From The Right

Impeach Bush and Cheney

 

The hue and cry to impeach President Bush and or Vice-President Cheney has dominated political discourse in America since the war in Iraq started, but has grown in intensity since the Democrats won control of Congress in the last election.

The slogan of those who clamor for Bush and Cheney to be impeached is “Bush lied, troops died.”  Their charges include everything from his having been behind the terrorist attack on 9/11 to knowing that Saddam did not have any weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and that Bush deliberately misled the entire country, including Congress, during the run-up to the war in Iraq.  At the same time he is continuously excoriated by the Left for being stupid.

 

Cover-Up vs. Stupidity

 

Thinking about the charges of cover-up and stupidity, it’s hard to understand how Bush’s detractors can reconcile the irrational nature of these two claims.  Which is it?  Is he too stupid to manage anything or is he so brilliant that he has been able to engineer perhaps the greatest cover-up of all time?  He can’t very well be both. 

The Left’s answer to this is usually that Cheney controls Bush and that he (Cheney) really directs everything that goes on in the administration.  This may provide “red meat” for Bush haters, but it’s hardly believable, casting Cheney as some sort of Svengali who is capable of completely dominating the President but has been able to hide it so effectively that not one person has been found to corroborate even the most minor aspect of these charges.

How is it that the New York Times and the Washington Post, along with all the other people in the business of trying to ferret out classified information, have been unable to find any real evidence to support the notion that Dick Cheney is George Bush’s puppet master?

 

Reasons To Impeach Bush

 

ImpeachBush.tv offers the following reasons for impeaching President Bush and Vice President Cheney:

1. “Violating the United Nations Charter by launching an illegal war of aggression against Iraq without cause, using fraud to sell the war to Congress and the public, and misusing government funds to begin bombing without Congressional authorization.

2. “Violating U.S. and international law by authorizing the torture of thousands of captives, resulting in dozens of deaths, and keeping prisoners hidden from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

3. “Violating the Constitution by arbitrarily detaining Americans, legal residents, and non-Americans, without due process, without charge, and without access to counsel.

4. “Violating the Geneva Conventions by targeting civilians, journalists, hospitals, and ambulances, and using illegal weapons, including white phosphorous, depleted uranium, and a new type of napalm.

5. “Violating U.S. law and the Constitution through widespread wiretapping of the phone calls and emails of Americans without a warrant.

6. “Violating the Constitution by using signing statements to defy hundreds of laws passed by Congress.

7. “Violating U.S. and state law by obstructing honest elections in 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006.

8. “Violating U.S. law by using paid propaganda and disinformation, selectively and misleadingly leaking classified information, and exposing the identity of a covert CIA operative working on sensitive WMD proliferation for political retribution.

9. “Subverting the Constitution and abusing Presidential power by asserting a "Unitary Executive Theory," giving unlimited powers to the President, by obstructing efforts by Congress and the Courts to review and restrict Presidential actions, and by promoting and signing legislation negating the Bill of Rights and the Write of Habeas Corpus.

10. “Gross negligence in failing to assist New Orleans residents after Hurricane Katrina, in ignoring urgent warnings of an Al Qaeda attack prior to Sept. 11, 2001, and in increasing air pollution causing global warming.”

 

Is There A Valid Case?

 

Taken collectively, the case sounds overwhelming. That is, if you happen to agree that these charges are all true and that they are, in fact, impeachable offenses.  The question is, “Who do you believe, me or your own lying eyes?”

In my view, they are all a real stretch.  For example, the failure “to assist New Orleans residents after Hurricane Katrina” suggests that whenever there is any significant breakdown in government services, it’s an impeachable offense.  Government at every level routinely fails to perform a great many of its responsibilities effectively, so we really want to impeach our leaders every time this happens?

 

Is Impeachment Realistic?

 

Most people seem to think impeachment is a trial when, in fact, it’s really more like obtaining an indictment, whereby charges are brought in the House of Representatives to remove someone from office.  Only a simple majority vote in the House is required, after which the process moves to the Senate, where a two-thirds majority is needed to convict.  This raises the obvious question: Are those who are clamoring for impeachment really doing it because they believe they can win a conviction in the Senate or for some other reason?  Given the fact that almost half the members of the Senate are Republicans, what makes anyone think it would be possible to convince 67 of the 100 Senators to vote for conviction?  So, why bother?

 

Other Reasons For Impeaching Bush

 

My sense is that there has to be some other reason for all this.  Rocco DiPippo, writing in FrontPageMagazine.com (October 19, 2007) asks, “…why would they expend enormous political and financial capital on pursuing articles of impeachment against a lame duck President?”

Good question, especially considering that the investigation of President Clinton’s perjury was far less complex than those currently leveled at Bush.  “The investigations of Clinton disrupted the business of Congress, became the focus of the country, and cost American taxpayers at least $80 million.  Investigating all of the complex charges leveled by Conyers and the Democrats would grind Congress to a halt, in the middle of a war and would cost taxpayers billions of dollars.”  So, why do it again now?

DiPippo also noted:

“Some have speculated that such actions would be political payback for the Clinton impeachment.  Others speculate that the Left’s extreme hatred of Bush is reason enough for it to pursue his destruction through impeachment or censure.”

“(The) more likely reason for the Democratic party is its obsession to abandon Iraq and end the War on Islamist Terror.”

“The best way to make that dream come true would be to level and investigate charge after charge against the Bush Administration, destroying its legitimacy to have initiated the Iraq War and to have conducted it.”

 

What Next?

 

With the Democrats playing politics with our national defense, we can expect an escalation of investigations into the Bush Administration, led by the far left members who are now in control of the House, in an effort to force an end to the Iraq War, notwithstanding anything they may hear to the contrary from our own military leaders.  “Don’t bother me with the facts, my mind is made up,” appears to be their mantra.

What strikes me about all this is that the hatred of Bush is central to the drive to impeach him. I believe hatred is not based on reason.  It comes from somewhere else and is not susceptible to facts or logic.  It has its own facts and logic.  In my view, what is largely at play in the clamor of “Impeach the president,” is pure hatred, laced with a heavy dose of politics. 

 

Look for the Congressional investigations and leveling of charges against Bush and his administration to continue ratcheting up over the remaining 18 months of his term in office.  There will be no let up and no peace between those on the Left and the Right during this period.  As Bette Davis famously said in the 1950 movie “All About Eve,” “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.”