Impeachment Critical to Set Standards for Future Administrations [View All]

[FourScore]

...This is not just a liberal sentiment. Among others, Bruce Fein, a constitutional scholar who served as associate deputy attorney general under President Ronald Reagan, insists that the concerns are serious enough to be investigated.

We have been asked why bother when Bush and Cheney will be out of office soon.

Every future president could, and probably will, use and expand on the powers usurped by this administration. If the rule of law, truth telling, openness, and the Bill of Rights don’t count for Bush and Cheney, will those ideals be more sacred to Obama, Clinton or McCain? Will it be legitimate for future presidents to redefine terms like “torture?” Will it be okay to pull out fingernails or gouge out eye balls? Will it be okay to use signing statements to change laws that Congress has just passed? Bush has done so nearly 1,000 times, some with serious consequences. Other presidents have used signing statements to clarify language, but not to change the intent of the law.

To those who say we should get over it and move on, we ask you to consider the following: Could our children be falsely accused and not have the right of habeas corpus (the right to face their accusers and know the charges)? Or could they be disappeared as was done by Pinochet in Chile? Will they have the protections given us in the Bill of Rights and in the Constitution? Could they be arbitrarily defined as “enemy combatants” or “terrorists” with no legal rights, per Bush’s presidential directives?

Who wins the next election is of minor importance in comparison to the question of whether future administrations are bound to operate under the rule of law and to do so openly in full compliance with the Constitution.

We need to establish, once and for all time, that we are not to be dragged into war based upon lies, that we will not tolerate torture, that we expect full compliance with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and that we will not tolerate signing statements that change the meaning of laws. The purpose of impeachment is to set standards for future administrations. Even to begin impeachment hearings will serve notice that they will be held accountable...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/19/7146/