THE CASE FOR IMPEACHMENT

The March edition of Harper's Magazine has a cover story calling for the impeachment of George W. Bush. It was written by Lewis Lapham, the editor of Harper's. (Click on the headline link above for the story.)

Lapham begins the article with a quote from Kurt Tucholsky that says, "A country is not only what it does - it is also what it puts up with, what it tolerates." Very well said indeed.

Lapham studied the impeachment resolution being offered by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI). House Resolution 635, says Lapham is a description of the "Bush Administration's invasion of Iraq as the perpetration of a crime against the American people."

Asked what he hoped to prove by introducing the impeachment resolution, Conyers told Lapham, "To take away the excuse that we didn't know." So that two or four or ten years from now, if somebody should ask, "Where were you, Conyers, and where was the U.S. Congress?" when the Bush Administration declared the Constitution inoperative and revoked the license of parliamentary government, none of the company now present can plead ignorance or temporary insanity, can say that "somehow it escaped our notice" that the President was setting himself up as a supreme leader exempt from the rule of law.

"I don't think enough people know how much damage this administration can do to their civil liberties in a very short time. What would you have me do? Grumble and complain? Make cynical jokes? Throw up my hands and say that under the circumstances nothing can be done? At least I can muster the facts, establish a record, tell the story that ought to be front-page news," concluded Conyers.

And that is just what many Democrats have done. They have said there is nothing we can do. The Repubs control the House so an impeachment resolution is a waste of time - it will never pass. There is nothing we can do about Bush. You have to elect a Democratic Party controlled House of Representatives before we can do anything. And so they do nothing about major league law breaking by the Bush Administration. They wait for Godot to arrive. This only serves to embolden Bush, as he sees the majority of the Congress just sitting quietly aside on their hands while he shreds the Constitution and imperils the nation with an illegal and immoral war and drains the federal budget. He lines the pockets of his big corporate bosses and social progress in American is set back generations.

Rep. John Conyers is an American hero. So far 27 members of Congress have signed onto his impeachment resolution. Ask your Congressperson to join Rep. Conyers. The time is now to fight for the Constitution.