The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders' Cure for Royalism (J. Nichols)

[rodeodance]

http://www.thenewpress.com/index.php?option=com_title&task=view_title&metaproductid=1637

New book by John Nichols:
The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders' Cure for Royalism


A sharp and eye-opening argument that impeachment is an essential American institution
I guess these are yours. Impeach Eisenhower. Impeach Nixon. Impeach Lyndon Johnson. Impeach Ronald Reagan.
—ANNIE HALL, GOING THROUGH ALVY SINGER’S POLITICAL BUTTON COLLECTION IN WOODY ALLEN’S ANNIE HALL (1977)

This surprising and irreverent book by one of America’s leading political reporters makes the case that impeachment is much more than a legal and congressional process—it is an essential instrument of America’s democratic system. Articles of impeachment have been brought sixty-two times in American history. Thomas Jefferson himself forwarded the evidence for impeachment of the first federal official to be removed under the process—John Pickering in 1803. Impeachment is as American as apple pie.

The founders designed impeachment as one of the checks against executive power. As John Nichols reveals in this fascinating look at impeachment’s hidden history, impeachment movements—in addition to congressional proceedings themselves—have played an important role in countering an out-of-control executive branch. The threat of impeachment has worked to temper presidential excesses and to reassert democratic values in times of national drift.

The Genius of Impeachment also makes clear that we sorely need such a movement today, and that both the president and vice president deserve impeachment. In the spirit of maverick congressmember Henry B. Gonzalez, who introduced articles of impeachment against both George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan for making war without a declaration, this book is a fearless call to Americans to hold our leaders accountable to democracy.


John Nichols is The Nation’s Washington correspondent and an editor at the Capital Times. He is the author of The Rise and Rise of Richard B. Cheney and Jews for Buchanan. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin, and Washington, D.C.

Praise for John Nichols:

Of all the giant slayers now afoot in the great American desert, John Nichols’s sword is the sharpest.
—GORE VIDAL

John Nichols is the toughest, most in-your-face investigative reporter in the U.S.A.
—GREG PALAST

A funny, insightful writer.
—SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN

[pat_k]

1. Kick and Recommend for SANITY!!!

From "The Genius of Impeachment" (http://www.davidswanson.org/?q=node/621">link):

. . .
"When the congressional Democrats failed to pursue impeachment as the necessary response to the Iran-Contra revelations of rampant illegality in the Reagan White House – rejecting the advice of Henry B. Gonzalez, the wily Texas congressman who alone introduced the appropriate articles in 1987 – they thought they were positioning the party for victory in the coming presidential election. Instead, Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush, having recovered from the gentle slap on the wrist he received from Congress for his own involvement in the scandal, was elected to the presidency in 1988 by a landslide, and expected Democratic advances in Congress failed to materialize.

"Pulling punches in a political battle usually results in a knockout, with the party that holds back collapsing to the mat and struggling, often for a very long time, to finally get up again. And the Democratic Party of the George Herbert Walker Bush years, with its inexplicable penchant for pulling punches, runs the very real risk of being flattened not once but repeatedly if it fails to confront the issue of rampant wrongdoing on the part of the Bush administration.". . .

As Senator's http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Senator/10">journal entry describes we have more than enough evidence in the public record to prove Bush and Cheney are recklessly abusing power in violation of the Constitution, Federal Statutes, and international law. The case that they pose an intolerable threat to the Constitution almost writes itself.

On January 4, 2007 when the new Congress convenes, any member could take up the fight for impeachment by introducing articles as Henry B. Gonzalez did in 1987. This is what we must to be calling on our representatives to do -- no delays for unnecessary investigation. No claims that we "need more" before articles can be introduced (claiming to "need more" http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2964929&mesg_id=2965151">undermines the powerful case we already have) .

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE0DB1638F935A35750C0A961948260&sec=&pagewanted=print">Texan Acts for Impeachment
AP
March 6, 1987

LEAD: Representative Henry B. Gonzalez, Democrat of Texas, who asked the House to impeach President Reagan after the Grenada invasion in 1983, today introduced new articles of impeachment against Mr. Reagan regarding the Iran arms affair. They were given virtually no chance of approval. The six articles accuse Mr.

Representative Henry B. Gonzalez, Democrat of Texas, who asked the House to impeach President Reagan after the Grenada invasion in 1983, today introduced new articles of impeachment against Mr. Reagan regarding the Iran arms affair. They were given virtually no chance of approval. The six articles accuse Mr. Reagan of misconduct in secretly selling arms to Iran, of allegedly diverting the arms sale payments to the Nicaraguan rebels and of failing to inform Congressional intelligence committees of his activities.

[Demeter]

2. A-MEN!

You're preaching to the choir, and the choir is getting bigger every day!