The Cure

Bill Moyers Journal explores the talk of impeachment with Constitutional scholar Bruce Fein, who wrote the first article of impeachment against President Bill Clinton, and The Nation's John Nichols, author of The Genius Of Impeachment, The Cure for Royalism. This program should be required viewing for every American citizen.

A few quotes:

'The founding fathers expected an executive who tried to overreach and expected the executive would be hampered and curtailed by the legislative branch... They [Congress] have basically renounced — walked away from their responsibility to oversee and check.' — Bruce Fein

'On January 20th, 2009, if George Bush and Dick Cheney are not appropriately held to account this Administration will hand off a toolbox with more powers than any President has ever had, more powers than the founders could have imagined. And that box may be handed to Hillary Clinton or it may be handed to Mitt Romney or Barack Obama or someone else. But whoever gets it, one of the things we know about power is that people don't give away the tools.' — John Nichols

I saw a comment by Will Bunch of Attytood that made me smile, since I've had a similar thought. In an unrelated post, Now that's clout!, Bunch observes:

The Clinton impeachment -- probably unintentionally, although you never know -- innoculated Bush and Cheney, as America can only seem to stomach impeachment once in a generation. (It was never really considered during the severe abuses of the Iran-Contra affair, you may recall).

I'd like to think I'm wrong.

I am hardly a conspiracy theorist, but based upon the machinations and long range planning of the Lawless gang to establish a permanent GOP majority over the past 20 years, I wonder about that more and more. Compared to the transgressions that are revealed daily by the Lawless Administration, Clinton's dalliance was just that -- and hardly the stuff of impeachment. Yet, after that whole mess, even I was reluctant to seriously consider impeachment as a realistically viable option to deal with Bush. See, Chuck Cheney. As time has gone on, with the revelations of abuse and corruption in the Administration, I have reconsidered. See A Long Shot is Still a Shot. And in considering it, I have often had the thought that the Clinton impeachment was a preemptive, protective move for what they were planning to do when the Republicans regained power.

For more on Impeachment (including references and readings), see the Journal's Tough Talk on Impeachment.

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“Most important thing for the American people to know is that the great genius of the founding fathers, their revolutionary idea, with the chief mission of the state is to make you and them free to pursue their ambitions and faculties. Not to build empires, not to aggrandize government. That's the mission of the state, to make them free, chart their own destiny. And the burden is on the government to try to understand why that freedom has to be curtailed for a security purpose or otherwise.”

-- Bruce Fein

Tags: Bush, Impeachment, Bill Moyers, Commentary, Law, Politics, Quote of the Day