Thursday, July 19, 2007

Congress' Constitutional Duty

I'm writing to ask readers of the The Vigil to educate themselves about Congress' Constitutional Duty to impeach Bush (and Cheney and Gonzales).

After listening to the conservative Constitutional Scholar, Bruce Fein (who drew up the first articles of impeachment against Bill Clinton) and to John Nichols, author of The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders Cure for Royalism, I am convinced that we must put impeachment front and center "on the table".


The two men appeared on Bill Moyer's Journal, a weekly television show carried by our local public television channel. Fein, who is anything but a "Lefty", said that it is essential that we impeach Bush (I think Cheney and Gonzales also need to be included in being impeached) because Bush is "seeking to cripple Congress and the Judiciary" and "to eliminate our constitutionally established system of checks and balances."

Fein went on to point out that if Congress fails to impeach Bush(-Cheney-Gonzales), they are allowing/endorsing Bush's claims of virtually unlimited presidential (read: monarchical) power that will stand as precedent for all subsequent presidents and irretrievably alter our cherished (and now our almost former) political system of self-governance.

Nichols pointed out that the Founders were well aware of possible power grabs that one or more of the three co-equal branches of government might attempt to accomplish. The constitutionally provided remedy (mentioned six, yes, six times) for such a power grab, regardless of which of the three co-equal branches of our government is: IMPEACHMENT.

Nichols stressed that to impeach Bush(-Cheney-Gonzales) is not to punish him/them, but rather to apply the medicine required by the patient. In this instance, the patient is our Beloved Country, which is currently suffering under a severe and escalating constitutional crisis.

The Constitution mandates that Congress take the action of impeachment to right the Ship of State, which in this case is about to sink because of the relentless storms of greed, lies, obstructions of justice, right-wing zealotry, and cronyism that have depleted our treasury, destroyed our military, shredded our cherished Constitution, rendered us the pariah of the international community and threatens to (for the first time since our founding) decimate our Democracy and turn it into a fascist theocracy.

What our country needs now is a statesman or stateswoman who has the integrity, courage, and constitutional understanding of Barry Goldwater who confronted Nixon when Nixon was attempting to put himself above the Constitution. Even Nixon, however vile and unprincipled he may have been, knew that, under our Constitution, NO ONE/NONE is above the law - not even the President of the United States. Goldwater was a man of Principle: he put the good of the Country ahead of the good of (his political) party.

Where is such a principled individual today? Sadly, there seems to be no one.

Lacking such an individual, we must step up to the plate. We have to bombard our congressional representatives, our local papers, our friends and family, and our talk shows with the fact of the CONSTITUTIONAL MANDATE articulated in our Constitution to protect our country from political disintegration.

The Oath of Office, taken by all congress persons (and by the way, also taken by OUR PRESIDENT, VICE-PRESIDENT, and the ATTORNEY GENERAL) is a personal promise, made under oath, that the individual assuming that important office will, to the best of his/her ability "...preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.":

Sadly, the three (Bush-Cheney-Gonzales) lied when they were sworn into office. They have been, and they continue, doing everything in their respective powers to dismantle our Democracy, all the while proclaiming the opposite and attacking as "unpatriotic" any who dare say: "the Emperor is wearing no clothes".

Our Beloved Country is facing challenges hitherto unknown in ferocity and number. Will you help us speak truth to power?

8 Moderated Comments:

Blogger Vigilante said...

Good points well taken! Thanks for this gift of a guest column, Emily! This is the first of - hopefully - many!

7/20/2007 05:30:00 AM  
Blogger J.C. said...

One problem with this line of thinking.
It is actually the Congress, and not just the Executive branch that are the bad guys.
You want them to do something meaningful ?
That is not going to happen because they are on the take.
They are religious or political flunky`s that are controlled by Globalism interests, and do not work for the North American People.

Liberals and Conservatives work together against the American people in tandem.

7/20/2007 06:38:00 AM  
Blogger Bob Keller said...

Emily, An excellent essay. I'm going to try to locate a copy of Bill Moyer's Journal and attempt to watch the entire program.

7/20/2007 10:32:00 AM  
Blogger J.C. said...

"They know he's impeachable but they won't do it. They have an obligation to do it, knowing what he has done!"

Ha ha ha.

Bush has been a big success M.D.

Next you will be calling for the impeachment of Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny, because they have violated Christmas somehow or changed the date of Easter ?

It is funny how liberals and conservatives act together in the same brainwash construct to perpetuate the myth of Democracy, voting, rule of law, the 'Constitution' etc. , instead of pointing out that we are in, and have been in a thug society, which is criminally controlled by money thugs, and further that the party designation means absolutely nothing.
War means profit, and you no doubt M.D. have cashed in on the war with your retirement investments in the stock market.
So welcome to Alice in Wonderlands rabbit hole.
Liberals, Conservatives, Libertarians, Socialists, Communists, and all the politically brainwashed advocates of money control take a bow ~!~

Reality is we are trapped in an unjust inhuman system, that is chewing up and spitting us all out for profit.

7/21/2007 07:25:00 AM  
Blogger Emily said...

Hey, "Wiz" and "m.d.": Many thanks for your kind words. They mean a lot.

I agree with those who assert that one of the reasons those of us who are not "Neocons" are so reluctant to impeach this corrupt occupant of the White House is because we failed to impeach Nixon. Gerald Ford's pardoning of Nixon established the precedent of "No Accountability", which this administration practices to the Extreme.

We cannot allow the Democrats to continue to collude with those who would "take responsibility" by saying: "Mistakes were made." We dishonor our Founders and ourselves if we fail to impeach this gang.

7/21/2007 10:00:00 AM  
Blogger J.C. said...

Well, ... then, in the 'name of the founders...'

You people are total saps.

This site could rename itself Fox News for Liberals.

You think the Democrats are going to impeach their meal ticket ?
Ha ha.
Why don`t you people try to start up the Whig party and address your concerns to them ?
It is our system that is dysfunctional, and all the tea in China will not make a whit of difference as to its functionality.

7/21/2007 10:12:00 AM  
Blogger R W Rawles said...

OPEN LETTER

Dear Congresswoman Lois Capps

These 15 colleagues of yours have signed on to Dennis Kucinich's H.R. 333 Impeachment of Vice-President Richard Cheney.

Yvette Clarke,
William Lacy Clay
Keith Ellison
Sam Farr
Bob Filner
Jesse Jackson Jr.
Hank Johnson
Dennis Kucinich
Barbara Lee
Jim McDermott
Jim Moran
Jan Schakowsky
Maxine Waters
Lynn Woolsey
Albert Wynn

This Resolution was introduced in April. Why is your name not included?

When the Authors of our Constitution wrote the impeachment clause, they must have had George Bush and Dick Cheney (de facto president) in mind. No president in our history has done his own legislating, re-interpreting 810 laws which you and your colleagues have studiously (I hope) deliberated over and drafted.

If that isn't the equivalent of Congress having its lunch eaten by the executive, I don't know what is.

So I think Congress should impeach the (de Facto) President or cancel impeachment.

I look forward to your timely reply which I will cause to be published.

Sincerely,


R. W. RAWLES

7/21/2007 06:24:00 PM  
Blogger Messenger said...

Good letter.

7/26/2007 09:37:00 AM  

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