http://baltimorechronicle.com/2007/062107Floyd.shtmlCOMMENTARY:
Slap Doesn't Stick: Corrupted Congress Will Help Bush Escape Court Rulingby Chris Floyd
The disgusting thugs who seized control of our government have been repeatedly unmasked. Yet still, this gang squats in the White House, still they wield their earth-shaking powers, still they break laws and commit atrocities every day. Sidney Blumenthal adds a worthy comment to the recent ruling by the arch-conservative federal court that struck down George W. Bush's outrageous claims to tyrannical power. The court recognized what we have been saying here (and elsewhere) for years: that Bush's claims, if accepted, mean the end of even the pretense of a constitutional republic in the United States.
However, Blumenthal also notes that the ruling has changed nothing "on the ground." Bush has not altered his policies in the light of this stinging rebuke from his own side of the ideological divide. In fact, just last week, one of his mouthpieces strenuously defended Bush's abuse of "signing statements" -- his regular declarations that he is not bound by the laws passed by the people's representatives in Congress. The Boston Globe's Charles Savage, who almost alone in the corporate media has doggedly pursued this sinister practice, reports numerous specific instances of Bush's deliberate subversion of legislation. Questioned about the story, a Bush spokesman answered, in essence: "Yeah? So what? The Boss does what he wants to do, and that's the way it is. You savvy?"
The disgusting thugs who seized control of our government have been repeatedly unmasked. Their authoritarian pretensions and rampant lawbreaking have been repeatedly exposed in the media and by government insiders, and roundly condemned by numerous courts, including, as in this case, conservative courts packed with appointees of the Bush dynasty itself. Yet still, this gang squats in the White House, still they wield their earth-shaking powers, still they break laws and commit atrocities every day.
And Congress, the only institution in the country with the legal power to bring this monumental crime spree to an end, will not even attempt to use the tools provided to it by the Constitution to remove the perpetrators of high crimes from office. Richard Nixon was successfully impeached -- in wartime -- for offenses which, though serious, pale immeasurably in contrast to the Bush gang's crimes, which have put the very existence of the Republic in peril.
Yet the leadership of this Congress will not even try to launch impeachment proceedings against the Bush Administration, which openly admits, even champions, its lawbreaking; they will not even make the effort to defend the Constitution and restore the nation's honor. Instead, they prefer to "run out the clock," and let Bush continue his unfettered depredations, let his moral rot spread even further through the government and through our society.
What an extraordinary situation. On the one hand, we have a tin-pot tyrant, discredited, deeply unpopular, increasingly delusional, his illegitimacy exposed, his political base shrinking -- yet he remains firmly in power, waging a criminal war of aggression and actively moving toward another one, openly flaunting the law of the land, and maniacally filling his cronies' pockets with loot. On the other hand, we have an opposition party that could draw upon the support of the vast majority of the public who oppose the tyrant's policies -- yet it refuses to take up the one legal weapon it has to accomplish the people's will and turn the criminal out of office.
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