Monday, January 28, 2008

Elizabeth Holtzman speaks out


"Former Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman served on the House Judiciary Committee during proceedings toward Nixon's impeachment." [Truthout]

Her op-ed piece in The Philadelphia Inquirer calls for the Judiciary Committee to move toward impeachment. She writes:
There is more than ample justification for impeachment. The Constitution specifies the grounds as treason, bribery or "high crimes and misdemeanors," a term that means "great and dangerous offenses that subvert the Constitution." As the House Judiciary Committee determined during Watergate, impeachment is warranted when a president puts himself above the law and gravely abuses power.

Have Bush and Cheney done that?

Yes.

People often wonder what constitutes "high crimes and misdemeanors." I think Holtzman does well in specifying "great and dangerous offenses that subvert the Constitution." "High crimes" does not refer to spectacular misdeeds but rather to actions that undermine the very basis and structure of our government

Read it all here.

She concludes:
Whether or not they bring electoral rewards in 2008, impeachment proceedings are the right thing to do. They will help curb the serious abuses of this administration, and send a strong message to future administrations that no president or vice president is above the law. [emphasis mine]

h/t to Truthout for reprinting Holtzman's piece.
--the BB

1 comment:

Fran said...

It is mindblowing to me that we spent so much time and money as a nation, during the Clinton Presidency, awash in the Starr Commission and all that BS.

Here we are years later and ACTUAL REAL HIGH CRIMES have occurred (sorry for shouting, I am a little upset) and nothing....

I simply do not understand and am reminded of the excesses and the despair of Rome before the fall.