Daily Archives: July 23, 2008

Imperial Presidency Impeachment Hearing

On July 25, 2008, in lieu of Impeachment, a hearing on the Imperial Presidency of George W. Bush will be held by The House Judiciary Committee at 10:00 a.m. For who knows what reason — some speculate that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has threatened House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers with losing his chairmanship and some claim it’s because Pelosi and other Congressional leaders who are just as guilty as Bush would be implicated, among other things — Senator Dennis Kucinich’s calls for impeachment will be turned into testimony about Bush’s ‘Imperial Presidency’ as well as several other Bush administration scandals, but in keeping with traditional Congressional complicity, there will be no vote for actual impeachment.

Treasonous acts committed by Presidents and the political establishment in Washington have occurred for decades, albeit probably never more obviously than they are now. An ironic, almost carbon copy example of history repeating itself can be found in a September 11, 1941 speech given by aviator Charles Lindbergh in Des Moines, Iowa. Lindbergh was referring to FDR’s administration but the vast majority of what he said easily applies to the Bush Administration. History has a bad habit of repeating itself. The words to his speech are available from The Holocaust Historiography Project and a video of it is available from YouTube.

A press release issued by Rep. John Conyers and The House Judiciary Committee says his panel will explore a variety of issues including manipulation of prewar Iraq intelligence, politicization of the Justice Department, and refusal to cooperate with Congressional investigations.

President Bush’s blatant misuse of executive privilege when covering questions to his subordinates about criminal behavior and other misadventures of he and his administration makes it unclear how much the Judiciary Committee’s inquiry will accomplish. Despite ruling out impeachment, Conyers said his committee would address “possible legal responses” to Bush’s “Imperial Presidency.”

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