A Case For Impeachment

So now we learn we have barely scratched the surface of wrongdoing by the Bush Administration, regarding manipulations of intelligence, torture and extrajudicial spying inside the United States. While Congress was deliberating their latest capitulation on domestic spying and absolution of the telecoms for their complicity, Bush/Cheney and their minions at the NSA must have been chuckling up their sleeves.

Now we hear about a far-reaching database for monitoring people considered a threat to national security, which can include anyone they don't like for whatever reason (see Nixon's enemies list, only far more sophisticated). This would be on a par with including Nelson Mandela on a list of potential terrorists, so he could be detained at a U.S. airport if he attempted to enter the country. Why does the name Karl Rove keep suggesting itself?

The pundits are now talking about the need for a modern-day version of the Church committee hearings of the 1970's, which uncovered massive malfeasance by the Nixon administration. The problem with that is the Bush acolytes would simply stonewall the hearings, refusing to even show up and invoking "executive privilege," a concept that does not exist in the U.S. Constitution.

It's time for Nancy Pelosi to put impeachment back on the table, while there is still a chance to learn the full scope of this administration's lawlessness. The evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors is overwhelming, and executive privilege would be off the table. The administration people would be compelled to testify under oath or face jail time, which they all probably deserve anyway. The TV ratings of testimony by Cheney, Libby, Addington, Yoo, Rumsfeld, Feith and so many others would dwarf the Watergate hearings, and maybe even approach the O.J. Simpson trial.

After January 20 impeachment will no longer be an option. Only six months and the clock is ticking. The likelihood of a prosecutor bringing criminal action against the aforementioned, and Bush and Cheney themselves, is remote. The information needed by this democracy will disappear to the ranch with Bush.

American citizens deserve to know about Cheney's secret meetings with energy executives, the meetings in the White House to determine torture policies, the process of leading us into war in Iraq, the scope of the "war on terrorism," and many others. A Church-type hearing should uncover more than we have now -- if there is a Frank Church in Congress -- but it is not enough. We literally need to haul our "leaders" into the dock for interrogation under oath, with no hope of executive privilege. Only an impeachment proceeding offers that hope.

-jcscrib