Thursday, January 12, 2006

That Sinking Feeling of Watergate                 Attorney Elizabeth Holtzman, the four-term NY Congresswoman who sat on the Judiciary Committee during the Nixon impeachment proceedings, makes a very straightforward argument in The Nation for impeaching George W. Bush. It's the cover story. She writes: But it wasn't until the most recent revelations that President Bush directed the wiretapping of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)--and argued that, as Commander in Chief, he had the right in the interests of national security to override our country's laws--that I felt the same sinking feeling in my stomach as I did during Watergate. As a matter of constitutional law, these and other misdeeds constitute grounds for the impeachment of President Bush. A President, any President, who maintains that he is above the law--and repeatedly violates the law--thereby commits high crimes and misdemeanors, the constitutional standard for impeachment and removal from office. A high crime or misdemeanor is an archaic term that means a serious abuse of power, whether or not it is also a crime, that endangers our constitutional system of government. Bob Herbert in his New York Times column today "The Lawbreaker in the Oval Office." is quite blunt: No one expects very much from Mr. Bush. He's currently breaking the law by spying on Americans in America without getting warrants, but for a lot of people that's just George being George. Tragically for us, Sen. Specter's promised hearings on Bush's illegal spying will come after the Alito hearings, leaving us with a law-breaking president's judicial legacy. -RH   9:56:15 PM    comment []

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