Former Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman Calls for Impeachment

[welshTerrier2]

i remember Liz Holtzman from those oh-so-enjoyable days of the Watergate hearings ... in the article below (being released tonight in The Nation magazine), she makes an effective case for impeachment citing not just one, but a parade of impeachable offenses bush committed ...

are most of today's Dems too timid to join Holtzman??

source: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001842624

"Finally, it has started. People have begun to speak of impeaching President George W. Bush -- not in hushed whispers but openly, in newspapers, on the Internet, in ordinary conversations and even in Congress. As a former member of Congress who sat on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon, I believe they are right to do so." <skip>

"Like many others, I have been deeply troubled by Bush’s breathtaking scorn for our international treaty obligations under the United Nations Charter and the Geneva Conventions. I have also been disturbed by the torture scandals and the violations of U.S. criminal laws at the highest levels of our government they may entail. ... These concerns have been compounded by growing evidence that the President deliberately misled the country into the war in Iraq. But it wasn’t until the most recent revelations that President Bush directed the wiretapping of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) -- and argued that, as Commander in Chief, he had the right in the interests of national security to override our country’s laws -- that I felt the same sinking feeling in my stomach as I did during Watergate.

"As a matter of constitutional law, these and other misdeeds constitute grounds for the impeachment of President Bush. A President, any President, who maintains that he is above the law -- and repeatedly violates the law -- thereby commits high crimes and misdemeanors, the constitutional standard for impeachment and removal from office. ... But impeachment and removal from office will not happen unless the American people are convinced of its necessity after a full and fair inquiry into the facts and law is conducted. That inquiry must commence now."

Holtzman then lays out her case in detail, and concludes, "As awful as Watergate was, after the vote on impeachment and the resignation of President Nixon, the nation felt a huge sense of relief. Impeachment is a tortuous process, but now that President Bush has thrown down the gauntlet and virtually dared Congress to stop him from violating the law, nothing less is necessary to protect our constitutional system and preserve our democracy."

[David Dunham]

1. The Repug Congress will never impeach Bush.

[waiting for hope]

2. Hear Hear!

:toast:

[PennyK]

3. She's been on this since last summer!

She was one of the speakers at a Downing Street minutes hearing in NYC last summer, and she was GREAT. There was also a Congressman from upstate and the demure Ms. Randi Rhodes. Ms. Holtzman was wonderful..she spoke clearly and concisely about ways to aproach impeachment.