The People's Case For Impeachment of George W. Bush & Richard Cheney
CALLING NANCY PELOSI: The People's Case for Impeaching Bush
In reviewing the actions of George W. Bush in his role as President of the United States of America, Elizabeth Holtzman and Cynthia Cooper identify four major "high crimes and misdemeanors" that qualify as grounds for impeachment. I can think of at least four more major acts and misdeeds that also qualify. In his unqualified support of the president's behaviors, Dick Cheney has also qualified himself for impeachment from the office of vice president. Cheney has been a full participant in each of the actions and causes that Bush has undertaken and, because he did not stand up and speak against such actions, became a co-conspirator and collaborative actor in the high "crimes and misdemeanors."
In reviewing the actions of George W. Bush in his role as President of the United States of America, Elizabeth Holtzman and Cynthia Cooper identify four major "high crimes and misdemeanors" that qualify as grounds for impeachment. I can think of at least four more major acts and misdeeds that also qualify. In his unqualified support of the president's behaviors, Dick Cheney has also qualified himself for impeachment from the office of vice president. Cheney has been a full participant in each of the actions and causes that Bush has undertaken and, because he did not stand up and speak against such actions, became a co-conspirator and collaborative actor in the high "crimes and misdemeanors."
Impeachment is an essential tool for preserving democracy. The framers of our Constitution, determined to provide protections against grave abuses of power by a president, created the impeachment process as a special procedure for citizens. Through their representatives, citizens would be able to remove a president run amok.
Our founders created a new form of government that was designed to preserve liberty by breaking up power among three co-equal branches of government and instituting a system of checks and balances. But they worried deeply about presidential misconduct. Left unchallenged, it could be "fatal to the Republic," said James Madison. The new democracy needed the ability to remove a president, if necessary.
Impeachment is the first step of a two-step process that can result in the removal of a president from office. The House of Representatives first decides whether to charge the president with impeachable offenses. If a majority of the House votes to impeach, articles of impeachment, which contain the charges, are forwarded to the Senate. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides over a trial in the Senate, and if two-thirds of the senators vote for conviction, the president is removed from office.
posted by Jim Downey at 10:20 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home