Monday, July 09, 2007

Impeachment

One unintended consequence of the commuting of Scooter Libby's jail sentence seems to be a massive uptick in the willingness of mainstream media outlets to talk about impeachment.

It has been a topic on the left for at least three years now, but studiously avoided by the overwhelming majority of conventional news outlets.

For some, impeachment has been the goal since they got their first whiff of some of the questionable behavior of the Bush administration. I was not in that camp. Now the call is gathering up steam, but I still can not yet call for impeachment.

For me, Impeachment should be the result of the process, not the goal of it. Our members of congress owe us good oversight of the administration. One of their most important jobs is to assure that the government is working within the laws of the land and is being honest with the people they have been elected to represent. As part of this process there should be hearings and investigations.

Only when these events present us clear indications of wrong doing, is it time to call for corrective and punitive measures.

In my opinion we are not there. But, I hold little doubt that in time we will be faced with enough evidence that Impeachment is an option that must be considered. For the time being I just wish that we could keep the horse in front of the cart, and do the job of looking into the actions of the Bush Administration, not with the goal of Impeachment, but with the goal of finding the truth.

And just see where that road leads us.

Heck, based on the way the White House is responding to the investigations, their efforts at obstruction of justice alone may warrant Impeachment.

3 comments:

Dancewater said...

"Only when these events present us clear indications of wrong doing,"

The invasion of Iraq was a violation of the Nuremberg principles, therefore a violation of our US Constitution. No question bush & cheney did it - therefore, no question that they should be impeached.

Of course, there is multiple other examples of wrong doing too - Guantanamo, torture, wiretaps, obstruction of justice, to name a few.

Anonymous said...

I've always wondered why "small government" type Repubs are so behind the "PATRIOT ACT" and as much government intrusion and invasion into your peronsal business as possible? I realize as long as they are in charge of the executive branch this damn the torpedos attitude towards legitimate constitutional constraint will continue, BUT a little intellectual honesty would be nice at times.

Anonymous said...

bill moyers on pbs friday
"Tough Talk on Impeachment"

it will be available online at http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07132007/watch.html


-- peg