That is it: basically we have a congress which is invertebrate. How do we get them a spine?

I watched this entire show tonight. It was wonderful. That faint, distant rumbling of the "I" word that bloggers talk about is getting louder and louder. It’s time to turn up the volume, bang those drums! It’s imperative that this country demands that the rule of law be carried out and that the constitution be upheld.

Section 4 of The Constitution: “The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors”.

The list of Bush/Cheney crimes is long. I’m sure one of them would stick. These two have been implementing their “go-fuck-yourself” policies for too long. The latest in-your-face move is Bush telling Harriet Myers to ignore the law. Even Nixon wasn’t bold enough to stop his council to the president, John Dean, from appearing before congress.

Here’s what John Dean wrote today about it: http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20070713.html

A most excellent hour of television. Watch the entire show. It had my patriotic blood flowing.

Nichols and Fein make the point that Nancy Pelosi is dead wrong by taking impeachment off the table. She might as well say she is taking free speech off the table. The politicians are either cowards and partisans or they simply do not understand the very constitution they are sworn to protect.

I understand the political dangers of initiating impeachment proceedings, but preserving the constitution and the ideals of our founders is more important than any individual's political career or winning the next election.

Which of Bush's "treasons, bribes, or other high crimes and misdemeanors" do people think would have the best chance of sticking?

Any which could include Cheney in the proceedings? It seems daft to me that you'd want to embark upon actions that would lead to Cheney becoming President!

Andy.

Jef - the Dean article is excellent and his writing has been one of the few voices that is clearly spelling out the steps Bush's White House is using to increase his powers. My frustration is that our country appears to have overall apathy. Sure, approval ratings are down, but that is very passive. I'm ready to support one of these Dem candidates who steps up to true leadership and challenges our country to get off of this very wrong path.

Outstanding show. I was especially struck by the point where Bruce Fein echoed what Glenn Greenwald has been saying about this administration concerning wiretapping. Greenwald writes (I'm paraphrasing), 'For a long time I didn't understand why they were defying the FISA court. What is the point? The court has provided tremendous latitude to the executive branch. Rejection of wiretapping requests have been very rare. I finally realized that the point of the defiance is that Bush and Cheney flatly refuse to acknowledge that there is any limitation to their power - period.' This is, in my opinion, much more important than any disagreement I have with these bastards concerning policy. Policies change - if my side loses (or wins) today, the issue can be revisted tomorrow. But if the government continues down the path whereby it allows John Yoo's outrageous claims of a "unitary executive" theory of government to stand unchallenged, there is no tomorrow for this country.

Any which could include Cheney in the proceedings? It seems daft to me that you'd want to embark upon actions that would lead to Cheney becoming President!

Indeed. Bruce Fein, associate deputy attorney general under Reagan and constitutional lawyer, presents just such a case in Slate:

Impeach Cheney

The vice president has run utterly amok and must be stopped.

By Bruce Fein

http://slate.com/id/2169292/

here's the full show link a must see

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07132007/profile.html

Tim – I certainly want Cheney (The Madman) thrown out with Bush (The Dummy in Cheney’s lap). Here’s a great place to start:

http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/65

Right at the end, "we have a congress that is basically invertebrate." I would argue that is not the case.

It's not that congress is scared, it's that corporate control is too extensive for any impeachment proceedings to even begin.

Jef -

Re: Here’s a great place to start:

Thanks for the thought, but as they say, "Been there, done that" (and I have). I wish I could believe it would do some good.

Well lets get on with it. Lets begin Impeachment Now; we have waited long enough. Impeach President Cheney and his puppet now.