Impeachment is Not a Dirty Word

Posted by Mary Mancini on July 15, 2007 under Uncategorized |

The “I” word. Impeachment. Annoying to some. Scary to others. But you can hear the cry of “impeach them” growing louder and louder. Last week, the American Research Group reported that 45% (4 out of 10) of the American people favor the House of Representatives beginning impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush and 54% (more than half) favor beginning impeachment proceedings against Vice President Cheney (wanh).

But those of us who lived through President Clinton’s impeachment may not be ready to go through it again. We may also feel that the country isn’t ready to go through it again, or that it wouldn’t be politically expedient. But we’re wrong. Turns out, impeachment isn’t the problem, it’s the solution. In other words, it’s the only way to wrest control of the country back from those seeking power without accountability.

On Friday night, even Bill Moyers was schooled on the subject with a solid civics lesson from John Nichols, the Washington correspondent for The Nation and author of The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders’ Cure for Royalism, and Bruce Fein, a member of several conservative think tanks, columnist for The Washington Times and Politico.com, and the guy who wrote the first article of impeachment against President Clinton.

Bill Moyers: You just said in one sentence there “impeach Bush and Cheney.” You’re talking about taking that ax against the head of government, both of them.

John Nichols: No. No, no, no.

Bruce Fein: It’s not an ax, Bill.

John Nichols: We’re talking -

Bruce Fein: It’s not an ax - it’s not - Impeachment is not a criminal proceeding.

John Nichols: You are being -

Bruce Fein: - we cannot entrust the reins of power, unchecked power, with these people. They’re untrustworthy. They’re asserting theories of governments that are monarchical. We don’t want them to exercise it. We don’t want Hillary Clinton or Rudy Giuliani or anyone in the future to exercise that.

John Nichols: Bill Moyers, you are making a mistake. You are making a mistake that too many people make.

Bill Moyers: Yes.

John Nichols: You are seeing impeachment as a constitutional crisis. Impeachment is the cure for a constitutional crisis. Don’t mistake the medicine for the disease. When you have a constitutional crisis, the founders are very clear. They said there is a way to deal with this. We don’t have to have a war. We don’t have to raise an army and go to Washington. We have procedures in place where we can sanction a president appropriately, do what needs to be done up to the point of removing him from office and continue the republic. So we’re not talking here about taking an ax to government. Quite the opposite. We are talking about applying some necessary strong medicine that may cure not merely the crisis of the moment but, done right-

Bruce Fein: Moreover, it’s -

John Nichols: - might actually cure -

Bruce Fein: It’s not an attack on Bush and Cheney in the sense of their personal - attacks. Listen, if you impeach them, they can live happily ever after into their-

John Nichols: And go to San Clemente.

Bruce Fein: Yes, go to San Clemente or go back to the ranch or whatever. But it’s saying no, it’s the Constitution that’s more important than your aggrandizing of power. And not just for you because the precedent that would be set would bind every successor in the presidency as well, no matter Republican, Democrat, Independent, or otherwise.

John Nichols: The fact of the matter is that, again, the genius of impeachment is it tells the president that, wow, there is a Congress. And that Congress is on your case. And it causes, I think at its best, it causes a president to want to prove he can cooperate, to want to prove he can live within the law.

Take the time to watch or read the rest. It’s a spellbinding report and I promise you’ll walk away with a new, or renewed, appreciation of Moyers, the Constitution, our founding fathers, and most importantly, impeachment.