I AM THE LAW!!!!!!!!

[saavedra77]

During a December 18 public discussion of President Bush's publicly-asserted right to eavesdrop on Americans' communications without judicial oversight, former Nixon White House counsel John Dean called Bush "the first president to admit to an impeachable offense."  Dean isn't the only one who thinks so:

"I think if we're going to be intellectually honest here, this really is the kind of thing that Alexander Hamilton was referring to when impeachment was discussed." - Norman Ornstein, the American Enterprise Institute, on NPR's Diane Rehm Show, December 19, 2005.

"Looking at this controversy objectively, you inevitably end up with a question of impeachment." - Professor Jonathan Turley, George Washington University School of Law, in this week's Salon.

"President Bush presents a clear and present danger to the rule of law.  He cannot be trusted to conduct the war against global terrorism with a decent respect for civil liberties and checks against executive abuses. Congress should swiftly enact a code that would require Mr. Bush to obtain legislative consent for every counterterrorism measure that would materially impair individual freedoms." - Former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Fein, writing in the Washington Times, December 20, 2005. 

"This president has admitted committing the crime. He just claims he's above the law...  So the issue is: Is the president above the law? ...  [T]hen we need not argue over the PATRIOT Act. We do not need the PATRIOT Act, because the president can do anything he wants in time of war. He can ignore all the criminal laws of the United States, including the laws against indefinite detention and against torture. I don't think we want to go down that road."- Professor Chris Pyle, Mount Holyoke College, in this week's Salon.

Comments

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's good to hear. Now if those mutterings just reach Congress....

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

The Salon article is quite skeptical on that point, though; even in the event that the Democrats take back Congress, next year, it's not clear that there's the political will to take on impeachment. And for as long as the President's party is in power in Congress, it looks as though he more or less is above the law ...

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

One of several reasons I tend to ignore Salon, honestly. Not that I disagree with them.

I'm hoping the political will is going to shift as this snowballs into the press a bit more. And I'm really hoping the Republicans pick up on it too. There's been enough cranky anti-Bush Republican sntiment lately to give me hope, plus some of them are starting to realise that he's a lame duck and he's not much help (with those Titanic-like approval ratings) in a re-election bid for them in 06.

Besides, I asked Santa for an impeachment for Christmas. Allow me my delusions.

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

Listen, precedent exists for this type of thing you know. Ceasar himself was elected dictator-for-life because of the barbarian tribes, and because of this devestating invasion of Gaul.

Et tu, Cheney?

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

It may actually come to pass that the Republican party, seeing the tide of public opinion turn against them, offer up Dubya as a scapegoat. Granted, I think that's terribly, terribly unlikely, but this has been a surprising past few months.