We The People Impeach -- It's Not Too Late!

Below are the Propaganda Points Against Impeachment that Speaker Nancy Pelosi mandated for all House Democrats when this session of Congress convened in January 2006.  But they are paired with responses that you can use on your House reps should s/he bring them up.

Pelosi Point No. 1:  "They'll be out of office soon."

Response: It’s never too late. President Andrew Johnson’s impeachment and trial in 1866 was held during a presidential-election year and finished within four months. President Bush has already admitted one impeachable high crime (warrantless wiretapping prior to 9/11). Because all it takes is one charge (article) of impeachment,  the procedure could be finished within a week.

If Bush/Cheney leave office without being impeached, every high crime they have committed will be permitted for future administrations—and they assuredly will use them as if they were medieval kings.  Consider their high crimes:

• Ignoring their oaths of  office to ”support and defend” the Constitution.

• Lying us into a 5 year,  $3 billion dollar-a-week war. 

• Torturing prisoners to death. 

• Killing perhaps a million Iraqis and destroying that country to seize its oil. 

• Nullifying Congress by signing statements. 

• Ending the right to a trial, free speech and assembly.

• Replacing our police departments with soldiers of fortune.

• Failing to protect us, as with Katrina. 

• Threatening to launch a pre-emptive war with Iran and preparing to sign a treaty with Iraq, both the sole rights of Congress.

Pelosi Point No. 2: “Impeachment would divide the country.”

Response: The high crimes of Bush/Cheney have divided the country for nearly eight years on all levels—economically, militarily, socially, ecologically, morally, politically, and in foreign relations.  In view  of Bush’s current 28% popularity ratings and Cheney’s 9%,  impeachment would return the country to Constitutional rule.

Pelosi Point No. 3:  "If we impeach Bush, we’ll get Cheney as president. Besides, you can’t impeach more than one person at once. "

Response: You can impeach more than one person at a time.  By impeaching Cheney first, as Rep. Dennis Kucinich bill demands (H.Res. 333/799), the fear of his becoming president is removed.

Pelosi Point No. 4:  "It takes two-thirds of the Senate to oust a president or any other public person, and that’s unlikely. So why bother?”

Response: That’s like saying criminals shouldn’t be tried because a jury might not convict them.  Moreover, the  Constitution only stipulates that conviction/ouster “requires two-thirds of the members present “(Art. I, Sec. 3).  Abstaining (“no vote”) or absenteeism are regularly used to avoid being on the record concerning controversial issues.  Too, many Senators have changed their mind at the last minute, as was the case in Andrew Johnson’s acquittal by one vote.

Pelosi Point No. 5:  "Perhaps Bush/Cheney have destroyed most of the Constitution, but the new president and a Democratic Congress will   repeal all the bad things they’ve done."

Response:  Though this is always the public hope, past Congresses either have never repealed un-Constitutional deeds or, when they have  tried, their new laws are so filled with loopholes as to be toothless and worthless.  One outstanding example of repeal was ending Nixon's violations of people's privacy protected by the 4th Amendment.  The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), set up a secret court to issue warrants to let Federal officials invade the privacy of foreign nationals.  Bush admitted his administration not only has ignored the FISA court, but has spied on Americans since before 9/11.

Pelosi Point No. 6:  "But Congress—especially Democrats—may fear the public will see their failure to stop the high crimes of Bush/Cheney as making them just as worthy of impeachment and ouster as  Bush/Cheney. "

Response: Not if Bush/Cheney lied to them (Iraq).  Or rushed bills through the late night hours so that Democrats had no time to spot  the removal of the habeas corpus right, for example, or the section replacing local police with soldiers.

Pelosi Point No. 7:  "Impeachment should be reserved for “exceptional circumstances.” Not for firing a cabinet officer (Andrew Johnson) or lying about sex in the Oval office (Clinton).”

Response: “Exceptional circumstances” are overwhelmingly applicable  to Bush/Cheney.  The latest high crime is Bush’s approval to gift JP Morgan Chase with $29,000,000,000 of taxpayer money to bail out Bear Stearns without asking Congress or asking for other bids in violation of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.  Add these high crimes to those listed in Pelosi Point No. 1: Disobeying subpoenas for evidence/witnesses; obstructing justice by commuting a felon’s sentence; complicity in rigging voting machines in the 2004 elections; establishing a secret energy group against the public’s interest; revealing the identity of a key CIA master agent; and ignoring FBI/CIA warnings of the 9/11 attack.

Pelosi Point No. 8:  "When Clinton was impeached, nothing got done because it was a media circus."

Response:  Congressional business goes on as usual both in committees and in floor debates and votes despite impeaching hearings in the House Judiciary Committee.  That has been true since the impeachments and trials of Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.  Besides, any celebrity gets heavy media coverage when accused of wrongdoing in Congressional hearings—baseball star to attorney general, 5-star general to oil-company CEO.  But it never has hindered other Congressional actions.

Pelosi Point No. 9: “The Clinton impeachment stained the process."

Response: The Founders would be shocked at this argument because it suggests that the “process” is so befouled by a sexual incident that it should never again be used. Clinton’s private transgression scarcely reaches the level of high crimes listed above. If anything, impeachment will rehabilitate the process from how it was misused.  Impeachment is the only weapon Congress has to prevent a dictatorship.  It’s why the Framers used it 6 times in the Constitution.

Pelosi Point No. 10: “Impeachment will distract voters from selecting a new president. And they’ll probably choose a Republican out of revenge.”

Response:  The impeaching political party usually wins the next election, as was the case with Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.  And  in view of the present lengthy presidential campaigns, the focus would be welcome and enhance public judgment about the caliber of people who get their votes.