Lieberman equates impeachment with civil war.

[femmedem]

Remember when Lieberan equated support for Lamont with support for terrorism? Now he's equating impeachment with civil war.

From an e-mail his office sent me:

"...The government of the United States is unique because it structurally decentralizes, divides, disperses, and limits power. Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution outlines the provisions of impeachment. The framers adopted a narrow view of the English practice of impeachment, and it has only been carried out on a select few occasions in our nation's history.

I believe we are lucky to live here in America, because we are able to work out our differences not with civil wars, but with spirited elections. We resolve our disputes not through acts of violence, but through the rule of law. And we preserve and protect our system of justice best when we accept its judgments that we disagree with most..."

[Skidmore]

1. Funny, he wasn't so certain about that during the

Clinton impeachment.

[Botany]

2. Shut up Joe!

BTW I am not sure but didn't Joe vote to impeach Clinton?

High Crimes and misdemeanors is what it says in the law.

NSA spying
Iraq war
Plame outing
election crimes
insider deals

[MonkeyFunk]

8. No

first off, he was in the Senate, not the House. Only the House votes to impeach.

But Lieberman voted Not Guilty in the Senate.

[Botany]

10. thanx

I kinda knew that senate v house stuff ... just forgot.

I do remember Joe speaking out on Clinton's moral
failings though.

[Bitwit1234]

3. Why didn't he equate impeachment with Civil War

when he went along with the republicans to impeach President Clinton.

[jobycom]

9. He didn't. He opposed the Clinton impeachment.

He voted against both articles, and spoke out against it.

His criticism of Clinton was a ploy to head off impeachment. He denounced Clinton in very strong terms, after conferring with Clinton and then waiting until Clinton was out of the country. In his speech, he denounced the option of impeachment and/or resignation, and called for Congress to condemn Clinton, pending results of the Starr attack, um, report.

That was staged. He and Clinton were long-time allies, and Lieberman was trying to head off impeachment by offering a third way--one that condemned Clinton soundly but ultimately resulted in nothing.

Remember, they were both founders of the DLC/New Democrat movement. Lieberman didn't want Clinton out of office, his own power was too closely entertwined with Clinton's.

[bryant69]

4. That's baffling - but of course Impeachment is a legal process

Both a legal and a political process to be sure.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[femmedem]

7. Unfortunately, it's normal Lieberspeak.

Everyone who opposes him in some way is a traitor, an extremist, an enemy of America, etc. And he doesn't care what straw men he uses to advance his argument.

[itsmesgd]

5. if he wants to see a civil war, wait until the shitstorm after we attack Iran

When (hopefully) large numbers of troops and generals refuse to carry out orders, thousands of marchers take to the streets demanding impeachment and the removal of the highest eschalons of the government, and the rest of the world cuts off our oil and the dollar tanks and groceries disappear from the store shelves, and trucks stop running, and, and, and......

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. He would have said it, rather than written it, if his mouth wasn't full of doggie treats.

[jobycom]

11. This is EXCELLENT news!

Lieberman would not bring it up if he didn't think it was possible. This means that there is discussion of it in the back halls, and the discussion is a little more serious than Lieberman wants. I like this news. This is good news.

Someone should point out to him that the Constitution allows impeachment as another way to settle our differences and avoid civil war.

[femmedem]

19. He must have gotten enough calls for impeachment

for his office to formulate some sort of response. Yup, that's good.

[Nutmegger]

12. It never ends with this guy.

He makes me sick and the sooner we can get rid of him, the sooner I can stop puking every time I hear his name.

:puke:

[Jack Rabbit]

13. I'd like to see the rest of the e-mail, please.

I'm definitely no fan of Lieberman, but in those two paragraphs there is no unequivocal equating of impeachment with civil war.

Unless Lieberman has gone off a deeper end than I think he has (and I know that he is full of unpleasant surprises), then he could be equating civil war with violence and impeachment with the rule of law.

[femmedem]

14. Here's the full e-mail. He was answering my call for impeachment.

Thank you for contacting me to express your frustrations with the Bush Administration. I appreciate the time you took to share your views with me.



The government of the United States is unique because it structurally decentralizes, divides, disperses, and limits power. Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution outlines the provisions of impeachment. The framers adopted a narrow view of the English practice of impeachment, and it has only been carried out on a select few occasions in our nation's history.



I believe we are lucky to live here in America, because we are able to work out our differences not with civil wars, but with spirited elections. We resolve our disputes not through acts of violence, but through the rule of law. And we preserve and protect our system of justice best when we accept its judgments that we disagree with most. Each citizen who has reached the legal voting age is given the opportunity to voice his or her opinion during an election by casting a vote in favor of the candidate who will best represent his or her interests.



Currently, there is no legislation pending before the Senate that seeks to impeach President Bush. Please be assured that I understand your frustrations and I will keep them in mind as Congress votes whether or not to advance the Administration=s agenda both foreign and domestic. I encourage you to remain an active and informed voter.



My official Senate web site is designed to be an on-line office that provides access to constituent services, Connecticut-specific information, and an abundance of information about what I am working on in the Senate on behalf of Connecticut and the nation. I am also pleased to let you know that I have launched an email news update service through my web site. You can sign up for that service by visiting http://lieberman.senate.gov and clicking on the "Subscribe Email News Updates" button at the bottom of the home page. I hope these are informative and useful.



Thank you again for letting me know your views and concerns. Please contact me if you have any additional questions or comments about our work in Congress.

[Jack Rabbit]

15. Thank you

Like a true politician, Lieberman has mastered the art of saying nothing in 25 words or more.

[femmedem]

18. What he's also mastered:

The art of implication without telling an outright lie. You're right that he never comes out and says, "Impeachment is the equivalent of civil war." It is similar to the way the Administration never actually said "Saddam Hussein was involved in 911."

I want to make clear that in my original message to him, I in no way said that I was for any sort of violence. I signed an online petition and added a comment that our elected officials had sworn to uphold the Constitution, and that impeachment was a necessary part of upholding the Constitution.

So either the talk about civil war and violence was a complete non sequitur, or it was linked to impeachment, which he discussed in the previous and following paragraphs.

[yurbud]

16. His Civil War analogy is right in one sense:

the Bush presidency is a political crisis approaching the magnitude of the Civil War or Great Depression.

If he starts an unnecessary world war, he will leap frog the Great Depression and be nipping at the heels of the Civil War, depending on per capita domestic casualties.

[Strawman]

17. Abe Lincoln would have suspended habeus corpus for bloggers too

:sarcasm:

Impeachment is not a "civil war." It follows a constitutional procedure. It is absolutely "civil" and not an act of violence or "war."

An act of violence would be an angry mob rolling the guillotine in front of his house. He's fortunate that there is no precedent for that in America, and so are all the other liars that gave us this war. They are responsible for our young men and women and Iraqi civilians being blown to bits every day and then they actually have the audacity to lecture proponents of a bloodless, constitutional, political procedure on violence? Un-fucking-real.

[mmonk]

20. Don't try to lecture us about the law Joe while you try to block us

from using it.