An opening for the citizens to act

I have previously expressed doubts about the wisdom and realistic chance of impeaching President Bush--primarily because of a fear that doing so would elevate an even more dangerous monster, Dick Cheney, to Commander-in-Chief. Plus, I argued, keeping El Pendejo in office would help weaken Republicans, and in so doing, lessen their ability to promote and implement their regressive and anti-worker agendas and chances of getting themselves elected or re-elected. It's like the way I feel about Creationists: the more they blather on about the earth being only 6,000-years old or that evolution, especially human evolution, is a lie and that so-called intelligent design should be taught in science classes, the more it will serve to make religion, especially their lunatic brand of Christianity, all that less credible.

Getting back to impeachment, though, what I am firmly in favor of is holding congressional investigations into both Bush and Vice President Cheney. I am one of the millions of people around the world who believe that there is ample evidence to affirmatively answer the question posed by former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega and others, as to whether President Bush and Vice President Cheney (as well as others within their administration) defrauded our country into supporting a war against Iraq. I believe that there is ample prima facie evidence (especially in light of the Acting Defense Department Inspector General’s intelligence report issued last week) that the president and vice president: mislead, and continue to mislead, Congress and the American people over the Iraq war; supported, and continue to support, torture; violated, and continue to violate, Americans' civil liberties through their domestic spy program; and, use their offices to punish critics, any and all which constitute impeachable offensives of high crimes and misdemeanors. I think formal congressional impeachment hearings would not only be the best venue to answer that question, but would also serve as an invaluable tool in helping to make people in this country acutely aware that they were duped. Not of course for the purpose of making folks feel bad that they were defrauded, but to capitalize on that realization in helping to shape publicly-demanded solutions designed to greatly lessen the chances of such Executive Branch-level of high crimes and misdemeanors from ever happening again.

And that's why I support New Mexico's Senate Joint Resolution 5 that petitions Congress to commence the investigation of and impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney.