Impeach the bastard

It is time to impeach the President of the United States. I have resisted the impulse to say this for a very long time. And let’s face it, some folks of my political persuasion have been throwing around the I-bomb like lapdances at a Minnesota Vikings sex cruise since the day Bush took office.

But there is really no way around it – this president set aside very clear provisions of the Constitution – specifically the Fourth Amendment and a set of very lenient spying provisions in FISA. He did it for no good reason other than that he and his advisers knew perfectly well that it was illegal and that they would not otherwise have been able to get away with it. The legal doctrine being wielded to support this egregious and unapologetic violation of American law is the idea that if the President does it, it’s not illegal. Most legal scholars are chuckling at the idea that the Afghanistan war resolution in 2001 gave the President the authority to do whatever the hell he pleases.

They should also chuckle at the argument that Bush’s advisors told him it was okay. In fact, this should be the ultimate argument for not having a president so dumb that he can barely tie his own shoes. Listen, I could go out for beers tonight with a bunch of lawyers and have them tell me it’s okay to hold up the bar and beat the snot out of anyone who looks at me crooked. But that doesn’t make it legal, now does it?

I have heard the argument that it would not be good for American democracy for two consecutive presidents to be impeached. Well my friends, Clinton’s impeachment cannot be undone, but it was a farce perpetrated by a hostile Congress bent on his destruction from the day those maniacs swept to power in 1994. But even if you believe that Clinton’s impeachment was legit, that’s not an argument for letting the next president off the hook for what are indisputably graver crimes than lying about blow jobs.

If Americans don’t want to see their presidents impeached, they should try electing people that don’t brazenly and openly violate the law. You can’t blame them on that score for electing Bush in the first place, but when you re-elect a guy who thinks it’s okay to capture American citizens and then ship them off to Syria to be tortured by a government you are actively trying to overthrow, you kind of have it coming. When you send a man back to the White House who sold you a pack of lies to get you into a totally unnecessary war, you have this coming. Frankly, American democracy has this coming. An impeachment might be just what this country needs.

If spying on your own citizens without permission from any legal authority whatsoever is not a high crime and misdemeanor, than nothing is. Unfortunately, Congress is controlled by a group of lawmakers so corrupt that they belong in the Ethical Special Olympics. Impeaching the president requires you first to remove his hand out from underneath your balls. And these guys have never – not once – shown any inclination to do so. After launching an investigation every time Clinton took out his recycling, the GOP-controlled Congress has been so compliant with the Bush Administration that you’d think they were being paid by the hour.

This is one more reason why it’s so important to take back one or both branches of the legislature this fall. The ha-ha hearings being held this week aren’t going to lead to impeachment any more than the intelligence failure hearings resulted in anyone getting fired or taking responsibility for anything. At the most Arlen Specter will be trotted out to slap the President on the wrist. Lightly.

The galling thing is that Americans would get behind an impeachment of Bush in a way that they never did for Clinton. The violation of the law is much clearer here, and illegal spying and surveillance have much more relevance for the average American than Clinton screwing an intern. Bush is deeply unpopular and mistrusted. And he has this coming. He and his advisors have treated the law as something to be bent, twisted and molded to fit whatever authoritarian impulses John Yoo and Alberto Gonzalez were feeling on any given morning. Their behavior, and Congress's obeisant acquienscence to it, calls into question the very machinery of American democracy.

Wouldn't you like to see that smug, self-satisfied little frat boy frogmarched out of office with his sneering and corrupt advisors trailing behind, forever disgraced and discredited?

I can always dream.