Former Representative, Senator and presidential candidate, George McGovern calls for the impeachment of both Bush and Cheney, stating the case against them is far stronger than the case against Nixon. Agreed. These men have violated their oaths of office too many times to count. But as McGovern admits, it seems to be a pipe dream at this point. There is (unsurprisingly) no support from the republican arena, and “a lack of courage and statesmanship on the part of too many Democratic politicians.”
Truer words…
I wake up and Gonzo has resigned. Wow. I gotta sleep more often!
As one of the commentators on CNN said, these are just the pinatas that are leaving, however — those hot spot targets that draw fire from the Dems and Repubs alike. That may well be true, but my rancor, at least, is not just at the Bush appointees. It is very directly pointed at Bush himself, and Cheney. Without Rove, without Gonzales — I still have immense anger and fire to project toward the administration. And now some of the buffer is gone. I don’t think Bush is going to receive the kind of reprieve from animosity that he wishes with the ousting of the Atty General. His lame duck presidency is still a depraved one.
And you can fire all the people you wish, sir. Your entourage and corps of banner wavers is shrinking, but you are still wearing no clothes.
According to the Washington Post, Cheney admits having the subpoenaed records on warrantless wiretapping. Apprently he isn’t talking about being in possession of just a paper or two, either. There are lots of them.
They include 43 separate authorizations from President Bush for the program, which had to be renewed approximately every 45 days beginning on Oct. 4, 2001.
The letter also lists dates, from October 2001 through February 2005, for 10 legal memoranda from the Justice Department. Although Cheney’s office has copies of the memos, none of them “was rendered to the Office of the Vice President,” (Cheney council) Coffin wrote.
But in a characteristic fit of vice presidential pique, he refuses to abide by the congressional subpoena and turn them over.
“When the Senate comes back in the session, I’ll bring it up before the committee,” (Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman) Leahy told reporters yesterday. “I prefer cooperation to contempt. Right now, there’s no question that they are in contempt of the valid order of the Congress.”
You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t follow the logic in Leahy’s statement here. Seems that if there is “no question that they are in contempt”, what’s the issue? Why did they need wait until after recess to consider further action? My patience is wearing more thin with my own Democratic Congress right now than it is with the Bush/Cheney regeime. At least with Bush/Cheney we expect delay, dishonesty and deceipt. We don’t (at least I don’t) necessarily expect it from those we voted in to reign in that kind of behavior.
(h/t Talk Left)
At least one site is reporting that Cheney’s name is on the Madam’s list. Cleveland Leader has the link.
And the hits just keep rolling along…
Don’t expect to find him standing in the metaphorical bread line, but this is a good start.
So almost half of America wants Bush to be impeached, and over half of America wants Cheney to be impeached. It is reassuring to know that the sun may rise yet again.
*Quote by George Orwell.
Anger has a way of activating latent emotion and turning it to action. Many bloggers and other (now) political activists were accountants, school teachers, students, waiters and waitresses, fathers, mothers… Some never stepped into the arena of political action even so far as to give voice to a choice one way or the other on a presidential candidate. All that changed for so very, very many when the Bush Dynasty rose to power. And, damn, we thought we were angry before! One thing about Bush, he doesn’t mind adding fuel to the fires burning down his bridges.
A couple of years ago, during the early salvos of the Libby matter, Bush claimed that anyone who leaked information on the Plame matter would be fired. Shortly thereafter he amended that to anyone who “committed a crime” would be fired. It really isn’t much of a stretch for him to go from that place two years ago to commuting the sentence of the only person who was convicted in connection with the outing of Valerie Plame. One truth about Bush — he lies on a continuum. But we have to wonder why he pardons Libby only now, after the courts have refused to delay his prison term pending appeal. I think we all have a clue about the answer to that one, but here it is put quite well, thanks to Daily Dish:
Jeff Lomonaco saw the logic weeks ago:
It is precisely out of the desire to avoid such uncomfortable questions for himself and his vice president that President Bush is likely not to pardon Libby but to commute his sentence, or otherwise keep him out of prison without fully clearing him. That would enable Libby to remain free while he seeks legal vindication through the appeals process. But more importantly, it would enable Bush and Cheney to continue the strategy they have successfully pursued in deterring journalists seeking their explanations with claims that they shouldn’t comment on an ongoing legal proceeding. If Bush were to pardon Libby, he and Cheney would no longer have such a rationale for evading the press’ questions - nor would Libby be able to claim the right against self-incrimination to resist testifying before Congress about the role that Cheney and Bush played in directing his conduct.
But if Bush simply commutes Libby’s prison sentence without effectively vacating Libby’s conviction, the appeals process goes forward and Bush and Cheney continue to have their rationale for not answering the press’ questions. This strategy would also have the added benefit for Bush of eliminating the chance, however remote, that under the pressure of prison time away from his family and abandoned by the White House he served loyally, Libby himself would tell the true story of his own and others’ conduct.
From Maureen Dowd:
Cheney Is His Own Dark Planet
Money quote:
I guess a man who can wait 14 hours before he lets it dribble out that he shot his friend in the face has no limit on what he thinks he can keep secret. Still, it’s quite a leap to go from hiding in a secure, undisclosed location in the capital to hiding in a secure, undisclosed location in the Constitution.
In the words of Emily Litella Dick Cheney, “Never mind…“ . The Veep suddenly backs off claim that he is “outside” the executive branch — in the shadow of a legislative vote to withhold funding of his office.
Veeps are so cute when they are backpeddling, aren’t they?
