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December 21, 2005
Thoughts On The Impeachment Fantasies
Dave Schuler at The Glittering Eye has some thoughts on the growing impeachment fantasies of those on the Left. Dave notes the familiar section of the Constitution that stipulates that the president shall be removed from office for conviction of "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." Of course the problem lies in the definition of "high crimes and misdemeanors". Dave Schuler:
The reality is that impeachable offenses are defined circularly: they are precisely what the House of Representatives finds that they are. Under current circumstances it seems pretty unlikely that the House will find what the President has done (whatever that is) will rise to the level of an impeachable offense.
Perhaps the better question is should the authorization be an impeachable offense? If what the President did was a violation of the law and the law was constitutional and the President knew what he did was a violation of a constitutional law, then it probably should be but that’s an awful lot of if’s and those if’s are, apparently, not completely clear.
I think this is on track, but I believe the "if's" are even more problematic for the Democrats than Dave says. There have been opinions from expert commentators both liberal and conservative that argue that the wiretaps were appropriate. See here and here (both via Powerline). These writers are not indulging in hysterical wish-projection, rather they are analyzing a complicated legal problem in careful, reasoned manner.
And indeed, even if it is finally determined that the President's actions ran counter to the law, there remains another problem for the deluded Dems: the question of intent. Wouldn't they have to prove that Bush harbored a definite intent to break the law? This would require that there was a certainty of opinion in the WH before the wiretaps were implemented that such actions would be illegal, and that the President then proceeded with them anyway.
I'm not a lawyer, but I don't see how this could ever get off the ground.
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Comments
Unfortunately, it appears that not only has the lunatic fringe gotten hold of the democratic party, it is running rampant. John Conyers, the congressman from Michegan who has filed H. res 635, 636, and 637, regarding impeachment of both Bush and Cheney is actually on the advisory board of Progressive Democrats of America(http://pdamerica.org/about/board.php) along with Medea Benjamin, Jodi Evans(Both Code Pink founders), Tom Hayden and Cindy Sheehan. Its very disturbing these radicals have found such a willing conduit into the House.
Posted by: The Institute at December 22, 2005 09:13 AM
Yeah, intent was one of my if's and, possibly, the biggest. With all the Justice Department white papers saying that it was within the law, it looks to me as though intent would be impossible to infer.
Posted by: Dave Schuler at December 22, 2005 09:15 PM
This. is. just. insane.
Posted by: AcademicElephant at December 26, 2005 11:46 AM
