Is the House Finally Considering Impeachment of Bush?
By Deb Cupples on July 18, 2008 at 4:26 PM in Bush/Cheney, Constitution, George Bush, impeachment
Two days ago, the House voted to send Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s “latest impeachment effort” (H.R. 1345) to the House Judiciary Committee (CQ). Merely impeaching President Bush would not remove him from office: removal would require a conviction by two-thirds of the Senate members present. (Constitution, Article I, sections 2 & 3)
Given the Senate’s current make up, it seems unlikely that the Senate actually would convict President Bush, but the House has the numbers to impeach him.
Even without a conviction, mere impeachment would be worthwhile if only to send messages 1) to future presidents with power-abuse problems, and 2) to future school children who will learn about our nation’s character and values by studying American history.
That and impeachment would let the world’s other (largely horrified) nations know that America is not as fundamentally horrifying as the Bush Administration has made us seem.
Today, House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers announced that the committee will hold a hearing on July 25 about the "the Imperial Presidency of George W. Bush and possible legal responses. " That seems like a solid move forward on impeachment. Conyers states:
"Over the last seven plus years, there have been numerous credible allegations of serious misconduct by officials in the Bush Administration….
"Since the beginning of the 110th Congress, the Committee has conducted extensive oversight into allegations of misconduct by the administration, including:
"(1) improper politicization of the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorneys offices, including potential misuse of authority with regard to election and voting
controversies;"(2) misuse of executive branch authority and the adoption and implementation of the so-called unitary executive theory, including in the areas of presidential signing statements and regulatory authority;
"(3) misuse of investigatory and detention authority with regard to U.S. citizens and foreign nationals, including questions regarding the legality of the administration’s surveillance, detention, interrogation, and rendition programs;
"(4) manipulation of intelligence and misuse of war powers, including possible misrepresentations to Congress related thereto;
"(5) improper retaliation against administration critics, including disclosing information concerning CIA operative Valerie Plame, and obstruction of justice related thereto; and
"(6) misuse of authority in denying Congress and the American people the ability to oversee and scrutinize conduct within the administration, including through the use of various asserted privileges and immunities."
The Constitution gives the House the right to impeach a president for, among other things, "high crimes and misdemeanors" (Article II, Section 4). The case law is neither abundant nor definite about what sorts of Presidential behavior qualifies as "high crimes and misdemeanors," likely because only two presidents have been impeached (Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton).
If a president can be impeached (though not convicted) for committing perjury about an extra-marital affair, than I suspect that the House could credibly argue for the impeachment of President Bush based on any of the six types of misconduct that Rep. Conyers listed.
Time’ll tell on this one. [I wasn’t able to link to Conyers’ statement, because it isn’t yet up at the Judiciary Committee
website, which I got it via email. Cross posted at Buck Naked Politics.
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