THINKING FOR OURSELVES

Impeachment Now

By Shea Howell

Michigan Citizen, July 22-28, 2007

At the end of last week the American Research Group published a new poll finding that 54% of American adults want the U.S. House of Representatives to begin impeachment proceedings against Vice President Dick Cheney. Not surprisingly nearly 76% of Democrats wanted Cheney’s impeachment. But 17% of Republicans agreed, as did 51% of Independents.

The poll also found that 46% of the voters favor the impeachment of President George W. Bush, including 69% of all Democrats, 13% of Republicans and 50% of Independents.

These numbers are startling. They are more than opinions about a particular policy or favorable ratings. There is a broadly-based, growing belief that the constitutional crisis ushered in by this President, the precedents he has set, and the destruction of the public trust his actions represent, can only be addressed by the constitutional remedy of impeachment.

I have long thought Bush and Dick Cheney deserved impeachment. The invasion of Iraq violated the deepest of public obligations. However, when the Democrats took control of Congress, I found myself agreeing with Nancy Pelosi, that impeachment would be a distraction and should be “off the table.”

I was wrong. Speaker Pelosi is wrong. The process of impeaching this president and vice president would be the single most important step we could take as a nation to begin to restore a sense of living democracy to our country. Bush and Cheney have systematically been expanding the powers of the executive to the point where they consider their actions above the law. They not only disrespect the laws of this nation, but they have violated international laws, the sovereignty of other nations and the sanctity of individual rights and liberties.

The process of impeachment is about more than Bush and Cheney. It is about the powers of the presidency in a democracy. If we as a people do not make clear that we find the practices of this administration an anathema to democracy, we will allow all future presidents to say that they can invade whoever they want, for whatever reason they want. We will allow all future presidents to dispense with the most sacred rights of individuals in the name of national security and we will allow our nation to become an outcast among the family of nations.

The process of impeachment was created to deal with the “misconduct of public men, or, in other words… the abuse or violation of some public trust,” wrote Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers. He said that impeachment was “a method of National Inquest into the conduct of public men.”

The framers saw impeachment as the primary means to prevent executive power from becoming like that of a monarch. In essence, impeachment is the constitutional remedy for a situation where the President has taken on the powers of a King. It is the means of restoring the executive branch to its proper relationship with the People, the Congress and the Constitution.

Impeaching Bush and Cheney would enable us to engage anew in the discussion of the proper powers of the president. This discussion is already taking place across America. By June of 2007 11 state legislatures have considered impeachment resolutions although only Vermont has passed it, as have 39 of its towns. So have 46 other cities, towns and townships across the country including our own city of Detroit.

Bush and Cheney do not deserve only to be voted out. That would assume they have conducted themselves within the normal understanding of the responsibilities of their offices. They need to be impeached for what they have done to our country and to the world.

Email Shea Boggs Center,