Never Too Late

It's never too late to do the right thing.

Not surprisingly, the introduction of Articles of Impeachment by Dennis Kucinich has not received much media attention. See Kucinich Introduces Articles of Impeachment.

As Will Bunch of Attytood notes, The impeachment of George W. Bush:

Last night, a senior member of Congress who was taking part in nationally televised presidential debates just a couple of months ago introduced lengthy impeachment articles against President Bush -- and it was a tree falling in the woods, a tree that apparently wasn't ground into newsprint. Not a word in the Paper of Record about the move by Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, and not much elsewhere. Here's the scoop:

Cleveland Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich took to the House of Representatives floor on Monday evening to introduce a 35-count resolution to impeach President George W. Bush.

Kucinich claimed Bush 'fraudulently' justified the war on Iraq and misled 'the American people and members of Congress to believe Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction so as to manufacture a false case for war.'

'President George W. Bush, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office,' Kucinich said.

Kucinich said in January that he planned to launch an impeachment effort against Bush, but delayed his effort after meeting with members of the House Judiciary Committee. The Judiciary Commitee hasn't acted on a bid Kucinich launched last year to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney.

Keith Olbermann did a segment on his show discussing the issues presented in favor of impeachment. Olbermann on Impeachment. See also, Dandelion Salad. Describing the piece, Crooks and Liars noted:

Constitutional Law Professor Jonathan Turley joined Keith to commend Kucinich and his impeachment bill, which is now co-sponsored by Rep. Robert Wexler. While Turley says there are numerous crimes for which Bush could easily be impeached, the President’s greatest ally has been the Democratic Congress who have skirted their constitutional duties and consistently given him a pass rather than practice any oversight. It’s clear impeachment will remain off the table for the remainder of Bush’s term, but as Keith put it, problems like this will never be solved if people like Kucinich and Wexler don’t stand up and say something.

And this is an issue favored by a significant segment of the public. According to an American Research Group poll, 45% of Americans believe there should be an impeachment investigation. See Bill Moyers Journal, Tough Talk on Impeachment.

Of course, on a related note, the rightwingers are concerned enough about stopping any review of the doings of this criminal Bush regime that the mere mention of investigation -- never mind impeachment -- causes havoc. Will Bunch questioned Barack Obama several months ago, asking whether he would consider prosecution of the Bush Administration for crimes committed during their tenure. Obama responded that his Attorney General would review evidence to see if an inquiry was warranted, adding that no one is above the law.

One of the luminaries on the right, Rush Limbaugh, is now equating Obama's words with being a Stalinist, claiming his words are akin to the totalitarian practice of jailing the predecessors when a new president takes office. See Why does Rush Limbaugh hate America (and me)?. Limbaugh also compares this to the prosecution of the Nazi's during the Nuremberg Trials, suggesting that this conduct is reprehensible. That is, he states that we shouldn't hold the Bush Administration responsible, just as we should not have pursued the Nazis for war crimes:

Now, you've heard the term peaceful transfer of power, one of the things that makes our country great. This is the kind of thing that used to happen, probably still does, with Vlad Putin and the gang, but this happened in the Soviet Union, this happened in totalitarian dictator -- you criminalize the policies of your political opponents. But this would be unprecedented. After the administration's left office, to pursue an investigation that might lead to criminal indictments for war crimes and other things. We used to do that to the Nazis. We did do that to the Nazis, the Nuremberg Trials and so forth. This is who today's modern liberals are.

Those damn liberals! Believing in a silly concept called the rule of law.