Kucinich to Sponsor Impeach Cheney Bill

[DroppinScience]

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/20/652/

Very interesting. Good for Kucinich!

[DroppinScience]

You know what my personal opinion is? They should revise the impeachment laws to include "ineptitude" or "incompetence" because presently you can only impeach a President/VP for acts of treason or for breaking the law. Though we all would think Bush has broken the law, unfortunately it's not a cut-and-dry case of perjury or obstruction of justice (at least, not yet). The system of impeachment is NOT put in place to remove a President for being an ineffective leader (that, essentially is what fixed election dates and term limits are for). Look at parliamentary governments like the U.K. or Canada. Non-confidence motions are set forth once we've lost confidence in the present government and an election has to be called (which can result in the current party losing power). The U.S. could stand to have something like that, IMHO.

Thoughts?

[kaiser soze]

It's mindblowing when someone is shot and the victim apologizes to the shooter

I hope this bill gets rolling

[Bob]

You know what my personal opinion is? They should revise the impeachment laws to include "ineptitude" or "incompetence" because presently you can only impeach a President/VP for acts of treason or for breaking the law. Though we all would think Bush has broken the law, unfortunately it's not a cut-and-dry case of perjury or obstruction of justice (at least, not yet). The system of impeachment is NOT put in place to remove a President for being an ineffective leader (that, essentially is what fixed election dates and term limits are for). Look at parliamentary governments like the U.K. or Canada. Non-confidence motions are set forth once we've lost confidence in the present government and an election has to be called (which can result in the current party losing power). The U.S. could stand to have something like that, IMHO.

Thoughts?

I agree, but i'm a little confused...the article doesn't mention it, and i've been looking around at other articles, and none of them mention it either; which "high crimes or misdemeanors" has cheney committed? perhaps i should know this, i don't follow the news as well as i ought to, but i don't know. all it says is that kucinich is introducing articles of impeachment, and they have to decide whether to investigate cheney's conduct. they could probably do the same thing for bush, surely?

at any rate, i thought that the whole idea behind impeachment was to get rid of severely unpopular/inept leaders...it seems to me like the whole high crimes and misdemeanors schtick is more of a pretext. like with andrew johnson. the congress wasn't mad at him for violating the whatever it was that he violated, it was because he kept going against them. i think. it's been a while since history class.

[DroppinScience]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Andrew Johnson's impeachment stemming from Congress disapproving of who he selected as Secretary of War? So both cases where impeachment was used have been a load of crap.

[Bob]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Andrew Johnson's impeachment stemming from Congress disapproving of who he selected as Secretary of War? So both cases where impeachment was used have been a load of crap.

something like that yeah. i looked it up on wikipedia because i didn't think you actually did have to commit a crime to be impeached, and i didn't think johnson actually committed one, but it turns out congress claimed he violated some act or other by doing the whatever he did with the secretary of war, so technically he broke the law.

i mean it's obviously just a pretext, but they were still abiding by the formality, so i guess you still have to? i don't know. i should know, in fact we just talked about this last week in my constitutional law class, and i could have sworn the professor said something along the lines of "all you have to do is get half of the house to impeach and 2/3 of the senate to convict and that's it", he didn't seem to be of the opinion that the "high crimes and misdemeanors" language was all that important, impeachment is really just a way to get rid of incompetent officials, like you suggested. i can't remember the details though.

i hope it's not on the exam

[DroppinScience]

Well, the wording of the impeachment does state something to the effect that they have to have committed treason or have done something illegal, not be inept.

As for the "you need 1/2 half the House and 2/3 the Senate to impeach and convict" part, I'm pretty sure that means you can only vote/investigate impeachment hearings IF and AFTER you can prove actual wrongdoing.

They were going to go ahead with impeachment hearings on Nixon, but he resigned before that happened.

[Bob]

As for the "you need 1/2 half the House and 2/3 the Senate to impeach and convict" part, I'm pretty sure that means you can only vote/investigate impeachment hearings IF and AFTER you can prove actual wrongdoing.

They were going to go ahead with impeachment hearings on Nixon, but he resigned before that happened.

right i know, i guess my question is/was, which specific wrongdoing is it that cheney is being impeached for?

[DroppinScience]

right i know, i guess my question is/was, which specific wrongdoing is it that cheney is being impeached for?

I'm gonna take a wild guess: Valerie Plame?

[Ali]

right i know, i guess my question is/was, which specific wrongdoing is it that cheney is being impeached for?Take your pick.

[yeahwho]

BUMP and Grind.

[Schmeltz]

Lots of talk about impeaching Dick lately - read an article the other day about the (alleged) significance of having Moveon.org on board such an effort. Big props to Kucinich for some actual balls, he puts the other candidates to absolute shame. If Obama or Clinton had any gumption they'd jump on this - could be a campaign-maker if they made actual government accountability a central plank in the platform. Although of course accountability and enormous amounts of money don't tend to make good bedfellows.

[yeahwho]

In grasping and exercising presidential powers, Cheney has dulled political accountability and concocted theories for evading the law and Constitution that would have embarrassed King George III. The most recent invention we know of is the vice president's insistence that an executive order governing the handling of classified information in the executive branch does not reach his office because he also serves as president of the Senate. In other words, the vice president is a unique legislative-executive creature standing above and beyond the Constitution. The House judiciary committee should commence an impeachment inquiry. As Alexander Hamilton advised in the Federalist Papers, an impeachable offense is a political crime against the nation. Cheney's multiple crimes against the Constitution clearly qualify.

The above is from none other than Bruce Fein, ....As part of the Washington Post's multi-part profile on Dick Cheney, Bruce Fein, an associate deputy attorney general under President Ronald Reagan, accused the Vice President of having made "monarchical claims" on power.

CBS news link. (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/28/politics/animal/main2992483.shtml), with assorted other links.

Want to Impeach Cheney? Think July 23rd OP/ED news (http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_david_sw_070709_want_to_impeach_chen.htm)

He is not running for an elected office after this administration. So the focus is shifted from this genuine ASS by just the slightest tilt of the mirror and Mr. Cheney is all too aware of that tilt.

[QueenAdrock]

Hmmm...

More than half of America supports the impeachment of Dick Cheney. (http://www.nysun.com/article/58049) A little less than half for Bush.

I sure hope this catches, because I'll love every second of news coverage on it.

[yeahwho]

I love this sort of shit, it's totally cool.

Nancy Pelosi Has Two Weeks to Consider Impeachment (or Cindy Sheehan will run against her) (http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/politics/index.ssf?/base/politics-0/1183943662143450.xml&storylist=electionmi)

"I'm doing it to encourage other people to run against Congress members who aren't doing their jobs, who are beholden to special interests," Sheehan said.