Impeachment

Americans like to complain. Grassroots progressives, myself included, in particular like to complain. Sometimes I have seen the complaints become almost an obsession, to the detrement of actually getting things done. Nader is a perfect example of this. I have seen progressive apathy or even antipathy sink some of the most progressive and honest candidates you could ever imagine. This is the danger of being on the forefront of progress. You can get ahead of yourself, ahead of everything and wind up all alone.

Impeachment, Iraq and winning elections. Right now these really are about the most critical things. And these three things are what we really need to work hard at if we want to be a significant force in politics...and in society. I want to discuss some specific examples of people who really need our help and they deserve it because they are taking strong stands for impeachment and/or against the Iraq war. We need them...but they also need us. They need our time and our money to win so that they can fight for what we think is right.

In 2006 an amazing coalition of mainstream moderates and grassroots progressives created a tidal wave of change in Congress. Many have complained that we didn't get what we expected from our new Congress...but don't let the complaints get in the way of appreciating that what we did was amazing.

It was a damned good effort and I am proud to have been a part of it.

Impeachment is being whispered everywhere I go. And, since I live in NYC, Jerrold Nadler and Anthony Weiner are among those who immediately are brought up when the issue comes up. I have several email discussions going about it. I see diaries on Daily Kos about it. And when I got to local Democratic club parties and meetings I hear it brought up.

Here, in progressive Brooklyn it comes down to this question I get asked a hundred times:

Are Anthony Weiner and Jerrold Nadler supporting Yvette Clarke on impeachment of Bush and Cheney.

Oddly, no one asks me about Velasquez and Rangel...or even Towns, who HAS signed on with Clarke.

The bottom line is this: I am being asked several times a day (whether I want it or not!) who in NYC is backing impeachment.

The simple answer is this: Yvette Clarke and Ed Towns are signed on to impeachment. No one else in NYC has so far.

Anthony Weiner has, at an event I attended, denigrated impeachment. Since then I am told by about a dozen people that Weiner has changed his tune and is in favor of impeachment. On Sunday I ran into him at a local party, but I didn't challenge him on the issue. So I am still split between what I personally heard, where he rejected impeachment, and what I am told by others, that he has come around.

But then there is Jerrold Nadler, a Congressional Rep I tend to like alot.

There has been a movement dogging Jerrold Nadler, confronting him on the impeachment issue...even driving him to losing his cool and yelling at people who have then told me about these confrontations. Nadler, who I generally think of as dealing with confrontation well, has been going berserk when confronted on this particular issue.

HQ of the indefatigable David Swanson, "After Downing Street is a nonpartisan coalition working to expose the lies that launched the war (and the one that keeps it going) and to hold accountable its architects through impeachment."

Viggo Mortensen has failed me and the world miserably. It's a Friday morning and the world is still not a better place all because of Viggo. It is Friday morning and I still don't have my legs wrapped around the lefty-commie-pino hunkiness that is Viggo Mortensen.

He is not only one of the first celebrities against the war, but he is the first one to call for the impeachment of George Bush. He has gone so far as to visit Iraq after publishing a book about the occupation. And when he came back, right before going back to filming, the man campaigned for an anti-war Democrat in New York state.

The problem is, he is still not betwixt my legs.

So I've tried to quit him.

Then he goes on the Colbert Report and does this :

I hate you Viggo Mortensen. How dare you make me laugh. I hate Stephen Colbert even more. How dare you enlist Stephen Colbert to turn me on with your sense of humor.

I swear, pull this off one more time and you'll be dead to me.

There is a radical, left wing conspiracy afoot in America...The National Coalition of American Nuns!

(photo lifted from PBS)

This is from the Winston-Salem Journal (also covered on Daily Kos):

“The National Coalition of American Nuns is impelled by conscience to call you to act promptly to impeach President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for ... high crimes and misdemeanors,” the group wrote in a letter written on behalf of its board members...

The letter was approved during a mid-August meeting of the board, held in Chicago. During that same meeting, the board unanimously adopted statements opposing all war and affirming peacemaking efforts. “Rather than continuing support of a just-war theory, a more compassionate church would oppose all war and teach peacemaking skills for all levels of government and interpersonal conflict resolution,” the statement reads.

The board also adopted statements pledging to work to “moderate the impact we make on planet Earth,” and supporting nuclear disarmament and relief efforts for the poor in Africa.

I’m thinking Southern Democrats, some when I was young and some when I am old. And now I’m in a quandary. What about those Blue Dogs?
What I’m not thinking about is George Wallace, who got tired of being a Democrat by the time JFK was president. At the risk of repeating myself, I want to say how much Taylor Branch’s trilogy on the King Years brought home changes which happened in mid-20th-Century. Much has happened since Harry Truman issued an order to integrate the military, which was the first blow to the bigotry of separate but equal patriotism.
From the time of 1864 to 1964, there was denial of the “shadow,” as Toni Morrison portrayed it. She lectured on how all American literature had references to what we call the race question. But if you want deep thoughts turn to another Nobel Prize winner, Martin Luther King and his belief in non-violence. I can’t help but remember his mentor Ghandi, which makes me drift off to the great work his grandson has done in Memphis, and now in the Boston area. As MLK was learning how to learn from those he wanted to lead, he realized that the people are the deciders. Myles Horton, a political activist who held workshops in the early days of the SCLC’s assertion that voting was king, is one of the Tennesseans who made a difference.
But now, to the Blue Dogs. Of the 18 Democrats who voted with the Republicans on the FICA “fix” 10 were from southern states. Seven of the votes were from northern states. Two Tennesseans in the list were Lincoln Davis (4th Dist) and John Tanner (5th Dist), who is considered to have started the Blue Dogs.

Yesterday's pardon - and yes, it was for all practical intents and purposes exactly that - of Scooter Libby by George Bush is a clear and flagrant abuse of power, intended to thwart an ongoing investigation and to undermine the proper administration of justice.

That is Nixon territory. Hence, George Bush must be impeached by the U.S. House and brought to trial in the Senate.

The New York Times lays out the case here:

Presidents have the power to grant clemency and pardons. But in this case, Mr. Bush did not sound like a leader making tough decisions about justice. He sounded like a man worried about what a former loyalist might say when actually staring into a prison cell.

The literature on the Presidential power of pardon is extensive, and it is clear: this power exists as a means to temper justice with mercy.

It is not intended to save Presidents from undue scrutiny, nor to shut up loyal retainers under investigation for acts committed in the service of the White House. This, however, is the effect of this pardon; not to put too fine a point on it, Bush issued it on the same day that a Federal court informed Scooter Libby that he would have to wait out his current appeal in jail.

That's what raises this from a question of Presidential privilege to an abuse of power: clemency is a last resort of mercy when all other options have been exhausted.

The media are uncharacteristically agog over a bit of a mishap to befall George Bush at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany. It appears that Dear Leader has a bit of a 'stomach ailment' that is keeping him from participating in meetings this morning.

The story is being run with these photos.

Yeah, baby, we've all had that kind of stomach ailment.