Impeachment: The Case in Favor (Elizabeth Holtzman)

[marmar]

from the Nation:


article | posted January 25, 2007 (February 12, 2007 issue)
Impeachment: The Case in Favor

Elizabeth Holtzman

Approximately a year ago, I wrote in this magazine that President George W. Bush had committed high crimes and misdemeanors and should be impeached and removed from office. His impeachable offenses include using lies and deceptions to drive the country into war in Iraq, deliberately and repeatedly violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) on wiretapping in the United States, and facilitating the mistreatment of US detainees in violation of the Geneva Conventions and the War Crimes Act of 1996.

Since then, the case against President Bush has, if anything, been strengthened by reports that he personally authorized CIA abuse of detainees. In addition, courts have rejected some of his extreme assertions of executive power. The Supreme Court ruled that the Geneva Conventions apply to the treatment of detainees, and a federal judge ruled that the President could not legally ignore FISA. Even Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's recent announcement that the wiretapping program would from now on operate under FISA court supervision strongly suggests that Bush's prior claims that it could not were untrue.

Despite scant attention from the mainstream media, since last year impeachment has won a wide audience. Amid a flurry of blogs, books and articles, a national grassroots movement has sprung up. In early December seventy-five pro-impeachment rallies were held around the country and pro-impeachment efforts are planned for Congressional districts across America. A Newsweek poll, conducted just before election day, showed 51 percent of Americans believed that impeachment of President Bush should be either a high or lower priority; 44 percent opposed it entirely. (Compare these results with the 63 percent of the public who in the fall of 1998 opposed President Clinton's impeachment.) Most Americans understand the gravity of President Bush's constitutional misconduct.

Public anger at Bush has been mounting. On November 7 voters swept away Republican control of the House and Senate. The President's poll numbers continue to drop.

These facts should signal a propitious moment for impeachment proceedings to start. Yet House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has taken impeachment "off the table." (Impeachment proceedings must commence in the House of Representatives.) Her position doesn't mean impeachment is dead; it simply means a different route to it has to be pursued. Congressional investigations must start, and public pressure must build to make the House act. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070212/holtzman

[Independent_Liberal]

1. K&R!

You go Elizabeth! :loveya:

:kick:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. Historical note for younger DUers:

Elizabeth Holtzman was one of the sharpest members of the House Judiciary Committee that ran the Watergate hearings. If she says there's grounds for impeachment, there definitely are.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

4. Anybody who's been paying attention knows there are grounds for impeachment

The problem is that M$M has covered for the bastards.

[autorank]

3. I remember Holtman frm the Nixon Impeachment Hearings. KR

She was excellent and so is this. Glad to be #5.

Great post!!!