John Nichols: Impeaching Cheney: Step One

[babylonsister]

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/21674

Impeaching Cheney: Step One
Submitted by davidswanson on Tue, 2007-04-24 00:07. Impeachment

By John Nichols, www.thenation.com

The Nation -- That Vice President Dick Cheney is the ripest target for impeachment in the Bush White House is beyond debate.

Cheney was far more aggressive that President Bush in peddling manipulated -- or, to use a more precise term, "fantastical" -- intelligence before the U.S. invaded Iraq. And, once the war began, Cheney promoted the illusion that a connection had been found between Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network so recklessly that Bush, himself, was finally forced to correct his errant vice president. That puts Cheney at odds with the checks and balances requirements of the Constitution, and with the oath he swore to obey that document's demands.

Cheney personally coordinated efforts to attack former Ambassador Joe Wilson (news, bio, voting record), and Wilson's wife Valerie Plame, after the veteran diplomat revealed that the administration had cooked up a "case" for attacking Iraq that was in conflict with information that had been made available to the White House. That is an abuse of Cheney position similar to the ones that the House Judiciary Committee cited when voted overwhelmingly for the third article of impeachment against then-President Richard Nixon.

Cheney has been the administration's primary defender of torture, so much so that the consistently cautious Washington Post referred to him in an editorial as the "Vice President for Torture." That creates a conflict not just with the Geneva Conventions but with the 8th amendment to the Constitution's bar on cruel and unusual punishment.

Cheney has, for decades, argued for an expansion of presidential powers that far exceeds anything intended by the founders of the Republic, and with his calculated moves to disempower Congress, to keep official meetings and documents secret, and to get the president to operate by executive orders and signing statements, he has dramatically and intentionally undermined the rule of law and the Constitution.

The list goes on, but the point is clear: Never in the history of the Republic has a member of the executive branch been so ripe for removal from office as Richard B. Cheney.

more...

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. It will be interesting to see

how many of these facts Dennis Kucinich uses in his articles of impeachment which he will announce tomorrow.

[babylonsister]

2. CNN pooh-poohed the whole idea tonight; claimed Americans

didn't want impeachment. :eyes: I'd like to know who THEY are talking to, and wish they'd poll some of us.

[HereSince1628]

3. They are probably talking to Congressional staff

Americans may be well beyond ready to impeach Cheney, but Congress is a whole other matter.

[ellenfl]

5. you KNOW who they're talking to . . . the wh. eom

[JohnnyLib2]

4. What the hell, let's go for entertainment value.

How soon will Cheney go on t.v. and flip off the entire nation?

[Jack Rabbit]

6. My reply on the discussion board at The Nation

Mr. Nichols nails it on the head: there are and have been for some time now more reasons to impeach Cheney than Bush. The "President Cheney" argument against impeaching Bush was never a strong for that simple reason.

Another possible impeachable office against Cheney I would like to see investigated is the shepherding of no-bid contracts for Halliburton through the procrurement system.

We'll leave it to the usual suspects on the board to argue that Cheney is not guilty of impeachable offenses, that the intelligence about Iraq was not cooked or manipulated, that the blowing of Valerie Plame's cover was not a crime or a scandal and similar nonsense. The rest of us know better.

I do not believe that it serves America well to allow the Bush regime to continue in office. It is the most corrupt and incompetent in American history with a philosophy of government adumbrated by Mr. Cheney that is alien to the principles on which America was founded. There is nothing that Bush has not touched that hasn't tourned to manure. If I thought the war in Iraq were a good idea in the first place, I would be even more upset with the regime for completely botching the reconstruction of post-Saddam Iraq. The Bush regime couldn't even overthrow and hang Saddam Hussein without fucking it up.

Neither America nor the world can wait for January 20, 2009. This regime must go, and it must go now.