Impeachment chances loom for
Bush
MyrtleBeachOnline.com
ROSA BROOKS
January 6, 2006
It's history.
You know, the Clinton impeachment thing. Remember that?
When the Associated Press reported last week that the impeachment of
President Clinton had made it into major high school history textbooks, it
seemed only fitting. Most adults forgot about the impeachment the instant it
was over. Now high school kids can read the story, and as soon as their exams
are over, they too can forget it.
So, someday, 2005 might be recalled as the year the Clinton impeachment was
relegated to the dustbin of history. But it also might be recalled as the year
that paved the way for George W. Bush's impeachment.
With the mid-December revelations of a secret Bush administration domestic
wiretapping program carried out by the National Security Agency, commentators -
including some Republicans - once more are murmuring about "high crimes and
misdemeanors." And with good reason. On its face, the president's
no-longer-secret wiretapping program violates the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act. The president asserts that on Sept. 14, 2001 - when Congress
authorized him to "use all necessary and appropriate force" against those
connected to the Sept. 11 attacks - Congress implicitly repealed the act's
restrictions on presidential surveillance powers. Besides, he says, as
commander in chief, he has the inherent constitutional power to do anything he
deems necessary in time of war.
Suzanne Spaulding, a former CIA assistant general counsel, recently pointed
out that this is a bizarre legal argument. If Congress' resolution rendered
moot any prior legislative restraints on the president's power to conduct
domestic surveillance, or if the president's inherent wartime powers trump
congressional control, then why did the administration bother to seek renewal
of the Patriot Act?
The founding fathers had good reasons for rebelling against Britain's King
George III: "He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior
to the Civil power ... (he is) abolishing our most valuable laws and altering
fundamentally the forms of our Governments." That's why our Constitution
created checks and balances.
But that's the Bush administration for you: all checks, no balances.
The NSA's domestic surveillance program is not the only offense with which
the president could be charged.
The House Judiciary Committee's Democratic staff recently released a report
concluding that Bush "misled Congress and the American people regarding the
decision to go to war with Iraq." And the 273-page minority report goes on to
conclude that "the President, Vice President and members of the Bush
administration violated a number of federal laws, including 1) Committing a
Fraud against the United States; 2) Making False Statements to Congress; 3) The
War Powers Resolution, 4) Misuse of Government Funds; 5) federal laws and
international treaties prohibiting torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading
treatment and punishment; 6) federal laws concerning retaliating against
witnesses and other individuals, and 7) federal laws concerning leakings and
other misuses of intelligence."
It's true that as long as Republicans are in control, members of Congress
are no more likely to impeach Bush than they are to vote themselves a pay cut.
If the Democrats take control of Congress in 2006 - a prospect that is becoming
less implausible - the president could find himself in deeper doo doo than his
daddy ever dreamed of.
Contact Brooks, an associate professor at the University of Virginia School
of Law, at reb2d@virginia.edu.
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