Impeachment is too important to leave to the Democrats

[Demeter]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_dan_dewa_060514_impeachment_is_too_i.htm


The peoples' will will trump conventional political "wisdom"
by Dan DeWalt


Watching the Democrats react to the rising tide of citizens’ calls for impeachment is reminiscent of the debacle that was the Bush administration’s reaction to hurricane Katrina. Nancy Pelosi is busy assuring her corporate sponsors that she will keep her party in check, and allow no impeachment next year, even if they win back the Congress. If the Democrats maintain this pathetic and cowardly abandonment of constitutional principles, they will find themselves even more thoroughly marginalized and abandoned by erstwhile supporters. Pelosi and her ilk are so busy listening to their beltway consultants and toadying up to their donors that they haven’t even noticed that the water is already above their ankles and rising.
While these political sellout artists have been intoning their mind numbing placations, citizens across the nation have been speaking and acting. Last week Hanover NH town meeting voters, by a nearly 3-1 margin, passed a resolution calling for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney on grounds of the domestic wiretapping in violation of the FISA act. The Chapel Hill North Carolina town council has voted for impeachment, as has the Chicago city council. Grassroots efforts are underway in over a dozen states, including such unlikely candidates as Montana, Indiana, Arizona and even Texas. Impeachment resolutions have been introduced into three state legislatures, with more pending.
Maybe the fact that private citizens do not depend upon well heeled lobbyists for support and sustenance makes it easier for us to speak out about what really matters, to recognize right from wrong, and to not look the other way when we see our government breaking the law.
The fact that the so-called opposition party is AWOL on this issue is probably a boon to the commonweal. The growing movement calling for impeachable offenses to be met with impeachment, and for the Constitution of the United States to be adhered to by its government will be more powerful and compelling without being sullied by association with the groveling and sniveling Democrats, who can tend to their primary task of waiting at the outskirts of the power trough, hoping for a few crumbs to come trickling down to them.
By this fall’s election, the voice of the people will be loud and clear and overwhelming. We will have no more of a lawless and immoral government. At that point, those politicians who have learned how to swim will get the message and do the peoples’ bidding. Until then, it is best to ignore them while we tend to our business of getting this country back onto the right track.
If we are not willing to act now to save our nation from the dreadful future that the Bush administration has in store for us, then we will deserve the consequences of our inaction. Our leaders are failing us, let us not fail ourselves.



Dan Dewalt is a musician/woodworker/teacher who authored the Newfane impeachment resolution passed at March 2006 town meetings.

[MrBenchley]

1. Wonder why somebody who hates Democrats so

would think that a Democrat would give two shits as to what he's got to say.

[Demeter]

2. The Democrats? Or the Putative Democratic Leadership?

There IS a diiference, a big one. See my next posting...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=210580&mesg_id=210580

[MrBenchley]

3. Putative? Hokay.....

Don't let the door hit you in the ass.....

[Demeter]

4. Well, In My Book, You Are Only A Leader If Someone Follows

and I'm not seeing much of a following for any of the Democratic leadership--and Howard Dean went and shot himself in the foot last week and he was the only one with some claim to followers.

[MrBenchley]

6. Which book is that?

Fractured Fairy Tales?

If you don't want to be a Democrat, don't let me keep you.

[Ken Burch]

34. Why do you persist in defending our cowardly leadership's

"Always Surrender To Bush" strategy?

And what is it about this piece that offends you so. It isn't calling for the abolition of the party. It's just saying that rank-and-file people of all parties will have to take the lead on impeachment. Since we know that everyone who opposes impeachment is right wing and will never vote Democratic, why not just get out of the way and let the rank-and-file do it?

[Jack Rabbit]

5. The Democratic Party's disconnect

There is a disconnect between rank and file Democrats on the one hand and the party's congressional leadership and the DLC on the other.

Rank and file Democrats are angry. The do not not see Bush and his lieutenants as just another conservative administration with whom they have some differences, some profound, about economic issues. Yet the Democratic leadership insists on treated the Bush regime as if it is just another conservative administration and continue to treat it with deference.

To many rank and file Democrats, Bush is not even legitimately president. Free and fair elections were denied to the people of Florida in 2000 and to the people of Florida and Ohio in 2004. These were key states that could have been won by the Democratic candidate in a fair contest.

The regime has used its power to enrich those who have foot the bill for Bush's rise to power through tax cuts and from putting some of Bush's corporate cronies in key regulatory positions. Conflict of interest is a hallmark of the Bush regime.

Even Mr. Cheney's shepherding of post-war reconstruction contracts in Iraq for Halliburton, of which he was once CEO, without competitive bidding smacks of a serious conflict of interest. Add to that that there was absolutely no truth behind any of Mr. Cheney's pre-war statements about the threat posed by Iraq and Mr. Cheney's frequent trips to Langley, presumably to strong arm intelligence analysts, and one gets the idea that the invasion was staged solely for the benefit of war profiteers.

Many rank and file Democrats, this one included, want Bush and Cheney impeached and removed, period. They feel betrayed by the party's leadership that just doesn't get it.

Bush and Cheney, along with Mr. Rumsfeld and Dr. Rice and others, manipulated intelligence reports prior to invading Iraq in order to make a bogus case for war. That by itself makes Watergate look like petty crime and anything related to banging an intern in the back room look like a parking ticket. It isn't just an impeachable offense, it's a war crime.

And that isn't all.

Mr. Bush has, with the counsel of Mr. Gonzales, have disregarded treaties to which the United States is party concerning the treatment of prisoners of war and other war detainees and residents of occupied territory and of the administration of occupied territory. This is in violation of the supreme law of the land clause of Article 6 of the Constitution. These treaty violations consist of torture and humiliating treatment and of the denial of due process in judicial proceedings. Again, these are not just impeachable offenses, these are war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Bush and Cheney have demonstrated a reckless disregard for and even hostility toward the constitutional rights of private citizens. Mr. Bush authorized, partly on Mr. Cheney's counsel and that of Mr. Gonzales, instituted a program of warrantless wire tapping against private citizens in plain violation of the Fourth Amendment. In addition, Mr. Bush lied about this program in 2004, publicly stating that a warrant was needed to implement such action, months after authorizing the NSA to implement wire taps without warrants. With the counsel of Mr. Gonzales, Mr. Bush has incarcerated American citizens indefinitely without charge in plain violation of the Sixth Amendment.

Finally, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney showed a disregard for the national security of the United States by conspiring with several of their aides, including Mr. Libby and Mr. Rove, to disclose the identity of an undercover agent of the CIA as part of a political vendetta against the agent's husband, who has publicly questioned how the Bush regime used and even demonstrated how the regime falsified intelligence prior to the invasion of Iraq.

These are grounds for the impeachment of not only of Mr. Bush, but of Mr. Cheney, Dr. Rice, Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Gonzales. The grounds are serious, valid and urgent. Yet Democratic leaders even balk at a wimpy process like censure.

Impeachment is not going to happen unless the people make it a priority. The politicians certainly haven't.

[MrBenchley]

7. The only disconnect is between the far left

and the rest of the party.

"Yet Democratic leaders even balk at a wimpy process like censure."
How tragic that the teen progressives were denied a totally futile and worthless gesture....

"Impeachment is not going to happen unless the people make it a priority."
And most voters care a lot more about how we get out of the mess we're in than whether the Democrats play "Gotcha back" with the GOP...which is why the GOP is beating that "impeachment" drum.

[Jack Rabbit]

8. For the record, I have two adult children

How tragic that the teen progressives were denied a totally futile and worthless gesture....

I'm bit older than you think.

The other point is that impeaching Bush and Cheney is not a "gothcha back." They have done genuine damage to American political institutions. Impeachment is the best rememdy and one which they richly deserve.

[depakid]

10. It's a matter of having respect for law and process

But that's not something either the so called "leadership" has shown much of over the past 6 years... could be maybe that will change. Or it could be that the "leadership" will change. We shall see.

[MrBenchley]

11. Age is only a state of mind (snicker)

"The other point is that impeaching Bush and Cheney is not a "gothcha back." "
Sez you.

[bemildred]

12. I can assure you it is a good deal more than that.

As anyone who has been there knows.

[Jack Rabbit]

18. Perhaps you're right

So, I'll give you some milk and cookies and send you to bed.

But before that, perhaps you would like to explain, in an adult way (if it's possible for you to do this without snickering like a bratty child), why do you think Bush and Cheney should be allowed to continue in office. Why you believe that impeaching the two of them for lying about the threat posed by Saddam, for disregarding international treaties about the use of torture and the administration of occupied territory, the warrantless wiretapping of American citizens in disregard of the Fourth Amendment, the incarceration of American citizens indefinitely without charges in violation of the Sixth Amendment and a conspiracy to unmask an undercover agent for political gain do not constitute high crimes and misdemeanors worthy of impeachment and removal from office?

And, since you appear to be a greater authority on what I think than I am, would you tell me why I think that impeaching Bush and Cheney would be a "gotcha back" for the impeachment of Clinton. Up to now, I had thought that I thought that the impeachment of Clinton was so utterly ridiculous as to require no "get back" to make Ken Starr or Henry Hyde or any of the other impeachment managers look silly; for that reason, I didn't know that I thought that the bogus impeachment of Clinton had anything to do with why I would believe Bush and Cheney deserve impeachment. But I obviously don't know what I think as well as you do, so please tell me what I really think. I would appreciate that information.

The bandwidth is yours, Mr. Benchley. Please take your time and give it some thought.

[MrBenchley]

25. Pout louder....

[Jack Rabbit]

30. I'll take that as a "No"

But please don't hold your breath until you turn blue.

[MrBenchley]

31. Would you like me to tell you where to put it?

[Ken Burch]

38. I've said it before, Benchley

Don't post when you're drunk.

You have no idea how much Karl Rove thanks you when you do.

[Ken Burch]

37. We have nothing to gain by NOT impeaching.

We have nothing to gain b NOT disagreeing with the Bush agenda.

Cowardice always equals defeat.

[Demeter]

9. I Also Have Two Adult Children

Bush has destroyed my business and financial security by destroying this economy. He's terrified my neighbors, many of them Muslim. He's encouraged every knuckle-dragging Klan follower and religious fanatic in the nation to think that they have the divine rights of kings. Damn straight that impeachment is far too little a return for all the trouble he's invested.

And nobody could ever call me far Left. I only write left-handed.

[ShortnFiery]

13. Me too!

I write left handed too! :blush:

But also believe in regulated Capitalism. Nothing today is supportive of small business owners. Only LARGE corporations and those in the Investor Classes benefit ... *'s "haves" and "have mores." :(

[ShortnFiery]

14. Nope, if the Dems get the Congress, WE THE PEOPLE will

not only DEMAND Impeachment but WE WILL also DEMAND Indictment, etc.

You can take that to the bank! :hi:

[MrBenchley]

16. But since you've spent all this time pissing all over Democrats

Why the fuck should we pay any attention to your silly demands?

[ShortnFiery]

19. Oh, I expected much more decorum from you ... I love true democrats n/t

[MrBenchley]

26. No sense wasting decorum on those who don't deserve it....

And of course, only you are the judge of who's a true Democrat (big D please) and who isn't....

[muriel_volestrangler]

27. And your replies to Jack Rabbit's substantive points

are decorous? Grow up, Benchley, and start replying to people, rather than using cliches instead of arguments.

[MrBenchley]

28. The replies were just what was deserved....

"start replying to people, rather than using cliches"
Irony is SUCH a wonderful thing....

[ShortnFiery]

29. Peace be with you too MrBenchley :-) n/t

[Ken Burch]

33. Why do you still insist that only DLC'ers are Democrats?

Face reality. The party and the COUNTRY are moving left, and there's nothing to be gained from bland centrism anymore.

[Ken Burch]

36. Nobody's pissing over Democrats. Only offering just criticism

to cowardly conservatives like the DLC, the people who don't disagree with Republicans on anything that matters and who don't know how to win anymore, as the last three elections prove.

There is no way our party would benefit from their being NO criticism of the cowards in the leadership. Pelosi and Reid have no principles and convictions anymore, and have no courage. Why do we owe them anything when they do the party no good?

[ShortnFiery]

15. You confuse the far left with the slight "left of center"

No, the NON-CORPORATE loving Democrats within the NON-Investor Classes will MAKE our Representatives hold the * Administration Accountable. IF these Representatives do NOT investigate, impeach and recommend indictments, THE PEOPLE are NOT SHEEPLE when we are hurting financially - we will vote the Corporate Enablers OUT OF OFFICE. The above is not "the far left" unless you consider the far left consistent of Democrats within the Working and Middle Classes Alike, i.e., the wage slaves.

[MrBenchley]

17. No, I nailed it the first time....

Now I suggest you go and peddle your silly ranting about corporate enablers and sheeple to somebody else.....

[ShortnFiery]

20. Oh, ever the reactionary ... you peddle your wares just as well :-) n/t

[Name removed]

39. Deleted message

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[Ken Burch]

32. Your outrage and contempt would be far more convincing

If the polls weren't proving that you've lost the arguement as far as the American people were concerned.

You aren't still claiming that the Democrats shouldn't attack Bush at all, are you?

You aren't still seriously claiming that the win by default strategy could ever have worked?

[Ken Burch]

35. YOU are now in the minority in the party.

The party is now progressive and aggressive at the rank-and-file level. People like you have lost the arguement.

And there is no way to get out of "the mess" without being pro-impeachment and ANTIWAR. There is no way to "Do it Better" on Iraq, and no way to win by NOT confronting the Republicans. Winning by default is impossible.

[tom_paine]

42. MrBenchley, you are way off base IMO, sir

My bona fides: I have been a Democrat since I turned 18 and have always been registered so. I never worked for the party or politicians before 2000, but then so many of us were wrong about the apparent health of our system of checks and balances am I really in slim company.

Since then, I have busted my ass, both physically and financially, to throw my back into getting Democrats elected. I worked on Congressional campaigns in '02 and '04, and Kerry in '04. I gave more $$$$ than I could afford and more than I ever imagined I would in 2004...but life without freedom is no life at all, especially to those of us born before 2000 (i.e. when America was a Free Nation, not rapidly tranisitoning towards Totalitarianism.

Now here me well these are legitimate issues people have raised and your knee-jerk defense of the indefensible is huirting the Party, not helping it. Like an abused wife (which in many ways should be the mascot of our party these days, not the stubborn, tough donkey I am so very sorry to say), we need to acknowledge there is a problem first before we can get away from the abuser.

I intend to, more forcefully than ever before (because I feel it more forcefully than ever before), make this clear to the candidates that I work for in case they should actually be permitted to "win" an American election on the national level.

Hopefully, others will be saying this also and, in defiance of Democratic Leadershop patterns of the last decade, our voices because there are SO MANY OF THEM from left moderate and even conservative Democrats that they cannot be ignored.

Yes I recognize this is rather naive of me to hope considering Democratic Leadership performance of the past 7 years. But I still hope. I still donate. I still work the phones at campaign time.

And lest you misinterpret me as you did Jack Rabbit, no nose-ring wearing far-leftist here, MrBenchley.

I am a bill-paying, homeowning veteran who takes the oath he gave many years ago quite seriously and who doesn;t see eye to eye with the far left on a whole lot of things.

And yet, they are my allies as much as you are, sir. And you might want to consider the validity of the points made here before you defend the team, knee-jerk style.

We do a disservice to the Democratic Party and America when we paper over such serious deificiencies like those we have suffered in the name of unity.

[Name removed]

41. Deleted message

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[tom_paine]

43. You may be correct. I had him on ignore from long ago

I didn't even notice it. However, he may just be misguided in that he thinks papering over the deficiencies in pucblic is prudent.

But it is most disasterously wrong. The other point would make sense in that he would then be telling us the opposite of what is the best course of action.

"Yes, keep that powder dry. Don't go against the polls, even when they show you leading. Beware the Right-Wing Lie Machine and tailor your words carefully to avoid being swift boated.
"

And so forth. In either case, he would be saying basically the same things.

[MrBenchley]

44. Actually, I'm just not a Chomskyite

Who can see what a piddle of pus the "Progressive Purist" crowd is....

[Name removed]

45. Deleted message

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[MrBenchley]

46. Actually, Kenny, you're 100% wrong., AGAIN.

"You can't be a Democrat and still think the war is right"
Sez you. But you don't get to say who is and who isn't a Democrat.

"Why stay in a party in which you hate everyone else in it?"
YOU answer that question, Kenny. You're the one who hates actual Democrats.

[Name removed]

47. Deleted message

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[MrBenchley]

48. Your own vainglorious posts discredit you, Kenny.

And you're the one who hates Democrats....

[Ken Burch]

49. Why don't you just say "so's your old man"?

"vainglorious"? what, are we hitting the thesaurus as well as the sauce today?

I don't hate Democrats. If I did I wouldn't be a registered Democrat.

You have got to accept the fact that the DLC is not the only REAL Democratic voice. Most Democrats are progressive as opposed to DLC, and your views are increasingly in the minority. Most Democrats know the Iraq war is a disaster and the "war against terror" is just an excuse to doom the country to eternal militarism.

You are not the alpha and the omega, Benchers.

[MrBenchley]

50. Hey, it's all the response you merit

"I don't hate Democrats."
Sure you do. And your participation in threads like this shows it.

[Ken Burch]

51. If you read this thread intro carefully, it was in support of citizen

involvement. If our party's leaders are going to be staying on the sidelines on the impeachment issue, then don't we have to concede the right of other people to carry it forward?

You would agree, I hope, that there's no reason we should feel obligated to defend the Democratic leadership's position on the impeachment issue. There's certainly no reason to be united in non-involvement, since we all know that NOT pushing for impeachment isn't doing our party any good.

Give me one reason why we should defend Pelosi and Reid's approach?

[MrBenchley]

52. It was a load of horseshit bashing Democrats, Kenny.....

"that there's no reason we should feel obligated to defend the Democratic leadership's position on the impeachment issue"
Don't then, and see if anybody gives a shit.

"Give me one reason why we should defend Pelosi and Reid's approach?"
Been there, done that. Voters are interested in Democrats offering solutions to our problems. They don';t give a shit about playing "gotcha" with the Republicans.

[Ken Burch]

53. Impeachment isn't about playing "gotcha" with the GOP

And in saying it is, you are once again repeating an RNC talking point. Please stop doing that, they have people on their side who get paid good money for spreading THEIR line.

Impeachment is about standing up for justice.

Did you see Watergate as "gotcha"?

This situation is far more serious and far more deadly.

And those of us who support impeachment have ALSO been offering solutions. It's the DLC that opposes offering solutions when it proposes that we govern by promising to keep all MAJOR Republican policies in place. It's Republican to continue to back the war, Republican to continue to back the existing trade deals rather than negotiating new ones that give working people the same priority as corporations, and Republican oppose any major new domestic programs or even a serious universal health care program(like single-payer). It's also a recipe for repeated defeat, as the congressional races from 1994 to the 2004 prove.

The key to a Democratic comeback is a Democratic program and Democratic candidates that break with the Bush status quo, rather than wasting time by settling for the status quo and attacking our party's own most loyal supporters.

Victory lies in mobilizing the dispossesed majority, not in acting more conservative than the conservatives.

[MrBenchley]

54. Sure it is, Kenny....

Now I suggest you go snivel about Pelosi and Reid to some of your other Democrat-hating peers.

[Ken Burch]

55. Are you ever going to let go of the ridiculous idea

That ANY criticism of any incumbent Democrat equals "Democrat-hating"?

What, exactly, have you done for the party that gives you the authority to declare what is and isn't party loyalty?
Who are you to claim to be above all the rest of us in terms on contributions to the Democratic party?
You have NEVER explained that to any of us. You have an obligation to do so if you expect anyone else in the party to take you seriously.

For myself, I've never claimed to be more than an individual Democrat, one voice out of many. Really, Benchmeister, that's all you can claim to be either.

[Name removed]

56. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

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[bemildred]

22. Looks like a fake site to me. nt

[ShortnFiery]

23. It's my understanding that people can blog ALMOST anything they wish?

However, it's up to us individuals to choose to read them or not. If you despise a message board, then it would be great *bad fun,* albeit a little twisted in an mental health sort of way.

Yet, God Bless America - it is not illegal to focus your blog on trashing an entire message board. Have at it. :hi: :patriot: :shrug:

[Jack Rabbit]

24. Sounds like a banned user

He probably can't understand what the mods didn't like about "Bush is the greatest thing since peanutbrittle and you guys all belong in Gitmo".

Other than that, you can say pretty much anything.

[Alonzo Fyfe]

40. Case for Impeachment

To refuse to impeach President Bush is to give his actions legitimacy, which is to establish his procedures as a matter of policy for all future presidents.

Failure to impeach means that the President gains a new power to wiretap without a warrant, engage in torture sometimes until death, rendition, grabbing and holding American citizens without a charge or trial, and to rewrite laws through the use of "signing statements", and to simply bypass the judicial process by simply asserting that he will not use the courts.

I fear that the Democratic leadership will not impeach Bush substantially because they want to use these powers themselves. Their mouths are watering with what they can do with the power to ignore the courts, wiretap at will, and rewrite legislation through signing statements. So, they are not at all interested in retaining any checks and balances to executive power.

America ceases to be a Constitutional Republic, unless Americans take action to make the statement that the Constitution counts for something.

Alonzo Fyfe
Atheist Ethicist Blog