I appreciate Drake Bennett having interviewed me for and quoted me in his
article on impeachment, but I am concerned that this may give your readers
the false impression that what he wrote accurately reflects the views of
impeachment advocates and honestly reports the facts.
I discussed with Bennett at some length the polling on impeachment. He
published only this sentence: "Polls show the public does not think
impeachment should be a priority." I cannot find any polls to support that.
In fact, there have not been any mainstream scientific polls done on
impeachment in the past eight months, and no polling company has ever polled
the American public on beginning impeachment proceedings against Dick
Cheney. The few polls conducted up through eight months ago show majority
support or close to it for impeaching Bush. The polls are collected at
http://afterdowningstreet.org/polling As I discussed with Bennett, the most
interesting result of these polls is the failure of most media outlets,
including the Boston Globe, to poll on the question at all.
Later Bennett writes "While every poll shows deep dissatisfaction with Bush
and some show a conditional support for impeachment, even registered
Democrats don't tend to list impeachment among their top priorities." What
is that based on? What polling company has ever included impeachment in a
list of possible priorities? Can you name one? And why is our
dissatisfaction with Bush "deep" even though fewer of us, according to
actual polls, approve of Congress than approve of Bush?
Then Bennett writes "Congress's most liberal members oppose the idea [of
impeachment]." Who would those be? Certainly they are not the two
co-chairs of the Progressive Caucus or the Chair of the Out of Iraq Caucus
or the Deputy Whip or any of the others who have signed onto H Res 333,
articles of impeachment against Cheney.
Bennett provides the argument from unnamed Democratic leaders that
impeachment would turn Bush into a martyr and that impeachment would take
time away from other business. Yet, as I told Bennett and he declined to
print, there is no evidence that impeachment could improve Bush's standing
with the public or that this Congress has the ability to accomplish anything
other than impeachment. The one thing this Congress has managed to do in
six months is fund more war (and slightly correct the falling miminum wage).
Pelosi has publicly taken ending the war funding "off the table" just as
explicitly as she has impeachment. Six months is longer than any past
impeachment proceeding has required. If impeachment is so unpopular, why
won't Bennett's sources, if they exist, allow him to use their names?
Bennett does later name Rep. Barney Frank, but does not quote Rep. Jan
Schakowsky who is actually part of the Democratic leadership in the House
and is cosponsoring H Res 333.
Why won't even "mainstream legal scholars" allow themselves to be named,
when Bennett asserts that they would not consider various offenses to be
impeachable? Has Bennett read the American Bar Association's report on
Bush's signing statements? Has Bennett spoken with the Dean of the
University of Massachusetts School of Law? Has he run into Colin Powell's
ex Chief of Staff lately? I'm just throwing out names, something Bennett
seems averse to. Are there three people who have made the argument in print
that he cites? I'd be very surprised.
The one person Bennett names, a Harvard professor, says of the warrentless
spying, "If it turns out that the President was authorizing illegal
activity, it's comparable to Nixon." If it turns out? Is Bennett aware
that Bush has confessed to authorizing programs that a federal court has
already ruled felonious? "If it turns out" is a phrase used to maintain a
pretense that we don't know things yet, that we need "investigations" first,
even though Bush's White House is refusing to comply with numerous subpoenas
that would move investigations forward. That too is "comparable to Nixon."
Article 3 passed against him by the House Judiciary Committee was for
refusal to comply with subpoenas. I told Bennett this.
Bennett has a hard time even naming impeachment supporters. At one point,
he writes "For impeachment proponents like Carpenter and Swanson." But at
no point does he give Carpenter a first name or any identification.
Bennett is at his worst, though, I think when he is simply pontificating on
his own, as in this sentence: "And the difficulties that the impeachment
movement is having convincing Democrats to sign on suggests that it's going
to have even less luck with Republicans."
That's either a truism or a baseless assertion.
Please take more care with your reporting. Please start by actually polling
the public on whether Congress should begin impeachment proceedings against
Cheney, and the same for Bush. Please report what you find.
Sincerely,
David Swanson
Charlottesville, VA
_____________
> Dear David,
>
> Thank you for your considered note. First of all, apologies to Tim
> Carpenter for losing his first name. After I turned in the piece, my
> editors cut a quote of his that came earlier in the piece and the full ID
> wasn't transferred to the remaining quote.
>
> You are right that there hasn't been very much polling on American
> attitudes about impeachment. Contrary to your claim, however, there have
> been polls on how impeachment ranks among Americans' priorities: most
> recently a nationwide LA Times/Bloomberg poll in January that found that 1%
> of those polled (and 2% of self-described liberals) thought impeachment
> should be among Congress's two top priorities.
>
> Secondly, my evidence for the point that presidential impeachment remains
> unpopular among Democrats in Congress is the fact that only eight out of
> the 233 Democrats in the House have signed on to Rep Kucinich's Cheney
> impeachment bill, while neither Kucinich nor Conyers will talk about
> impeaching Bush, and not a single senator has expressed any interest in
> impeachment.
>
> As for the arguments of legal scholars, in their writings and public
> statements, even liberal legal scholars like Jack Balkin, Sanford Levinson,
> Laurence Tribe and Mark Tushnet restrict their arguments about impeachment
> to a couple issues: warrantless wiretapping and the possibility that the
> President sanctioned torture. The point I make there is that almost none
> of them agree with the entire list of complaints you bring against Bush and
> Cheney. That is certainly an accurate portrayal of the positions of the
> people and organizations you suggest I contact. And I'm unsure why it
> surprises and bothers you so much that Tushnet, a legal scholar, would
> speak in the conditional of an alleged crime for which someone has not yet
> been tried.
>
> And near the end of the piece I do in fact include your response to the
> argument that Congress would be less effective if it occupied itself with
> impeachment proceedings.
>
> Again, thank you for your note, and I'm sorry you found the piece so
> upsetting.
>
> Best,
> Drake Bennett
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