Orrin Hatch’s Great Dilemma
Yesterday, Harpers magazine published an article by its editor Lewis H. Lapham entitled, The Case for Impeachment-Why we can no longer afford George W. Bush.
As if the Downing Street memos weren’t enough or the hyper-frantic derogatory squeals of Senator Hatch that “Nobody with brains†[would deny the Saddam - al-Qaida connection] in a pathetic example of the kind of tricks one’s mind plays when it hasn’t quite sunk in that everyone knows that you’ve been helping the president cover up a lie and you can’t remember which excuse you are going to use when finally confronted, combined with the panic of realizing you can no longer fill a room even in Iron County with people who still believe the lie, now we have yet another explosion of just one more of the many still unexploded bombs surrounding this administration in the form of the Cambone notes in which a diligent DoD staffer jotted down Rumsfeld’s instructions to General Myers to find the “[b]est info fast…judge whether good enough [to] hit S.H. [Saddam Hussein] at same time - not only UBL [Usama Bin Laden]“, followed by “Hard to get a good case.” Article.
It’s unfair to put the great Senator (Hatch) in this position. Should he bail on the president now in a gesture to the “elephant in the room†or wait until the next shocking revelation in the hopes that the media outrage will finally rise to a level in which he can quietly join the ranks of the other innocent, betrayed republicans who are mere victims of their own honorable however naive confidence and trust in The President of The United States?
So finally, we begin to see calls for impeachment from major media. What follows will be the painful discussion about what’s best for the country. Do we impeach our president as a powerful statement to the world that we really are all of the things we say we are – that when push comes to shove no one really is above the law, or do we let the president finish out his term and endure a the long painful road of reconciliation for our misdeeds abroad while here at home we wait for elections in which republicans will likely be marginalized again for years to come and hope that the festering partisan wounds will someday subside?
I think we need to begin the healing now. Regardless of whether Bush has been right or wrong, he has overseen what is best described as a cockfight that has pervaded every level of discourse in this country and straight into American families. He has allowed us to be played against one another in the pursuit of a disgraceful, blatant power grab. We have been torn apart, and George Bush let it happen.
I say “we can no longer afford George W. Bush.â€
February 28th, 2006 at 1:02 pm
Finally, a real call for impeachment, and from the editor of a major magazine. The question is, will it be followed by others in the same league?
At the same time, I have not seen any mention of the Cambone notes anywhere.
But your perspective about impeachment is interesting. I think I agree that impeachment will be the fastest path toward healing. The alternative (do nothing) will leave us permanently scarred.
February 28th, 2006 at 1:42 pm
What’s best for our Country? ,
Dump the bums that hath commited this affrontery.
1) Impeach bush, and those who have also been involved in this ongoing deception.
2)Put outsourcers on notice that it is game over, that nafta and the rest trade agreements are going to be rendered null and void.
3) Secure our borders, find and prosecute any and all people who willfully hire illegal aliens
4)find all illegal aliens, re-patrioate them, and put them dead last in the line to immigrate to this country if ever.
5) Review all laws passed during the last 30 years for Constitutionality, sacrificing bush and the gang would go a long way to encouraging a Supreme court justice to do his job and not legislate from the bench.
6)Tell our creditors that they will be receiving no payments until we clear this up.
Really Cliff, We should start healing?, You sound like someone who needs a heart transplant, but doesn’t want to do it because it may leave a mark.
February 28th, 2006 at 1:46 pm
It’s not just Bush who deserves the blame! Years ago, I might have been inclined to blame it all (e.g., Iraq/War on Terror) on Bush. Not any more. Bush has had lots of assistance screwing up this country. Indeed, without the likes of Frist, Hatch, Lott, etc., there is little that Bush would have been able to accomplish. I resent these folks who now want to “distance” themselves from Bush - these same folks made Bush what he is today and allowed, even encouraged, what Bush has done. They all need to fall, and fall hard, right along with Bush. Hatch would be a great start come Nov. 2006.
On the other hand, impeachment is also a great start; and then the Hague for a trial befitting the war criminal that Bush is.
February 28th, 2006 at 2:20 pm
1) Impeach bush, and those who have also been involved in this ongoing deception.
It is # 1 on the list, I’d be happy to have you help me fill it out. I seem to recall a pack of democrats helping bush with his crimes.
Furthurmore when offered the opportunity to politically destroy him because of his own incompetence, they can’t seem to. Only those democats that have spoken out against bush in the strongest terms, for the war, illegal immigration, NO border security, destruction of of physical economy in the US, and on and on, need to kept. Sweeping ALL out is imperitive, like shit in a barn after the county fair.
Democrats that have not actively opposed bush are also INCOMPETENT, if not CRIMINAL.
March 1st, 2006 at 12:05 pm
Cheers to John Conyers for propelling the impeachment movement in the House of Reprsentatives and into the media. Impeachment proceedings are the best realistic outcome that moderate, logical, mostly honest Americans can hope for. They will command worldwide media attention and hinder any meaningful progress of the Bush/Cheney agenda. Watching Senator Hatch revert to his cockroach-like survival mode (true of any lifelong politician) will be a pleasing sideshow but the primary goal should be to restrict any further damage from this administration’s policies.
Even impeachment procedings will not halt the clandestine abuse of power and trodding of civil liberties, but any initiatives requiring support and radification of Congress will grind to a halt. Behind the momentum of impeachment the “And Another Thing” crowd will start to broadly question other administration abuses.
Impeachment is the process of cutting off the head of the beast. Some beasts remain dangerous while in the process of dying but they eventually die. It’s fine to chirp about this on a blog but we can use our voices to help secure the outcome. Start by contacting your congressional representatives to tell them you support the Conyers report and the initiation of impeachment procedings. All your conressional representives and senators can be contacted easily through this site:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
The choice is not to act now or wait until November. The choice is act now to improve the outcome in November. In many congressional races, and certainly for President, we simply need the middle seven percent of voters to change their position. That seems very achievable.
After reading the summary of the Conyers Report a bad swamp land real estate deal and sex with an intern seem harmless.
March 1st, 2006 at 12:18 pm
Well said, Tim!
March 1st, 2006 at 9:38 pm
This is poem on impeachment, I would appreciate a critique, comments are good though.
TREACHERY
When it comes that treachery does abound
to circle Freedom, like a snake gone round
the neck of liberty, the throat of speech
it is then the time, has come to impeach
I spy on you, and I declare
I have the right, I do not care
We are in a state of perpetual war
yet I review, and know not what for
Go ahead, tell me of the Towers
of Osama bin laden, and poppy flowers
and dead enders, not quite dead yet
Monty Python funny, ya sure, you bet
It is bad enough, despite the deceptions
sprinkled on news, a bitter confection
our soldiers hang on, awaiting homes reception
and bush onward lies to us, a mental infection
What of our Rights, whisper people and more
Quit the useless whispering, and start to ROAR
this man has used our country, as a two bit whore
those of you who voted for him, settle the score
push come to shove, and that come to fight
it is time to depose him, get him out of our SIGHT!
Waiting for the goon squad at wavesoffear.com
March 2nd, 2006 at 2:17 pm
“We can no longer afford george bush”. Did we ever put down a down payment? Babsi
March 3rd, 2006 at 5:14 am
Why this great concern about the impeachment question? try to remember the republicans impeached a good president for lying in answer to a question that should never have been asked, in a grand jury that should have never been called. were they concerned about the good of the country? Hardly! the whole purpose of the proceeding was to torpedo the democratic party. it was very successful, they have not recovered yet. So Bill got a B J in the oval office. it would be a great stress reliever which he needed considering he was the leader of the free world fighting a republican controlled congress who had been investigating him for 8 years. the corruption and deceit of the republican party started back in reagans presidency, and has been growing steadily worse. they are smugly complacent about their openly corrupt affairs because they are funded by the rich and backed by the religious right, and believe themselves invincible, which they have been, no one even tried to stop them. it is way past time to throw them all out.
March 3rd, 2006 at 8:43 am
Barry, Let’s remember that the question was asked and billy didn’t tell the truth. He doesn’t kiss and tell, I like that.
If dems had anything, and I mean anything, going on, they would be able to trash Bush so very easily. It is my suspicion that there are so many skeletons in the democratic closet that many fear to act, lest their own sins be trotted out.
In a puritan society like ours, one may think that their lifestyle is no ones business but their own. In the shadows of how power is meted out, nothing could be furthur from the truth.