Bruce Fein: Pelosi Needs To Put Impeachment Back On The Table

[Hissyspit]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/14/ED69RHPFT.DTL&feed=rss.opinion

Pelosi needs to put impeachment on the table
Bruce Fein

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

President Woodrow Wilson recanted his no-war pledge, President Franklin D. Roosevelt disowned his balanced budget promise and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., should learn from those examples. She should reconsider her "impeachment is off the table" pledge. As Ralph Waldo Emerson advised, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."

The speaker's reluctance is understandable. The president's tenure expires on Jan. 20, 2009. An impeachment inquiry could embolden al Qaeda, the Taliban, Iraq's insurgents and Iran's nuclear-minded mullahs. President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and a majority of Republicans in Congress would attempt to portray the exercise as naked partisanship. Their enthusiasm for impeaching President Bill Clinton over lying under oath about Monica Lewinsky would be no deterrent.

But countervailing constitutional concerns are more compelling. Bush has crippled checks and balances and protections against government abuses. If these claims and practices are not repudiated, the precedents will lie around like loaded weapons, ready for use by any White House incumbent to intimidate rivals or to destroy the rule of law.

The president has reduced Congress to wallpaper. He has asserted executive privilege to foil the congressional power of investigation - the most important because sunshine is the best disinfectant for lawlessness or maladministration. Thus, Bush has claimed inherent constitutional power to prohibit former presidential adviser Karl Rove and former White House counsel Harriet Miers, among others, from testifying about perjury, obstruction of justice or the politicization of law enforcement in conjunction with congressional scrutiny of the firings of nine U.S. attorneys. Even President Richard M. Nixon, whose signature creed was "if the president does it, it's legal," shied from such a monarch-like claim. When former White House counsel John Dean was implicating him in the Watergate coverup by reciting chapter and verse of Oval Office conversations before the Senate Watergate Committee, Nixon never insinuated he could silence his accuser. In contrast, Bush is claiming that secrecy, as opposed to transparency, is the constitutional rule for the executive branch. Government by the consent of the governed, however, requires the people to know what their government is doing to enable them to adjust their political loyalties accordingly.

- snip -

If House Speaker Pelosi neglects to put impeachment back into the Constitution, an omnipotent, repressive and secret presidency is inescapable. If her constituents voice that concern, it should concentrate her mind wonderfully.

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[babylonsister]

1. RECOMMEND. nt

[Vidar]

2. K&R.

[Misskittycat]

3. K & R

[Senator]

4. "Wallpaper" --- Ouch!

At least some wallpaper looks nice.

This impeachophobia is making us look like pathetically weak, perennial losers at best and craven, co-corrupt conspirators at worst.

OTOH, some of our "thinkers" are regaining consciousness.

---

[Poiuyt]

5. It really pains me to know that Bush has committed crimes agains humanity and is going

to get away with it

[John Q. Citizen]

8. It pains me more that the next president or the one after may be worse. That why repudiation through

impeachment is the only viable course.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Damn straight.

[Me.]

7. Ouch

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."

[mmonk]

9. He must have made a mistake. She never had it on the table.

[WI_DEM]

10. Of course she should! Afterall, these investigations might find impeachable offenses

with the smoking gun needed to take Bush out.

[Hissyspit]

11. .

[L. Coyote]

12. Dem BONES: "Government by the consent of the governed, however, requires the people to know ..."

The bones of the argument:

"Government by the consent of the governed, however, requires the people to know what their government is doing to enable them to adjust their political loyalties accordingly."

[porphyrian]

13. Yep. - n/t

[truedelphi]

14. There's as much of a chance that Pelosi willconsider impeachment as that

Di Feinstein will give back the mansion she bought with the blood from this War.

[lonestarnot]

16. rrrrrarer. :scratcheyes:

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Yep, but she won't they want that power for themselves

why? That river behind your back... that's the Rubicon

[EFerrari]

17. Why no townhall this month, Nancy?

:shrug:

[mzmolly]

19. Vacation me thinks?

:shrug:

[EFerrari]

20. Right across the bay, Barbara Lee is having one.

A few hours. :shrug:

[mzmolly]

24. Interesting.

:crazy:

[EFerrari]

26. I don't know, if I were Nancy, if I'd have the time, desire or energy

to have one. But, there must be some way for her to stay connected to her district, even if it would be setting up a townhall with her senior staff. Dan Bernal is a wonderful communicator -- senior on her staff here. He could manage it in a heartbeat. He thinks very well on his feet and is a good listener at that.

I would like to see us let off some steam and get back on the same page as much as possible and as soon as possible. It feels like an opportunity to do that is being missed. :(

[mzmolly]

18. "If these claims and practices are not repudiated, the precedents will lie around like loaded...

weapons..."

...

"If House Speaker Pelosi neglects to put impeachment back into the Constitution, an omnipotent, repressive and secret presidency is inescapable. If her constituents voice that concern, it should concentrate her mind wonderfully."

Notice how Fein doesn't say impeachment will end the war?

I agree with Fein and his rationale - stating why impeachment is necessary. The fact that some, who are in front of the impeach now movement, perpetually confuse ending the war and the need to reclaim our Constitution confuses the issue. True, impeachment is about justice, but it's also about the next century.

"If her constituents voice that concern, it should concentrate her mind wonderfully."

Constituents who "voice concerns" must concentrate their collective minds and voices on Fein's perspective/argument vs. the "impeachment will end the war" tack.

Thanks for posting this. I wish Mr. Fein would ask Ms. Pelosi for a moment of her time.

:hi:

[bbgrunt]

21. yes. yes. yes.

[Norrin Radd]

22. k+r

[Anita Garcia]

23. k r

[spanone]

25. It's a duty, not a choice...imo