Swopa: The Case for Censure

[BurtWorm]

Swopa makes the case that if impeachment is not possible or even probable, censuring the bastards might be more within reach. A successful push to censure could also be much more damaging to both Bush and Cheney than an impeachment push that fails to convict. (I think the impeachment cause should not be abandoned, but it makes good historic sense to take up the cause for censure as well.)

http://www.needlenose.com/node/view/4154


A motion to censure the President, however, might be the right tool to cut through the clutter. It would make a simple declaration -- that even if Bush has the technical right to commute Scooter's sentence, in the view of the Congress, he has sent the most corrupting message a president can possibly send to his administration ("If you break the law while working for me, I'll make sure you never spend a day in jail"), and it was morally wrong for him to do it.

It's a message that needs to be sent for future generations, so that Dubya's pseudo-pardon isn't treated as an accepted precedent. On a practical basis, it begins to lay out a public case for a possible impeachment. And on a purely political level, it would firmly establish Bush and his apologists (including the craven supplicants campaigning for the 2008 Republican nomination) on the wrong side of a clear moral divide -- an absolutely essential step in debunking the essential GOP mythology of firm, paternal rectitude.

The Republicans will respond as they always do, with counter-accusations and smoke machines. But if the Democrats speak plainly and insistently, they can repeatedly drag the subject back to its core: That when an official in his administration breaks the law, the President has no business interfering in that official's punishment. And he should be censured for it.

(Cross-posted at Firedoglake.)

Update: Talk about getting results:

Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., plans to introduce a resolution that would censure President Bush over his decision to commute the prison sentence faced by former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the congressman said Thursday.

"This presidential intervention is an unconscionable abuse of authority by George W. Bush, and Congress must step forward and express the disgust that Americans rightfully feel toward this contemptible decision," Wexler said in a statement released by his congressional office.

That's putting it exactly right.

[pocoloco]

1. Where does all this crap come from?

If the asshole is so bad, impeach him.

Why not put an end to all death, injury, destruction, injustice, shredding of the Constitution?

No guts no Green Stamps

[BurtWorm]

6. Go ahead. Impeach him.

What are you waiting for?

[Spazito]

2. One of the dangers of doing less than impeachment is, imo,...

Those responsible for committing "high crimes and misdemeanors" will just fade into the background as they did after Nixon and Watergate, bush/reagan after Iran-Contra. They are the same criminals that just come back over and over again BECAUSE they are never prosecuted.

When will the point come when "enough is enough" if that point is not now? What further destruction can be wrought if these people and their younger apprentices can just fade into the background while they continue to do their "work"?

[BurtWorm]

4. That's a very interesting question.

Abrams and Poindexter should have been done with their concept of "public service" for good. Wolfowitz, Perle, Bolton and Feith should never be allowed anywhere near the levers of power ever again.

How does a "liberal democracy," however, stamp a citizen as unfit for service for all time? We're talking about an American version of De-Ba'athification--de-PNACification, if you will. Is it possible?

[Spazito]

7. I see it more simply than that, it would be the taking down of a

major Mafia syndicate, expose their crimes to the sunlight so they cannot fade back into the woodwork. The percentage of the US population actively involved in this crime syndicate is minuscule and the sunlight will disinfect their ability to influence, imo.

To put it even more simply, this is a RICO case, only the method of prosecution is different, for bush and cheney, it is impeachment, for the rest it is before the criminal courts.

[Pab Sungenis]

3. There is no real precedent to censure a President.

The Whigs forced through a censure of Andrew Jackson, but it was overturned by the Democrats the following session. Net result: nil. Effect on Jackson's authority: nil.

Censure is a meaningless gesture.

[BurtWorm]

5. A push for censure could actually lead to impeachment.

There are so many fronts Bush-Cheney is censurable on. The more this administrations crimes and misdemeanors are talked about in Congress and the media, the more pressure there will be for impeachment.