Academic

Move to Impeach Cheney Picking Up Steam

By Robert Justin Lipkin

Salem-News.com reports: "A House Resolution to impeach U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney, Dennis Kucinich's H.R. 333, is gathering more support. The national impeachment continues to grow and generate increasing interest since being referred to the House Judiciary Committee last month, a Kucinich spokesperson said.  . . . As a member of that committee, Representative Robert Wexler and two other committee members, Luis Gutierrez and Tammy Baldwin, have joined together in demanding that the legal action against Cheney moves forward.  . . . Congressman Robert Wexler of Florida is just one elected official who says the charges are too serious to ignore.  . . .  'There is credible evidence that the Vice President abused the power of his office, and not only brought us into an unnecessary war but violated the civil liberties and privacy of American citizens. It is the constitutional duty of Congress to hold impeachment hearings.'  . . .  He went on to say that he believes Vice President Dick Cheney and the Bush Administration have demonstrated a consistent pattern of abusing the law and misleading Congress and the American people.  . . . 'We see the consequences of these actions abroad in Iraq and at home through the violations of our civil liberties,' Wexler said.  . . . Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, stated in August that published reports identify, "the Vice-President's willful and repeated disregard for the rule of law, international treaties, environmental protections, and the common good."  To read more click here.  As these representatives stated in a recent op-ed piece, 'The point of '[h]olding hearings would put the evidence on the table, and the evidence - not politics - should determine the outcome. Even if the hearings do not lead to removal from office, putting these grievous abuses on the record is important for the sake of history. For an administration that has consistently skirted the Constitution and asserted that it is above the law, it is imperative for Congress to make clear that we do not accept this dangerous precedent. Our Founding Fathers provided Congress the power of impeachment for just this reason, and we must now at least consider using it.'

This administration has not paid for any of its misdeeds. Permitting Mr. Cheney to waltz away from office unscathed leaves a ticking time bomb in the heart of the constitutional government threatening the inter-departmental checks and balances so central to republican democracy. Dangerous precedents, like dangerous guns, lying around around for any future president to grasp while trashing the Constitution is something that both conservatives and liberals should take pains to avoid.  Assiduously guarding the balance of power as well as the doctrine of checks and balances articulated in the Constitution needs fortification.  That's precisely what an impeachment attempt would begin to do.

Full post as published by Essentially Contested America on January 04, 2008 (boomark / email).