History will damn George Bush and Dick Cheney for treasonous crimes against the U.S. Constitution, state-sanctioned torture, and global war crimes.
Unfortunately, Democratic leadership will also be damned by history and be held complicit to these very same crimes because of its cowardly refusal to use its constitutional authority to impeach and investigate Bush and Cheney for such crimes. Congressional leaders have taken an oath to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States. They did not take an oath to defend George Bush. They did not take an oath to defend the American people from inconvenience should impeachment hearings bring strife. They did not take an oath to protect a cabal of neo-con punks and corporate cronies who have hijacked the machinery of government and the U.S. military to be used for their nefarious and self-enriching imperial projects around the world.
The Democrats’ excuse that impeachment is impractical because there is only a year left in Bush’s term is an obscenity. If a corporate CEO is alleged to have committed murder and milked millions from his company would a prosecutor withhold charges if the CEO only had a few months left at the job and it might cause strife with the company?
Impeachment would send a message to future leaders that there is accountability for criminality. It would also show our citizenry and the world that our country has returned from the brink of lawless insanity. What could be a more important task?
Gerry Rempel
Delegate for the Democratic Party of Oregon