Crossposted on Evolving Peace(http://www.evolvingw…)

Throughout Vermont there has been a whole lot of hoopla regarding impeachment of the President. While almost forty towns passed resolutions urging our elected officials to act out and bring about articles of impeachment of the President, the criminals who have hijacked our democracy are allowed to continue their unabated destruction of the planet. Enough talk has been said about the President and Vice-President, and the rule of law and justice calls for action.

After six years of unchecked powers the Bush/Cheney cabal is on its final throes. Yes, Senator Leahy has been using the power of his chairmanship of the Senate Judicial Committee and rightfully demanding answers from the administration and yes, Congress has begun initiating legislation to end the war in Iraq; however that is no where’s near enough to answer for what has occurred in the last six years in Washington.

In today’s WashingtonPost.com, columnist Mary Ann Akers wrote that Congressman Dennis Kucinich is introducing Articles of Impeachment for Vice-President Dick Cheney.

Article at this link http://blog.washingt…

Congressman Kucinich also candidate for President has been written off by the “mainstream” media and has been a lone voice for justice in Congress demanding answers from this President and Vice-President well before it became politically savvy. Dennis Kucinich while some have written him off as being too “new-age,” has been a lone voice of progressive change in Congress, unlike the “Madison Avenue” marked up candidates juiced up on corporate money. At least, one of the Presidential candidates has the guts and resolves to act on their conscience. The true roots of the Democratic Party are in the grassroots and what we have been calling for is impeachment.

The Democratic Party has a choice, they can squelch the legitimate call for democracy by continuing to show the colors that have been painting a dismal hue on its losing banner the last decade or they can become the real voice for progressive change. There are those Democrats who hide under the cloak of elections and say that Americas will not vote for Democrats if they began impeachment proceedings. They fail to remember that the American public overwhelming voted for the Republicans who actively sought out impeachment for Bill Clinton’s frivolous moral crimes. Meanwhile, the Republicans not only regained their majorities in the House and Senate they also obtained the White House. The Democrats continually have shown an image of weakness and if they fail to operate in strong manner and draw up articles of impeachment they might as well hang up the towel in 2008.

America and the world have had enough of the Bush administration fatalistic handling of our nation’s affairs. This administration has fabricated evidence in their case for war, manipulated the judicial system as a weapon for political vendettas, tortured prisoners and illegal spied on innocent American citizens. Failure to support impeachment of the President and Vice-President is a failure to protect the Constitution. All conscious elected officials in the United States have the duty to do whatever is necessary for impeachment, whether it be in their state legislatures or the United States Congress; otherwise a dangerous precedent will be outlined for future presidential administrations. Impeach Bush and Cheney now.

Peace
Robb Kidd

“When people ask if the United States can afford to place on trial the president, if the system can stand impeachment, my answer is, “Can we stand anything else?”” George McGovern- US Senator and Presidential Candidate 1972

Over at Altercation, in the correspondents’ corner, a poster named Darrel Plant responded to a comment on the impossibility of impeaching a president just “because he’s a self-evident f**k-up.”

Plant quoted Congress’s own report on the uses of impeachment, done in the run up to Nixon’s potential trial.

In early 1974, when the House Judiciary Committee took up the issue of whether or not President Nixon had performed an impeachable offense, they wrote a report about the history of impeachment in the English and American systems, which The Washington Post helpfully reproduced for the Clinton impeachment.

They address the “maladministration” language and its intent, as well as the assumption that criminal conduct is necessary in section III, “The Criminality Issue”:

“Impeachable conduct, on the other hand, may include the serious failure to discharge the affirmative duties imposed on the President by the Constitution. Unlike a criminal case, the cause for the removal of a President may be based on his entire course of conduct in office. In particular situations, it may be a course of conduct more than individual acts that has a tendency to subvert constitutional government. …

“In sum, to limit impeachable conduct to criminal offenses would be incompatible with the evidence concerning the constitutional meaning of the phrase ‘high Crimes and Misdemeanors’ and would frustrate the purpose that the framers intended for impeachment. State and federal criminal laws are not written in order to preserve the nation against serious abuse of the presidential office. But this is the purpose of the consitutional provision for the impeachment of a President and that purpose gives meaning to ‘high Crimes and Misdemeanors.’ “

Discuss.