More Impeachment Fodder

I just posted my monthly call for your help in convincing the House of Representatives to impeach both President Bush and Vice President Cheney. I'd like to note two additional reasons why Bush should face this punishment from that nation's government.

First up is the current situation over the FISA law. Bush has threatened to veto any FISA legislation that doesn't provide retroactive immunity for anything illegal that telecommunications companies did at his behest. He has stated that having the FISA law expireis unacceptable. He has stated that having it lapse will put Americans at risk. And yet... he is willing to allow it to lapse and to thereby put Americans at risk... to protect corporations... and to protect himself. It is immoral. It is criminal. It is poor leadership. And it is poor policy.

Second is Bush's use of so-called "signing statements" when he signs legislation into law. For the first 200+ years of our country's existence, presidents have used them to offer their opinion on the legislation that they are signing. Usually, it is to note when they don't agree with a part of the bill. Sometimes, it is to express their satisfaction with the bill in whole or in part. They were never used as a way to thwart the law itself, nor to place the Office of the President outside of the scope of the rule of law. Bush has changed this and in doing so, has undermined not only the Constitution, but the very notion of the rule of law.

Bush has added signing statements to over 1,100 -- yes, eleven-hundred! -- laws since he took office. These were not mere comments, however. Rather, using them he reserved himself the right to ignore pieces of the signed legislation as he saw fit. Yes, once the law was signed, it became law and applied every bit as much to the president as it did to anyone else... except in Bush World. Unfortunately, the Congress, the press, and the public has allowed him to get away with this. It is a travesty, it is patently illegal, and it undermines the very foundation of our government.

You can add these two reasons to the list justifying why President Bush deserves to be impeached.

1 February 2008