will remain the case even should Cheney die, I am convinced. Certainly it remains the case no matter how many times I explain the following six reasons why it's INSANE, but I'm going to try one more time.
1.-If you impeach and remove a president from office, that president's successor will probably lose the next election, assuming he or she runs, and that president's party will probably lose big in the next election. This has never been tested in U.S. history, but the case of Nixon and Ford comes close to it. If you want the Democrats to win the White House and a larger majority in the Congress, then your ideal ought to be for the man who is really running the country now to be moved up front as the face of the White House. Why? Because Bush has set records for unpopularity and Cheney is about HALF as popular as Bush. Cheney is a walking advertisement for Democrats. More Americans believe in UFOs than believe Cheney is a decent human being. And Cheney won't even run for election as an incumbent. If Democratic strategists had any sense they would be angling for a Cheney presidency. But it is impossible they will ever get one, for reasons that follow.
2.-If Congress holds serious hearings and investigations into either Bush or Cheney, it will inevitably drag before the public evidence that incriminates both of them. It is utterly impossible that Congress will investigate, impeach, and remove from office Bush or Cheney, and leave the other still standing. Both will be facing criminal and civil prosecutions. And if one is impeached, both will be. If one is removed from office, both will be. But it will never come to that, for reasons that follow.
3.-If Senate conviction looks likely for Bush or both Bush and Cheney, a situation that could arise – as it did with Nixon – even prior to impeachment in the House, Republican Senators who want to remain Republican Senators will tell Bush and Cheney to resign. Cheney will resign first – something he may do regardless, for "health reasons" – so that Bush can name his replacement, who will – like Ford – become president. If Senate conviction is actually reached for both Bush and Cheney, it will not be reached in the same instant for both of them. Were such a bizarre occurrence to become possible, Cheney would resign before it occurred. The only way in which Nancy Pelosi can become President is for her to get herself elected, or for Bush and Cheney to simultaneously die. There is the slimmest possibility that Cheney could resign, the Senate could reject Bush's choice for a successor, the Senate could then remove Bush from office, and then Pelosi would be president. For that sort of miracle to happen, Pelosi would have to be a goddess with such superhuman powers that she wouldn't even want to be president. But none of this is about Pelosi, for reasons that follow.
4.-Were we to figure out a way to impeach and remove Bush and make Cheney president, he would not only be facing criminal charges and a possible impeachment himself, but he would be operating in awareness of that fact. He would be a president learning to be afraid of us, as we learned to stop being afraid of him. The same would be true with a President Pelosi or a new President Ford. Whoever is in that office after Bush is removed will be keenly aware that he or she might be next. Cheney would of course then retire, and the Republicans would lose the next election badly, allowing someone to become president the way they are supposed to: by getting elected. Selecting a president is not part of impeachment, for reasons that follow.
5.-Impeachment is not a way to pick a president, and if all you're worried about is picking a president, you have no business monkeying around with something as profoundly significant as impeachment. Impeachment is a tool for removing a criminal president from office, thus establishing limitations on power for subsequent presidents. If we do not impeach Bush, we will have established that it is acceptable for presidents to lie us into wars, to spy without warrants, to detain without charge, to torture, to murder, to reverse laws with signing statements, to hide the operations of our government, to exact retribution against whistleblowers, to rig elections, to ignore hurricanes, etc. For similar reasons, we must impeach Cheney too. These reasons go to the survival of our democracy, a matter of far greater significance than the person who next sits in the office of the presidency – or the office of king if that is what it is to become. It is obscene to even bring electoral or party concerns into this matter. But those who do, usually get their calculation upside down, for reasons that follow.
6.-It is not politically dangerous to impeach. It is politically dangerous not to impeach when the case is clear. The Democrats calculated that by letting the Iran-Contra gang off the hook, they could win the next elections. They then lost those elections and were forced to be haunted for decades by the thugs they declined to put away. The Republicans tried to impeach Truman, won what they wanted from the Supreme Court, and then won the next elections. A dozen examples through history tell the same story. The only near-exception is Clinton. But that was an impeachment the public opposed. So, it ought to have had a reverse result from the other cases. Even so, the Republicans lost fewer seats than is the norm at that point in a majority tenure, and they lost seats mostly in the Senate that acquitted, not the House that impeached. The handful of lunatics who imposed the impeachment on the rest of the Congress and the country won big in their next elections.
DAVID SWANSON is a co-founder of After Downing Street, a writer and activist, and the Washington Director of Democrats.com. He is a board member of Progressive Democrats of America, and serves on the Executive Council of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including Press Secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, Media Coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as Communications Coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson obtained a Master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1997.
I totally agree with all of David's points. However, there still seems to be a fear of holding these criminals accountable beyond what David has pointed out, (which is the publicly approved reasons in the MSM and from Dems). What I am posting below may border on conspiracy theory, but the FACTS are true. The conclusions are only opinion, not conspiracy. I would like someone in Congress to not only answer to David Swanson's points, but mine as well.
To say "impeachment is off the table" is the equivalent of saying the Constitution, the rule of law, and democracy are no longer relevant.
Maybe the Democrats are actually fearful of doing anything with good reason. The anthrax attacks were directed at ONLY the Democrats and certain segments of the Media. Fox news didn't receive any. And, oddly enough, although nobody considers the National Inquirer to be part of the media, or a threat to anyone except slandered celebrities, their corporate headquarters were targeted first. Why is that odd? They were running stories on the drunken Bush twins prior to 9/11 and about George's cocaine habit before the 2000 election. There is also the strange admission that top Republicans were taking prophylactic doses of Cipro prior to those attacks.
It is also very "odd" that only prominent Democrats who are critical of this administration seem to die in tragic airplane crashes.
Needless to say maybe the Dems know the Bush crime family is vengeful and capable of pure evil. That should not be an excuse for postponing impeachment, but instead should be the very reason they get started immediately with impeachment hearings and eventually lead to criminal prosecutions. I guess they are waiting for either WWIII, (that starts with Iran and Syria, then China, etc); or for those detention camps of Ollie North's to start filling up with millions of Americans who protest in demand of impeachment.
It is already almost too late. If either of the above mentioned atrocities take place it [impeachment] will be virtually impossible. And God forbid they engineer or allow another catastrophic terrorist attack on American soil. At that point martial law will be instituted and George W. Bush will have the dictatorship he always wanted.
In the meantime how many more soldiers and innocent Iraqis must die? How many more of our civil liberties and rights will vanish in the name of national security? How many more high crimes will be committed by this imperial president? The truly patriotic of America are demanding answers and justice right now.
by
JohnNmissouri (5 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 40 comments)
on Saturday, January 27, 2007 at 3:50:53 PM
You are dead right on each point re: impeachment of Bush/Cheney & the near immutable results. My only feeling is a certain amount of guilt knowing that a friend, former US House Rep. Bill Steiger was, I think, the 1st person to give Cheney a political job which got him started on his political road. The current administration is so politically/legally/morally corrupt and most of the current crop of candidates are such that I just might finally vote for Kucinich if he runs again.
by
L. RETZACK (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 41 comments)
on Saturday, January 27, 2007 at 10:23:30 PM
The only thing stopping Immediate Impeachment of both total
out of touch with reality,power mad,blood thristy Psychos
George W Bush And Delusional Dick Cheney right now is,
named Gutless Wonder Sell Out Looney Toons Democratic
Speaker Coward Mental Midget Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic
Senate Cohort Gutless Harebrain Harry Reid thats all,so face
reality here,people Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid sold you
out on Impeachment the day they met with George W Bush and
Delusional Dick Cheney!
So if your serious about Impeachment of Psychos Bush &
Cheney Then Force Those Two Gutless Wonder Democrat Sell Outs Nancy Pelosi And Harry Reid To Resign From Congress
Immediately So We Can Replace Them With People Who Will
Impeach George W Bush And Delusional Dick Cheney! And That's
Reality Here,Whether You Like It Or Not!
by
Ralph (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 74 comments)
on Sunday, January 28, 2007 at 10:28:23 PM
3 comments
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