Verbosities

So long as we're talking impeachment, Friday's edition of Bill Moyers' Journal on PBS featured a nearly hour-long roundtable discussion between Moyers, John Nichols of The Nation magazine, and former DOJ staffer under Reagan/articles of impeachment for Clinton author/former AEI scholar Bruce Fein.

I saw Fein and my eyes started to roll into the back of my head. "Here we go," I thought. Ultimately, though, I was pleasantly surprised. I have never on TV seen a pundit more capably and eloquently make the case for impeachment, and his passion for the righteousness of the cause was startling, to say the least. Mimikatz from The Next Hurrah sketches out the salient points covered in the discussion, with the following, in my opinion, the most important point to remember if (by some freak chance) our legislature starts down this road. Emphasis hers:


The Next Hurrah: Bill Moyers' Journal: Time for Impeachment

"Impeachment is not a constitutional crisis; it is the cure for a constitutional crisis." Both were very clear that Impeachment is Congress' duty under our system of government when things get to this point. It is Congress' job, and they are falling down on the job. They must initiate impeachment proceedings or we are in real danger of losing our form of government. This is not hyperbole. Towards the end of the program Fein notes that if just one Committee Chairman had spoken to Bush/Cheney in a stern, adult voice and said "You cannot do that. This is the United Stataes of America. You are violating the law and violating the Constitution. You were not elected King for four years; in our system no man is above the law" things might have been different. Instead we get John Conyers' mumbling and Patrick Leahy's earnest dismay. We get Nancy Pelosi's desire to end the war, but not to do what is needed to stop the Bsuh/Cheney juggernaut.

I fully anticipate this is where the media will get it wrong. You'll see analysis of how the Dems have lost political capital and discussion after discussion on the unknown dangers of impeachment in a "time of perpetual war," but in the search for the drama in all of this, what will get lost is that this move is the responsibility of a stonewalled Congress. It should be beyond argument in this political argument that the White House does not recognize the legitimacy of Congressional oversight, which should be good enough for a one-way ticket to impeachment.

If the Congress were willing to do its job, naturally.

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