It's time the Democrats in Congress did what the vast majority of democrats want, and the constitution demands-- impeachment hearings for Cheney and Bush.
I've had a chance, over the past few months, to get a feel for this. I commissioned a Zogby poll which found that a big majority of Democrats wanted impeachment. I've spoken at local democratic meetings and the support for impeachment is always close to unanimous. Even at the recent Obama unity even, when I asked the 25 people in attendance if they thought Bush and Cheney should be impeached, the response was unanimous.
But Nancy Pelosi won't put impeachment "on the table." And John Conyers has offered some pathetically weak arguments on why he should not hold impeachment hearings, including the shameful argument that it will produce and adverse reaction from the right wing.
The fact is, congress's ratings are at an all time single digit low-- a well deserved rating, primarily due to the hijacking of the Democratic party by it's bluedog wing. These right wing DINOs (Democrats in name only,) led by Stenny Hoyer, have sold out The "Dem" bluedogs have sold out the Democrats who voted for them again and again. Glenn Greenwald has written about what to do about them recently. Let's give "Blue Dogs" the boot.
But meanwhile, I think the bluedogs are the reason Nancy Pelosi and John Conyers are refusing to act upon the evidence Dennis Kucinich and all the people who testified in front of the House Judiciary committee last Friday, at the pseudo impeachment hearings.
The brutal fact is, and I do believe it's a fact, impeachment hearings offer the Democrats the best chance they have of not only insuring Obama's victory, but also for taking 60 seats in the Senate.
First, I'm talking about hearings. There's no need to rush to a vote in the senate. The successful efforts to dump corrupt White house administration people never reached the senate. Both Spiro Agnew and Richard Nixon were forced to resign because of HEARINGS.
I spoke to John Dean, who was there, and he told me that past impeachments always started with an independent prosecutor -- Archibald Cox for Nixon and Ken Starr for Clinton. Dean told me, on my radio show, that the house judiciary committee doesn't have the resources to do an adequate investigation, which makes the independent prosecutor hearings necessary. So, if Nancy Pelosi won't allow impeachment hearings, at the least, she should be supporting and funding an independent prosecutor, and John Conyers should be speaking out and asking for it.
But let's talk about impeachment hearings for a moment. The beauty of impeachment hearings is that executive privilege is not permitted -- no way, no how. Now, recently, several Bush appointees have engaged in contempt of congress because they refused to respond to subpoenas and appear before committees. They don't have the right to do that. They can appear and then refuse to answer specific questions, using executive privilege, but they are not allowed to just not show up. That said, several Bush administration current and former officials have shown contempt of congress by refusing to obey subpoenas.
But with impeachment hearings, there is no executive privilege, no right to refuse to testify.
I believe that if hearings are held, this summer, they will churn up the sewer of corruption that the White house and its appointees have engaged in. The news media will be unable to avoid covering it. They may even cover it instead of the Olympics.
But the hearings should start in August with the expectation that they will reach full, reeking bloom, with the full stink of rotting sewage, by late September, with the worst revelations, as higher level appointees roll over under pressure, coming out in October. This will make the current bad reputation of the Republican party seem like the good old days. And it will be the death knell for scores of GOP members of congress.
Since the hearings will finally show that the Congress is doing its job, protecting the constitution, it will very likely cause a drastic bump in the ratings for the Dems in congress, helping all the incumbents, even the bluedogs, except for the most traitorous ones.
If you want to see the right wingers in congress tossed out, and a strong, effective majority in the senate, tell your congressperson to do his or her job of protecting the constitution. Tell your legislator that if Bush and Cheney are not impeached you won't be satisfied. Contact the house judiciary committee and tell them to get off their asses and do their job.
John Dean told me that Bush can literally pardon himself in advance for any and all offenses. Vince Bugliosi, author of the book, THE PROSECUTION OF GEORGE W. BUSH FOR MURDER, told me that there are close to a thousand federal and state prosecutors who could charge Bush and prosecute him for murder. I don't know who's right, but to me, the solution is to not test the possibilities. It is the perfect time to prosecute Cheney and Bush. At the hearings, former congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman, who participated in the Nixon impeachment hearings, suggested that it's possible to "do a Twofer" impeaching both Cheney and Bush.
Ask most of the Democratic party members of congress and you get a unified front -- the talking point that they don't want to waste the Congress' time. This is pure garbage -- an affront to the constitution they continue to allow to be violated by Bush and Cheney and their appointees, as the news demonstrates with new examples every day.
It's time, and its the right, smart thing for the Dems to do.
Crossposted from OpEdNews.com