By Dave Lindorff
Bill Moyers has put impeachment in the news, in the process shaming both the national media and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Congressional leadership.
In his Saturday program, Bill Moyers Journal, Moyers and guests John Nichols, the Nation's Washington correspondent and author of The Genius of Impeachment and Bruce Fein, a former attorney in the Ronald Reagan Department of Justice, made it clear that the Bush/Cheney administration has gravely threatened the Constitution and the survival of tripartite, devided government.
Moyers, feigning astonishment at the arguments of Nichols and Fein, asked if it might be justified for the Bush administration to grab special dictatorial powers in order to combat terrorism. His argument was demolished by both Nichols and Fein.
Nichols explained that the Constitution had been designed by the Founders to be a "fighting" document, capable of handling dangerous times. He noted that the Constitution actually provides for the temporary barring of habeas corpus (the right to have one's imprisonment brought before a court and adjudicated), but he said that this was something that a president had to do witht the approval of Congress, and only if the Country was under attack, which is of course not the case right now.
Fein for his part noted that most of Bush's and Cheney's abuses of power and violations of the Constitution and the rule of law have been done not openly and in consultation with Congress, but in secret and in the dark of night. His secret monitoring of American's communications--phones, mail and internet--for example, went on in for four years before it was exposed in an article in the New York Times. And the president has still not explained to anyone why he felt the need to break the law.
Fein and Nichols both blasted the current Democratic leadership of Congress for cowardice, lack of principle, and a basic failure to honor their oaths of office to uphold and defend the Constitution, in refusing to impeach the president. Fein said that in earlier administratiions, there were always at least a few members of Congress who were honorable enough to put country and the Constitution above party. "We don't have anyone like that in Congress now," he said.......
2 comments:
i accidentally saw this program while searching my tv. the most stunning statement i heard kept ringing in my mind! I had never heard one , not one congressman ever say this about this adminstration , but i heard it on this program.
IMPEACHMENT is NOT a constitutional crisis , IT IS a constitutional REMEDY that are founders fathers found necessary to put into the constitution.
If Bill Clinton deserved impeachment for lying about his little rumba with Monica, the Bush-Cheney duo deserve to be impeached, tarred and feathered and roasted over a slow fire. Clearly Bush-Cheney pose a greater threat to the Constitution than Bill Clinton's philandering ever did. Unfortunately, I don't see any sign of the Democratic leadership stepping up and doing what's required. A complete lack of testicular fortitude.
Post a Comment