The nation’s democracy will at that point have been left a smoking ruin

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff06182008.html


I was at an anti-war forum in New Jersey last Friday evening sponsored by a group of peace activists calling themselves the Iraq Forum Organizing Team. When forum panelist Rep. Rob Andrews was asked by an audience member whether he favored impeachment and supported Rep. Kucinich’s articles of impeachment, Andrews fudged. He claimed, ingenuously, that the articles had been sent to the House Judiciary Committee for hearings, and said that he personally thought that Bush had committed an impeachable “high crime” by outing the identity of a covert agent of the CIA, Valerie Plame, and added that if the Judiciary Committee “develops a bunch of evidence” to support that charge, he would vote to impeach.

As I pointed out to the congressman, he certainly knows that that is a cheap dodge. I said that he was well aware that the way legislation moves forward in Congress is that members like himself sign on as co-sponsors of legislation they favor, and that then, and only then, those measures get hearings. Without co-sponsors, bills go to committee to be killed by inaction, which is the intention of sending Kucinich’s articles of impeachment to the committee. I said if Rep. Andrews were honestly to believe that the president might have committed any high crimes, he should either file articles of impeachment himself, or co-sign the excellent set of articles already filed by Rep. Kucinich. Instead, Andrews, like the rest of the Democrats and Republicans in the House, with the notable exception of Rep. Wexler and California Reps. Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey, have avoided Kucinich’s articles like the plague.

The audience loudly applauded this condemnation of Rep. Andrews.

We are at a critical point on impeachment. The elected leadership is afraid to challenge even this unprecedentedly unpopular president, who continues to defy Senate and House subpoenas, continues to promote war and to violate laws and treaties, and who is now conspiring with his vice president to launch yet another, bigger, war against the nation of Iran.

At the end of the day, if we get to January 19 without any impeachment hearings, we may see Bush and Cheney depart Washington, we may even see a Democratic president and a Congress with a significant Democratic majority in both houses, but it will be a hollow victory.

The nation’s democracy will at that point have been left a smoking ruin.

[swimboy]

1. Good for you and your boldness.

I don't see it happening between now and Bush's departure.

I think the next two administrations will determine if we can keep our Republic or it morphs into something from which we can no longer recover. We have lost so much ground in the last eight years. I truly hope we wake up and can make a true assessment of what happened and take steps to prevent ever going so far down this road ever again.

[hootinholler]

2. k&r

[WhiteTara]

3. I saw a segment on KO tonight and the talk

there is that the Dems are complicit in the crimes, having cleverly been set up by the *ites and so now they have to cover their own asses and not the constitution. Sad nasty shit, si?

[seemslikeadream]

4. Nancy just waiting for that plea bargain

[WhiteTara]

5. I hope she spends eternity in hell

looking at the terrible mistakes she made.