IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS WILL CLEAR THE AIR
By Peter Mathews
Of the many issues facing the 37th Congressional District and the nation that are important to me, there is one that I want to address in particular: Impeachment.
Do the Republicans who have supported this president and his massive increase in the powers of the executive branch ever wake up in the middle of the night, in a cold sweat, wondering what would happen if/when a Democratic president were elected and inherited these same powers? Do those same people ever wonder about how a future would look, where Habeas Corpus is a quaint and antiquated idea?
Habeas Corpus is a fundamental cornerstone of democracy, seven hundred years ancient. Without Habeas Corpus, without the right to challenge the government’s charges against you in a court of law, we are sliding on the slippery slope to dictatorship.
To the extent that the executive branch continues not to recognize the validity of the legislative and judicial branches of the government, the checks and balances of our government will have failed. Of what use are the constitutional remedies of legislation or court challenges if the executive branch claims for itself the right to ignore such challenges? The President’s new and self-serving interpretation of the Constitution makes just such an end-run around the rule of law.
The issue of impeachment is not an issue of personal vendetta or politics. It is an issue of Constitutional integrity that will be with us long after George W. Bush and his administration have long gone.
Let’s separate the two parts of the issue:
1. The legal basis for impeachment.
The legal justifications for Constitutional impeachment don’t generate that much dispute. For a good explanation of the legal basis, I recommend former Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman’s excellent book on the subject, “The Impeachment of George W. Bush, a Practical Guide for Concerned Citizens.”
Obviously, there are many stark legal justifications – e.g., the illegal torture of prisoners; lying about an unjustified war; the Valerie Plame mess, illegal wiretapping of Americans; the abysmal Katrina mismanagement; leaking classified information for political purposes; and the obstruction of justice that we are still uncovering in the DOJ investigation.
2. Practical and political basis for impeachment.
This part generates more argument than the first part. Why bother to impeach a president who has less than two years left? Wouldn’t it be a distraction from stopping the war in Iraq? Couldn’t this backfire on Democrats as the Clinton impeachment backfired on Republicans? And isn’t it a vain effort after all, since the Republicans have a sizeable enough minority in Congress to thwart it?
Those are all very good practical arguments, but this is more than just a political or tactical issue to me. As a professor of American Government and International Relations, I worry more about the precedent we set if we do not act at all. We may dismiss George W. Bush as an aberration, and one with a limited shelf-life, but if the precedent he has set for extending executive authority is allowed to stand unquestioned, future presidents, Democrat or Republican, may claim similar authority with some historical justification to back them up. Above and beyond the continuing damage that George W. Bush’s policies pose to our country in the remaining months of his presidency there lies the more lasting threat posed by his legacy.
We must revive Representative John Conyers’ bill House Resolution 635 (December 2005), creating “…a select committee to investigate the Administration’s intent to go to war before Congressional authorization, manipulation of pre-war intelligence, encouraging and countenancing torture, retaliating against critics, and to make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment.”
This bill needs to be revived and brought out of committee and sent to the House floor so that we can begin the process of impeachment, if need be. I don’t want to prejudge anyone, even the President. But nobody is above the law. Not even the President.
Background: Peter Mathews is Professor of American Government and International Relations and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Cypress College. He has also served as a political commentator/analyst on network and cable television and radio. He is currently working on a book, Dollar Democracy: With Liberty and Justice for Some-How to Reclaim the American Dream for All. He is planning a run for the June 3, 2008 37th Congressional District Democratic primary election. Peter Mathews may be reached at (562) 234-3319 or [email protected].
(Received via e-mail by IFP from Peter Mathews for Congress)