Hours before delivering his State of the Union address, the president published a "signing statement" announcing his right to violate measures in the new Defense Authorization Act, including: the establishment of a commission to investigate U.S. contractor fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan, the expansion of whistle-blower protections, a requirement that U.S. intelligence agencies respond to congressional requests for documents, a ban on funding permanent bases in Iraq, and a ban on funding any actions that exercise U.S. control over Iraq's oil money.
Sen. Jim Webb responded by defending the merits of a fraud investigation. No elected officials from Virginia reacted as our Founding Fathers would have, or even as our schoolchildren would have. They are still taught that Congress makes laws, which the president can sign and enforce, or veto, but not rewrite.
Is it too late for impeachment? The movements to impeach Truman and Hoover came later than the current one and served to restore our Constitution even without achieving impeachment. If we do not use the impeachment process this year, it may be too late to preserve the system of government Virginians gave to the world.
David Swanson is a writer and creator of impeachcheney.org.
Copyright 2008 The Free Lance-Star Publishing Company.
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