Impeachment Chronicles: Bush on Steady Collision Course with Constitution
By Bill Hare
01/07/2007 (From this site)

Elizabeth Holtzman has experience in the impeachment process as a member of the House Judiciary Committee in the case of President Richard M. Nixon, whose actions put him above the law and abrogated the Constitution.
Holtzman and enough of her Judiciary Committee colleagues believed that the Constitution had indeed been contravened and voted to impeach Nixon. As reported in a previous column, Nixon was persuaded to resign by a powerful trio of Republicans led by Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona and the nation was spared an impeachment trial.

Elizabeth Holtzman believes that the time has come for George W. Bush to face impeachment proceedings. As someone who called for impeachment proceedings after Bush and Dick Cheney took America to war on spurious grounds, and on that basis recommended impeachment four years ago, I concur in Holtzman's assessment.


Time has only strengthened the impeachment case since Bush in concert with Cheney has done far more by this turbulent juncture than take the country to war in contravention of international laws that America as a nation was highly instrumental in creating.
The specific references are to the Nuremberg and United Nations charters. Subsequent actions on Bush's part since his unconstitutional rush to war have been reminiscent of France's supreme Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte when he arrogantly declared, "I am the state!"

The Bush strategy has been to use the 9/11 tragedies to erect himself as emperor without constitutional authority. Holtzman in an article in the November 15 American Spectator examines the period from the march to war until the present, concluding that impeachable offenses exist against Bush, and assuredly Cheney as well, in five basic areas:

1)For deceptions in taking the country into war. The false premises by which Bush and Cheney took America to war, unproven assertions of Iraq's nuclear capability linked to the claim that its dictator Saddam Hussein was presently intending to unleash this weaponry on the United States, contravene international law and constitute grounds for impeachment.

2)For violating the law against wiretapping. Bush admitted that he has not complied with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 and is engaging in domestic surveillance without seeking court orders. Violating this law carries criminal penalties against other citizens. Bush's actions contravene a law passed by Congress and is an impeachable offense.

3)For permitting and condoning the mistreatment of U.S. detainees. Congress has passed laws governing mistreatment or torture of prisoners in U.S. hands, specifically the War Crimes Act of 1996 making it a crime to violate the ban in the Geneva Conventions regarding torture, cruelty, or degrading treatment. Violating this law constitutes grounds for impeachment.

4)For reckless indifference to human life during Hurricane Katrina. This impeachment ground falls into a different category than its predecessors since, in this instance, Bush is questioned for inaction rather than action. Holtzman defines Bush's inaction as a "type of gross negligence ... also apparent in his decision to invade Iraq without providing protective equipment to soldiers and without having an adequate post-invasion plan." While "simple negligence" would not apply, these aforementioned actions constitute "inexcusable neglect."

5)For leaking classified information. If the facts, as yet unknown, reveal that Bush had any role in releasing information regarding the "outing" of CIA agent Valerie Plame, a political act of reprisal against her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a violation of federal law would exist. This would constitute an impeachable offense.

The late Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina, Chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee and a staunch constitutional conservative, sounded the correct note when, in reference to the actions of President Nixon during the turbulent seventies, asserted, "If the Founding Fathers had wanted a King they would have created one."