Faux News: Left's Chorus Grows for Bush Impeachment

[sabra]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,183387,00.html

Left's Chorus Grows for Bush Impeachment

<snip>

On Tuesday, eight-term California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters said the president should be impeached for authorizing the warrantless surveillance of some Americans through the National Security Agency.

"If a president's untruthfulness about sexual relationships is an impeachable offense, then surely spying on American citizens, undermining the Constitution and contravening current standing law are impeachable offenses," Waters said comparing Bush's alleged crimes to ones former President Clinton was tried for.

...

But not all Democrats are on board yet. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told FOX News that he doesn't think the threshold for impeachment has been crossed yet.

"As far as I'm concerned at this stage it's too early to talk about impeachment. We'll have to see if there's more to this," Reid said.

[cyr330]

1. The esteemed Senator Reid

Senator Reid is nothing but a big fat pussified Democrat just like Tom Daschle was. The threshold hasn't yet been crossed? Is that fat fucker out of his mind? What planet has he been living on?

[Voltaire99]

12. In answer to your question:

Planet Corporate Funding.

Forget Reid and his whole Surrender Posse. They can't do anything to help us.

[Seabiscuit]

20. Precisely why Faux News quotes Reid to counter Waters.

[dchill]

21. Hey...

He's not fat. :)

[Kierkegaard]

25. By comparison, he makes Daschle look masculine!

What the fuck does it take to cross the threshold? Televised pikings of dissenters on the White House security fence?

Reid, get the fuck out of the way and let someone lead this party before it's too late! Unbelievable...
:mad:

[Catch22Dem]

27. You sure you have your people right?

Harry Reid is old and skinny.

[Rose Siding]

2. That's right Harry; preempt accusations of "rush to judgement"

And I would need to see the exact quote before I believe he actually said anything specific about whether the "threshold for impeachment has been crossed yet" or not.

[sabra]

4. there's a video @ link called 'Angry Left'

has portions of Reids i-view. Though this is Faux Newz, so take it as it is...

[orleans]

23. i'm playing the video now at that link:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,183387,00.html

"as far as im concerned, at this stage it's too early to talk about impeachment. we'll have to see if there's more to this" --reid

then they show jonathan turley (my hero!) at the conyers hearing

"this type of violation should be a textbook example of an impeacment issue because not only is it a federal crime but it violates the doctrine of seperation of powers."

voice over: but reid says he's not sure he agrees.
reid: "i can't speak of that. i don't know the area of law well as professor turley."

reid: "i'm not a big fan of impeachment. i think it should only come when all other avenues have been exhausted and that certainly hasn't been the case here."

is he just being coy and trying not to show his hand? or does he mean what he is saying? if he means it then we're in big freakin trouble. if he's just not showing his hand, that's okay.

[yellowdogmi]

35. You make a good point Orleans.

But I would rather have some heat, like we will get to the bottom of this and if impeachment is warranted we will do our duty. Then perhaps some ominous music. On the other hand I have heard all of the talk about keeping their powder dry till I could puke. We must have the facts before we act but let's control the message. The american people have the right to know why he has been violating our rights.

[reprobate]

41. They'll keep their powder dry until it's way past it's 'use by' date.

[hwmnbn]

3. WTF!?! We're marching in the streets......

and Reid is talking this bullshit! The chimp BROKE THE LAW, and is still lying his ass off. And not about a blow job, about a fucking illegal war and domestic spying!

What more does he need? He may not have the votes to do it, but the threshold has been way more than passed. Start seriously talking about it NOW. Man, I'm pissed if he said that.

[Wordie]

15. Reid...

is wise not to get to far out ahead of public opinion on this. We may know that Bush deserves it; Reid may know it as well. But if he were to get too far ahead, there would be a backlash, because most of the public simply is not there yet. We would go backwards, instead of forwards, as we are going now (although I know it doesn't feel like it).

There are many of us on DU who are far more attuned to what's going on than the average citizen. I wish it wasn't so, but there it is. But there is a concerted effort now for Democratic leaders to bring this message to the people, so I have hopes that things will change. And it is working, more and more people are realizing that things are not as rosy as the SOTU speech said they are. The filibuster itself was in many ways a part of the effort to do that, although it didn't get the attention it should have in msm.

If Reid were to call for impeachment right now, that would become the media story, and the true message, of all the things Bush has screwed up on, would be lost. Just think about it. That's what happened with the filibuster, wasn't it? How many msm stories did you see that even mentioned the reasons for the filibuster, or treated it seriously? How many stories about the magnificent speeches that the Dems made even were shown in the msm, hmmm? All we got were stories about how it wasn't going to happen, and stories that made Kerry and the others appear unreasonable. The same thing would happen if Reid advocated impeachment. As the leader of the party out of power, he has to step carefully.

[mac56]

32. Once again, Wordie, you're right on the money.

And a voice of sensibility against the mob with torches and forks.

[firefox]

5. They lost the non-impeachment excuse at war criminal

There are four things that Bush should answer justice on. The illegal invasion of Iraq, the outing of a CIA agent in Plume affair, the widespread torture by Americans, and the illegal wiretapping. Impeachment in a perfect world would have come the day after Secretary-General Annon called Iraq an illegal war.

What we have is the meltdown of the system or maybe more precisely the entrenchment of fascist power. That would include the media structure of the country that neither party will disband. Everybody knows the problems of a controlled media, so the song for the choir is if they cannot do the obvious, then something is bad wrong.

A lot of things are bad wrong including that representation without representation thing, Mr. Reid. All anybody is asking for is a trial to save the hundreds of millions of American manhours talking about it, not that it is not obvious that Iraq was an illegal war of aggression by order of Puppet Bush.

[MGKrebs]

29. I think the appointment of lead investigators to fed jobs

is a disgrace, and possible impeachment territory too. Both the Abramaoff and Plame investigations have been compromised by Bush* meddling.

The President is expected to avoid even the appearance of ethical conflicts of interest, but both of these investigations are directly connected to the White House, but he creates key vacancies anyway... which he gets to fill.

It is so outrageous it is just stunning. We should not tolerate it, and neither should Congress.

[The_Casual_Observer]

6. As the bush decline continues, impeachment will become a strong

campaign issue this year.

[DemonFighterLives]

7. I didn't click the fox link

but wanted to kick for the Impeachment Chorus.
Harry Reid deserves some e-mails. He needs to wake the hell up.
His support of bush via non impeachment and support for his minions (alito) is pushing my buttons.
:freak:

[lady lib]

8. Jane Smiley made a good point about waiting on impeachment

for now.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-smiley/lightbulb_b_14462.html

A couple of days ago, a conservative news organ reported that the Bush administration is preparing for possible impeachment. I am certain that they are planning to endure the impeachment process asap, so that when the Congress votes along party lines, as with Alito, they can say that the "failure to impeach" constitutes a "renewed mandate".

Democrats and progressives, beware! My bet is he can't be impeached twice, no matter what the high crimes and misdemeanors are. No gambit is too outrageous for Rove, Bush, and Cheney, and they certainly have a plan to use impeachment to consolidate their power.

[AndyTiedye]

16. Nothing In The Constitution Says You Can't Impeach More than Once

If it were a criminal proceeding, double jeopardy would apply,
but impeachment is not -- it is just the procecure for removing
criminals from office.

[tritsofme]

17. Are you sure?

I have always been under the impression that once a president has been acquitted in the Senate, jeopardy is attached on the charges he was impeached for.

[AndyTiedye]

42. The Current Supreme Court Might Rule Otherwise, But

impeachment is not a criminal proceding.

It wouldn't matter anyway, since there are SO MANY impeachable offences the regime has committed.

If we ever get the votes to impeach them, they're toast.

[jmowreader]

44. So get out Eliot Ness' playbook

Eliot Ness knew Al Capone was guilty of everything. Name a law and Capone either broke it or ordered someone else to--which made trying him difficult because they had to first pick out something to charge him with.

If they would have hit him with everything they had at once and got a judge Capone owned, Capone would have walked. So...they hit him with the cheapest federal offense they could come up with, income tax evasion. If that failed, they had a shitload of Volstead Act violations, some murders, a few rapes...the idea was to get Capone behind bars so they took the easy way out.

The parallel is that Bush has committed more criminal acts in his career as preznit than Al Capone did as King of Chicago. And it only takes a conviction on one of them to get him out of the impeachment channel and into the criminal justice system. So I'd say pick a couple of good substantive offenses and take him to trial.

[aquart]

22. No double jeopardy on impeachment, is there?

Particularly if it's a new set of crimes.

[marmar]

9. Maxine Waters has what Harry Reid doesn't...

Cajones!

[Voltaire99]

13. Maxine rocks!

She and Cynthia McKinney are two righteous pols.

[Ben Ceremos]

24. Maxine Waters

does not have large boxes or crates. The appropriate word is C O J O N E S, pronounced 'co-hone-es'.

[druidity33]

26. idiomatically...

I thought it was J U E V O S. Or so my friend from DR used to say...

[MGKrebs]

28. lol!

[IndianaGreen]

10. Harry Reid is a Bush enabler!

"As far as I'm concerned at this stage it's too early to talk about impeachment."

-- Harry Reid

When are you going to be concerned, Mister Reid? When Bush decides to run for a third term?

[sabra]

11. remember this is a Faux News report and i-view

grain of salt...

[Dogmudgeon]

14. I have to agree with Reid on this issue

The reason is simple: we have a lot of shit on Bush, but only a couple of dead-to-rights slam-dunk charges.

By the end of spring, after a number of open investigations are wrapping up, we will have a LONG list of particulars, and in the Summertime, we should ramp up the national Impeachment "conversation".

Oh, did I mention, it will also maximize our ability to elect Democrats -- especially libbrul Democrats -- in the November election?

If we impeach Bush, we want to cripple President Cheney as badly as possible. The way to do this is to win back the House and Senate, and make sure as many of the frosh as we can elect are progressives.

As for Reid, why not call him or write to him? It may be worth the effort to try to progressivize him. It's worked on lesser men and women.

Personally, I wish we could call a No-Confidence vote the way parliamentary democracies do it. But we'll have to settle for impeachment, a hamstrung replacement, and several new prison cells.

--p!

[DainBramaged]

18. As far as I'm concerned at this stage it's too early to talk about impeach

Resign Mr. Reid. You left your balls at the door. Resign and go sun yourself in the desert.

[oasis]

19. Old fashioned Harry still believes in putting the horse before the cart.

Imagine that.:think:

[AnneD]

30. I noticed that after the SOTU

Bush shook a few hands as the walked past. He shook the hans of the guy next to Reid, but not Reid. What I wouldn't have given for a close camera shot.

[magellan]

31. It's too early TO impeach

...but it's way past time to TALK about it.

Let me tell you, Harry, I run across more people all the time who are spitting nails furious over what Bush** has been allowed to get away with. They're waiting for someone in Congress to step up to the plate. And here's a warning for you: they're not particular. They'll rally behind a Dem OR a Repub.

Go ahead, squander another opportunity to champion this country.

[donkeyotay]

38. The astute dems snatch another defeat from the jaws of victory

I heard someone on tv saying that the dems hadn't been able to capitalize on bush's troubles and that although the republican congress had only a 38% approval rating, the dems had only 36% approval. What does that tell them? To become more like republicans? It doesn't tell them that 26% of the country is just absolutely sick over the lack of accountability and honesty in our government, that dems could basically add that to their loyal base and represent a solid majority by speaking out and offering a real alternative.

[Xenotime]

33. Why does Reid keep defending *?

The time to act is now. People in Reid's district need to call him.

[wishlist]

34. I know some conservative Republicans who think he should be impeached

It's not just 'lefties' who believe that his actions such as lying to get us into war and about White House involvement in the Plame leak, breaking the law with warrantless wiretapping, and refusing to cooperate with Congressional inquiries such as Katrina are all impeachable offenses.

In my circle of acquaintances, the first person to tell me that Bush should be impeached (over Iraq) was my most conservative Republican friend that I don't normally even discuss politics with, but she has been so disgusted with Bush's broken promises that she voted for Kerry in 2004.

[Rocknrule]

36. They talk about the Republican Party like it's the home team

But why should I expect anything less?

[Az_lefty]

37. I have totally fucking had it with that spineless Reid...

"doesn't think the threshold for impeachment has been crossed yet." Really??? Then just what does it take Senator?

[BlueStater]

39. "Republicans now control Congress, which means impeachment won't happen."

This says it all.

Faux News is openly admitting that the current crap (er, crop) of Republicans senators are just a bunch of partisan jerks who don't give a damn about the law.

I just find it so hard to believe that, if it comes to the point where no one can deny Bush broke the law, the GOP still wouldn't impeach him. Isn't preventing justice from being served itself a crime? Shouldn't they be punished for helping a criminal?

Bush can't play dumb either since he openly said he would continue his spying. They got nothing.

[noonwitch]

40. No used talking about it unless we retake the house in November

Otherwise, there would need to be the whole in bed "with a live boy or dead girl" thing to get the GOP wanting to impeach.

[wordpix2]

43. Maxine, GO, girl!! Love you

[and-justice-for-all]

45. Pack your shit BUSH Co..

And get the fuck out!..and on your way, take your bigot supporters and shove them up your ass!!