Impeachment

I wrote earlier that the wackiest Democratic Presidential contender, Dennis Kucinich, introduced a House resolution calling for impeachment of the President.

A Moment of Truth has posted a copy of Kucinich’s resolution, and I couldn’t help but notice part of the reason he’s calling for Bush’s impeachment:

A Medicare Actuary who possessed information regarding the true cost of the plan, $539 billion, was instructed by the Medicare Administrator to deny Congressional requests for it. The Actuary was threatened with sanctions if the information was disclosed to Congress, which, unaware of the information, approved the bill. Despite the fact that official cost estimates far exceeded $400  billion, President Bush offered assurances to Congress that the cost was $400 billion, when his office had information to the contrary. In the House of Representatives, the bill passed by a single vote and the Conference Report passed by only 5 votes. The White House knew the actual cost of the drug benefit was high enough to prevent its passage. Yet the White House concealed the truth and impeded an investigation into its culpability.

In all of these actions and decisions, President George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his  trust as President, and subversive of constitutional government, to the prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States. Wherefore, President George W. Bush, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office.

Man, I did not expect to see an actuarial reference in that document.

Seriously, the document is interesting enough to merit a quick skim-through.  I seriously doubt that many of the points Kucinich raises really rise to the impeachment threshold of “high crimes and misdemeanors”, but the recitation is a decent, if somewhat biased, reminder of the antics that have transpired over the past 7½ years.

Oy vey.  Seen at Raw Story:

“Resolved,” Kucinich then began, “that President George W. Bush be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and that the following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the United States Senate….

“In his conduct while President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of president of the United States, and to the best of his ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has committed the following abuses of power…”

The first article Kucinich presented, and many that followed, regarded the war in Iraq: “Article 1 - Creating a secret propaganda campaign to manufacture a false case for war against Iraq.”

This, of course, will go nowhere.  Depending on how you look at it, Dems either:

• Are practical enough to realize that taking such a polarizing action against an impotent, lame-duck President is a really dumb idea in a hotly-contested election season; or
• Are realistic enough to realize that they lack the support to actually make the charges stick; or
• Lack the chutzpah to actually see the thing through; or
• Some combination of the above.

Seriously, if Kucinich were serious about seeing justice done, he’d be pushing for a way to ensure that pardons couldn’t be issued for Bush and his cronies.   And, even that sort of an act would seem to be doomed to failure by the political need of appearing inclusive to maximize the results of the November elections.

Sometimes, reality is far more entertaining (or disturbing) than anything striking script writers could have come up with. As seen at the Miami Herald:

The impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney was the last thing that House Democratic leaders wanted to confront Tuesday, even though a determined band of antiwar House Democrats was eager to force the issue.

Then, in a vote that stunned even the antiwar forces, the House of Representatives—helped in no small part by Republicans eager to debate the issue and portray Democrats as radical—voted 251-162 to keep the Cheney impeachment measure alive. The majority was formed by 165 Republicans and 86 Democrats.

Over at RedState, Shaggy Dog observed:

Apparently Rep. John Shaddeg (R-AZ)came up with the idea of throwing Republican votes in favor of bringing the measure in order to embarrass Pelosi & Co. by 1) letting the American people actually see the unvarnished nuttiness of the House Democrat back-benchers and 2) forcing Pelosi to then have to (presumably) go on record voting against the impeachment of Vice President Cheney and deal with the ensuing wrath of the nutroots.

I say three cheers for Rep. Shaddeg. If we can do more of this type of thing- holding the Democratic leadership accountable for the lunacy of their base, we will have a good shot of regaining a majority vote from the American people in 2008.

Meanwhile, the militant doves are peeved at the Democratic leadership’s attempt to squash the measure. For example, Bob Cesca noted at HuffPo:

It was yesterday, on the one year anniversary of the collapse of Karl Rove’s thousand-year Reich, when the Democrats subjected themselves to both public embarrassment and public disgrace, and each within a few hours of the other.

The public disgrace was naturally Senator Schumer’s and Senator Feinstein’s votes to endorse the Bush administration’s pro-torture policy. Make no mistake, despite their wet-bread excuses, that’s what they did, say nothing of their endorsement of the regime’s unitary executive theory. The reality of the committee vote—the Democrats’ failure to hold their voter-mandated high ground—is what history will remember. Not the excuses.

If some of what has been alleged about Cheney is correct, I think a very strong case could be made for impeachment. For example, the notion that intelligence workers in the Middle East may have been sacrificed due to nasty political games is an offense of the same order of magnitude as obstruction of justice when investigating a hotel break-in.

However, I also think that the moment for acting on that is long since passed. If such allegations are true, the call for impeachment should have been issued once sufficient proof had been amassed to support those allegations.

To have waited this long…well, Kucinich’s resolution would seem to be pretty far down in the depths of the political circus abyss, even before considering the strategery being demonstrated by the right wing to embarrass the left.

And the circusness being demonstrated by the right? Well, I’ll admit that I always appreciate such clever tactics in the name of good entertainment….but it reeks of childishness and irresponsibility. For the good of the country (and not because it’s embarrassing to Dems) the measure should have been tabled, absent some new revelation about Darth Cheney’s antics.

Are centrists/realists ready to defect from the nuts and sleazy politicians in both wings yet?