On Impeaching the President and Vice President of the United States

The Founders created impeachment as a check on the unbridled power of a despotic executive. Impeachment was on the same spectrum as the other legislative checks: setting the legislative agenda, power of the purse, and investigative oversight. When those checks fail to rein in the president, impeachment is the only option. It is a powerful tool and should not be used lightly. But when the chief executive flouts the laws set by the Congress, when the president usurps the power of the judiciary in order to save members of his own cabal, then impeachment is required.

Impeachment is analogous to indictment and only needs a simple majority to proceed to a trial in the US Senate, where a super-majority would be required for conviction. The Founders meant for the Congress to be able to act without threat of a veto or review by the Supreme Court.

I believe that we are at a point now where a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee must consolidate all the many, many investigations of the Executive branch under the umbrella of impeachment hearings. And if the investigations find evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors, then it should report that to the Judiciary Committee for resolution before the House as a whole.

Lane Hudson at HuffPo:

There are so many things that this Administration has done to betray the confidence of the American people. Rather than provide a long list of them here, I’ll give you some links to peruse:

• The Impeachment of George W. Bush: A Practical Guide for Concerned Americans
  
• The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing George W. Bush From Office
  
• Impeach the President: The Case Against Bush And Cheney

(the above are all books which make detailed legal arguments for impeachment)

• Citizen for Ethics and Responsibility’s new report: ‘Crossing the Line’
  
• Here is an article in the Washington Post on the historical background of Impeachment
  
• And finally, some fellow bloggers have plenty of comments about this: Mahablog, Down With Tyranny, Seeing The Forest, The Young Turks, and Crooks and Liars.

Tell Speaker Pelosi to put Impeachment BACK ON THE TABLE. Her phone number is 202-225-0100.

Future generations of Americans, perhaps living under a presidential regime far worse than this one, will look back at us and wonder why we did nothing while Bush and Cheney ransacked the Constitution.