Friday, May 19, 2006

Should Bush be impeached?

This started out as a comment at Another Monkey. But I got carried away.

Should Bush be impeached? The short answer is yes. The long answer gets a little more complicated.

The Constitution in Article II Section 4 says The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

To impeach a President a majority of the House of Representatives must return an indictment and the charges must be tried in the Senate presided over by the Chief Justice. A conviction and removal requires a two thirds vote of the Senate.

No matter what happens in November, two thirds of the Senate will not vote to remove this guy. Not that he doesn’t deserve it, but what will it get you? If Bush is removed Cheney becomes President. Or if he is disqualified it goes the Speaker of the House then the President Pro Tem of the Senate and if they decline we could have Condi Rice as President.

The problem is not only Bush but the people around him. What has happened to my country when there is a debate if torture is a good thing? American citizens are being held without recourse to the courts? The US is operating secret prisons all over the world and the government is collecting phone records of everyone in the country.

Believe it or not this country has been through worst times than 9/11 and the government didn’t punish the people. When I was growing up President Johnson had to send the 82nd Airborne into Detroit to stop rioting. President Lincoln led us through a civil war. In the 70’s a group called the Weathermen set off bombs in the Capitol. But the government didn’t overreact.

The Congress must re-assert it’s oversight authority.

This argument must be settled in an election.

10 comments:

Bernie O'Hare said...

You're right. But I'd still like to suu him impeached, but who will volunteer for the b--- job?

Gort said...

Really, get some bimbo to give him a BJ and the whole country will be up in arms. Or at least talk radio.I don't get this defense that if your not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about.

Doctor Rick said...

Oh you liberals are tireless. Wasn't the largest vote in history in his favor enough? Or did you guys forget that the same as you forgot 9-11?

And BTW, who is that old guy commenting? It's posts like this that make me want to come back...new announcement may be coming soon (maybe, and it'll be better than I BELEIVE)

D.B. Echo said...

Gort, do you realize that in your original comment you said "The short answer is no"? Did the short answer change since then, or is one of those a typo?

Here's the plan: rather than impeach him, we can arrange to have Justin Timberlake expose Janet Jackson's breast during the next State of the Union address.

http://www.felbers.net/fa/2006/05/19/slow-moving-but-also-wrong/

Then we slap Bush with crippling fines for indecency. Hey, it could work.

Anonymous said...

you people are idoits.

And, p.s. get rid of that rediculous word verification. It's a pain in the a**

Anonymous said...

oops, I meant IDIOTS

and the word thing is still rediculous

LVDem said...

I wish we could have recall elections... I don't think Bush would be in office in 2007 if there was a recall option in 2006. Not that it really matters... the guy is a lame duck already.

Gort said...

DB, That was a typo in the comment.

Anon, The best you can do is name calling?

I also think word verification is a pain. But I had to put in on because of the spammers.If I take it off the comments will fill up with garbage about viagra and penis elargement.

Anonymous said...

His Holiness curses the day the 25th Amendment was ratified; Clinton would still be President today. It is a shame that the ONLY elected offices with imposed term limits are President and Governor. People should have the right to vote for a public servant as often as he wished to make his service available.
On the impeachment front; it really will not be necessary as the Pres. will only have two years left in his disasterous second term when the party takes power in January. I am sure that investigations will be rampant (and rightfully so), but whether they will result in impeachment is anybodys guess but His Holiness is leaning toward Censure. Of course, these debates will be moot if the Republicans maintain control of both Houses (which may not be a bad thing--more on that later).

Anonymous said...

How does the most number -- not percentage -- of votes make up for the administration's woes? I think you're also forgetting his more recent piss-poor approval rating. Just like you forgot 9/11!