Impeachment Critical to Set Standards for Future Administrations

[FourScore]

...This is not just a liberal sentiment. Among others, Bruce Fein, a constitutional scholar who served as associate deputy attorney general under President Ronald Reagan, insists that the concerns are serious enough to be investigated.

We have been asked why bother when Bush and Cheney will be out of office soon.

Every future president could, and probably will, use and expand on the powers usurped by this administration. If the rule of law, truth telling, openness, and the Bill of Rights don’t count for Bush and Cheney, will those ideals be more sacred to Obama, Clinton or McCain? Will it be legitimate for future presidents to redefine terms like “torture?” Will it be okay to pull out fingernails or gouge out eye balls? Will it be okay to use signing statements to change laws that Congress has just passed? Bush has done so nearly 1,000 times, some with serious consequences. Other presidents have used signing statements to clarify language, but not to change the intent of the law.

To those who say we should get over it and move on, we ask you to consider the following: Could our children be falsely accused and not have the right of habeas corpus (the right to face their accusers and know the charges)? Or could they be disappeared as was done by Pinochet in Chile? Will they have the protections given us in the Bill of Rights and in the Constitution? Could they be arbitrarily defined as “enemy combatants” or “terrorists” with no legal rights, per Bush’s presidential directives?

Who wins the next election is of minor importance in comparison to the question of whether future administrations are bound to operate under the rule of law and to do so openly in full compliance with the Constitution.

We need to establish, once and for all time, that we are not to be dragged into war based upon lies, that we will not tolerate torture, that we expect full compliance with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and that we will not tolerate signing statements that change the meaning of laws. The purpose of impeachment is to set standards for future administrations. Even to begin impeachment hearings will serve notice that they will be held accountable...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/19/7146/

[dchill]

1. Absolutely.

K&R

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

2. K & R. So true, so important, so ignored. nt.

[Kitty Herder]

3. I wish more people were saying this. nt

[leftofthedial]

4. clinton let the first bush traitor slide

and look what that got us

[Angela Shelley]

5. Needs to be said, over and over again,

until the masses realize that "we" have the power.

[calimary]

6. Needs to go straight to the Greatest Page!

FIVE! There!

This is precisely why we MUST IMPEACH.

[snot]

7. AGREED, and more.

I consider the U.S. Constitution one of the greatest achievements ever of humankind -- like in the top 5. I don't know how we got so lucky that our Founding Fathers figured it out to the extent they did; but they did.

The greatest thing the Constitution does is to ensure fundamental rights to individuals AS AGAINST greater powers.

As we know, these rights have been shockingly eviscerated during the * admin.

I DO NOT agree to relinquish ANY of my fundamental rights, regardless of what is done by this admin and the pathetic body we're now relegated to as our "representative" Congress.

There is no way to preserve our Constitutional rights other than to DEFEND them -- by impeaching and/or prosecuting those who violate them. Short of that, our rights simply evaporate.

This is a fundamental law of human nature: if you do not stand up to bullies, you will continue to be bullied. This doesn't mean you have to exact revenge against them, but it does mean that, at the minimum, you must expose them and thwart them as far as possible.

Truth and reconciliation is a great recipe. First, you have to get truth. To get that, you need investigation.

[Senator]

8. Failure To Impeach -- Worse Than Bushcheney Itself (yes, really)

Which would you rather have -- some powerful criminals that get away with murder or a impotent/corrupt police department that lets all criminals get away with everthing?

The "evil" quote has always been an oxymoron.

"Doing nothing" in the face of evil disqualifies one from the label "good."

----

[Pooka Fey]

9. Agreed.

Failure to impeach is worse than **Cheney Inc. itself.

I'll go you one further, though. "Doing nothing" in the face of evil equals complicity in the evil itself.

Congress as a body (not each individual member - Kucinich is an exception) is corrupt and it will only implicate its own members in the crimes perpetrated by the * cabal. Which explains, to my mind, why Congress refuses to impeach.

(edit for spelling/clarity)

[D23MIURG23]

10. The only sensible way to deal with the worst pres. in our history.