[Peace-discuss] Impeachment, from the right

[C. G. Estabrook]

[This is from the weekly publication of the group that puts
out the Washington Times.  It's right-wing but like the WT has
its sources in DC.  The article suggests that there's more
worry about impeachment that MSM will admit.  Good.  --CGE]


Issue Date: January 23-29, 2006, Posted On: 1/23/2006
Impeachment hearings: The White House prepares for the worst

 

The Bush administration is bracing for impeachment hearings in
Congress.

 

"A coalition in Congress is being formed to support
impeachment," an administration source said.

 

Sources said a prelude to the impeachment process could begin
with hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee in February.
They said the hearings would focus on the secret electronic
surveillance program and whether Mr. Bush violated the 1978
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

 

Administration sources said the charges are expected to
include false reports to Congress as well as Mr. Bush's
authorization of the National Security Agency to engage in
electronic surveillance inside the United States without a
court warrant. This included the monitoring of overseas
telephone calls and e-mail traffic to and from people living
in the United States without requisite permission from a
secret court.

 

Sources said the probe to determine whether the president
violated the law will include Republicans, but that they may
not be aware they could be helping to lay the groundwork for a
Democratic impeachment campaign against Mr. Bush.

 

"Our arithmetic shows that a majority of the committee could
vote against the president," the source said. "If we work
hard, there could be a tie."

 

The law limits the government surveillance to no more than 72
hours without a court warrant. The president, citing his
constitutional war powers, has pledged to continue wiretaps
without a warrant.

 

The hearings would be accompanied by several lawsuits against
the administration connected to the surveillance program. At
the same time, the Electronic Privacy Information Center has
filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that demands
information about the NSA spying.

 

Sen. Arlen Specter, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman and
Pennsylvania Republican, has acknowledged that the hearings
could conclude with a vote of whether Mr. Bush violated the
law. Mr. Specter, a critic of the administration’s
surveillance program, stressed that, although he would not
seek it, impeachment is a possible outcome.

 

"Impeachment is a remedy," Mr. Specter said on Jan. 15. "After
impeachment, you could have a criminal prosecution. But the
principal remedy under our society is to pay a political price."

 

Mr. Specter and other senior members of the committee have
been told by legal constitutional experts that Mr. Bush did
not have the authority to authorize unlimited secret
electronic surveillance. Another leading Republican who has
rejected the administration's argument is Sen. Sam Brownback
of Kansas.

 

On Jan. 16, former Vice President Al Gore set the tone for
impeachment hearings against Mr. Bush by accusing the
president of lying to the American people. Mr. Gore, who lost
the 2000 election to Mr. Bush, accused the president of
"indifference" to the Constitution and urged a serious
congressional investigation. He said the administration
decided to break the law after Congress refused to change the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

 

"A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very
structure of our government," Mr. Gore said.

 

"I call upon members of Congress in both parties to uphold
your oath of office and defend the Constitution,” he said.
“Stop going along to get along. Start acting like the
independent and co-equal branch of American government that
you are supposed to be under the constitution of our country."

 

Impeachment proponents in Congress have been bolstered by a
memorandum by the Congressional Research Service on Jan. 6.
CRS, which is the research arm of Congress, asserted in a
report by national security specialist Alfred Cumming that the
amended 1947 law requires the president to keep all members of
the House and Senate intelligence committees "fully and
currently informed" of a domestic surveillance effort. It was
the second CRS report in less than a month that questioned the
administration's domestic surveillance program.

 

The latest CRS report said Mr. Bush should have briefed the
intelligence committees in the House and Senate. The report
said covert programs must be reported to House and Senate
leaders as well as the chairs of the intelligence panels,
termed the "Gang of Eight."

 

Administration sources said Mr. Bush would wage a vigorous
defense of electronic surveillance and other controversial
measures enacted after 9/11. They said the president would
begin with pressure on Republican members of the Senate
Judiciary Committee. Mr. Bush would then point to security
measures taken by the former administration of President Bill
Clinton.

 

"The argument is that the American people will never forgive
any public official who knowingly hurts national security," an
administration source said. "We will tell the American people
that while we have done everything we can to protect them, our
policies are being endangered by a hypocritical Congress."
	

 
 



Copyright © 2005 News World Communications