Paul Weyrich, considered by many to be the architect of the neocon revolution who founded the Moral Majority, the American Legislative Exchange Council―a powerful lobbying group in Washington that generates “model” bills, resolutions, and policy statements to benefit a corporate elite―and the Heritage Foundation, a radical think tank that spawned such Bush appointees as Kay James, Elaine Chao, and Condolezza Rice, once said, “We are no longer working to preserve the status quo. We are radicals, working to overturn the present power structure of the country.” He went on to characterize his neocon revolution as Maoist, saying: “I believe you have to control the countryside, and the capitol will eventually fall.”
When the Bushies took power, Karl Rove announced to a gathering of right-wing leaders that the president “had asked the Heritage Foundation…to review all the executive orders put in place by President Clinton…and recommend which ones should be overturned.”
It was clear this administration would be taking its cues from a radical base hell-bent on subverting democracy.
Six years later our liberties hang by a thread. The National Security Agency, under orders from President Bush, is compiling a database of every phone call made in the United States [USA Today, May, 2006] despite a ruling that declared the warrantless spying unconstitutional. U.S. citizens can be jailed without charge for indefinite periods of time without access to counsel. They can be denied a trial by jury. They can be convicted without seeing the evidence against them. They can be whisked to secret prisons outside the U.S. and tortured to extract “confessions.”
Six years later, a war based on fabricated intelligence and military policy directed by the subversive neocons at the Office of Special Plans in the Pentagon is on track to cost the American taxpayer an incredible $2 trillion. How these expenditures served the Vice President through his massive holdings in Haliburton is clear to anyone.
But are these impeachable offenses? Should the Democratic House and Senate start investigations to lay the groundwork for impeaching the President, Vice President, and Attorney General?
The answer is a resounding yes.
Article II, Sec. 4 of the U.S. Constitution states: "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."
The phrase, “high crimes and misdemeanors” was expanded upon in a report released by the Justice Department in the midst of the Watergate crisis: “Two points emerge from the 400 years of English parliamentary experience with the phrase ‘high Crimes and Misdemeanors.’ First, the particular allegations of misconduct allege damage to the state in such forms as misapplication of funds, abuse of official power, neglect of duty, encroachment on Parliament¹s prerogatives, corruption, and betrayal of trust. Second, the phrase ‘high Crimes and Misdemeanors’ was confined to parliamentary impeachments; it had no roots in the ordinary criminal law, and the particular allegations of misconduct under that heading were not necessarily limited to common law or statutory derelictions or crimes.”
Damage to the state through the misapplication of funds? Abuse of official power? Betrayal of trust? Can anyone who knows the facts and holds even a passing interest in the preservation of our democracy claim this administration is not guilty of these impeachable offenses?
And yet there is little hope the Democratic majorities will initiate impeachment proceedings. With a veto-proof House, the prevailing wind leans move toward pushing legislation and changing the course of the war in Iraq, a misguided strategy that ties the Democrats to the president’s unfolding nightmare and ensures their defeat in 2008.
If our democracy is to survive we must realize that our nation is at a crossroads. If these crimes go unaddressed, and the perpetrators allowed to continue their march toward despotism, tokens like “troop redeployment” and minimum wage increases will pale in comparison to our lost opportunity. The case for impeachment is clear. Democrats would do well to attend to the business at hand before setting their sights on a giddy agenda.
Andrea Hackett is an freelance journalist, founder of the Las Vegas Dancers Alliance in Nevada, and editor of the Populist Review. She may be contacted at andreahackett@cox.net
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