Though this question does not go away, it is a foolish one. The best way to handle it is to expose its folly.
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A: There are some messes that are so bad that there is no good solution to them. The mess that the Bushites have made in Iraq appears to be one of those. With such disasters, the issue is not who can make everything OK ?there are some blunders that cannot be made OK--but who is responsible for the debacle.
Of course, we Americans have to find the least bad solution to this situation in Iraq. But so long as our course in the world is being charted by the same people who created this mess, the first order of business is to rescue our destiny from the people whose arrogance and recklessness and colossal bad judgment has given us this greatest policy disaster in American history.
If the American people make us the majority party, we will hold public hearings and invite the best foreign policy and military minds in the country to see if we can get some consensus on what is the least worst course of action?in view of America?s interests and values and responsibilities. And we can do what is within Congress?s power to do to try to assure that the people who gave us this mess in Iraq do not give us another one.
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Q: There?s talk of impeachment. The Republicans are warning their base that if you Democrats get control of the Congress you will take the country into a time-consuming and distracting campaign to remove George W. Bush from office. They say that the American people, who didn?t welcome that when the Republicans tried it in 1998 against President Clinton, don?t want to go down that road now either. So, if you gain control of Congress, are you going to try to impeach this president?
A: What is absolutely essential here is that the Congress stand up, on behalf of the American people, and declare that we are a nation of laws, and that it is not acceptable for the President of the United States to act as if he were above the law.
To let this administration?s/president?s lawless conduct and bogus claims to unchecked power escape even without condemnation would undermine the integrity of our American democracy.
The Congress should therefore consider a resolution of censure that includes all of the apparent acts of lawlessness that this administration has conducted?not just the warrantless searches that the American Bar Association has declared to be clearly illegal, but also other apparent violations of the Constitution and lawless acts.
The discussion of this administration?s apparent lawlessness should be conducted publicly, so that the American people can see just what kind of threat this president has posed to our democracy.
The American people will then be in a position to judge for themselves whether censure is a sufficient means to defend our constitutional system, or whether the crimes and misdemeanors of this presidency require that the law-breakers be removed from office.
Indeed, we would propose to create a panel that?s representative of the American electorate ?a kind of jury of some dozens of citizens, of every political stripe?to attend the censure resolution debate so that they?d get the complete picture of this administration?s misdeeds. And we would turn to this group of citizens ?representative of the public generally, except for being so fully informed of the relevant issues?for a decision as to whether or not impeachment is necessary.
And incidentally, the comparison that the Republicans like to make now to the Clinton impeachment is a foolish one. As objectionable as President Clinton?s conduct was in moral terms, his misdeeds did not involve the performance of the great office with which the American people had entrusted him. That?s why the majority of the American people opposed his impeachment.
President Bush?s actions, however ?his wielding his presidential powers as if he did not have to obey the laws passed by Congress, or submit to the oversight of the courts?is the very kind of usurpation that most worried our Founders and for which the process of impeachment was instituted as a means of protecting our constitutional democracy.
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Q: It is clear what you Democrats are against, but what are you for? Do you have any positive vision to offer the American people? Or are you just going to campaign against the shortcomings of the Republicans?
A: Yes, we do have a positive vision. In fact it is the vision on which this nation was founded: a vision of a nation ruled by law, a vision of a democracy governed by a Constitution, a nation in which the people are entrusted with the truth so that they and their representatives can make decisions on their collective destiny.
In ordinary times, there?s no need to emphasize this American birthright. But these are not ordinary times. The integrity of our democracy is now under threat. And with almost half the American people now strongly disapproving of the current presidency, it seems clear that many millions of American recognize that our country is being damaged by the people and the party now in power.
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