A prisoner in chains:
Impeachment is on the table.
But Congress is not allowed to bite.
The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on one of Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s 35 articles of impeachment against President Bush. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders in the chamber have signaled that they do not want the committee — let alone the full House — to take a vote on impeachment.
How’s that?
The Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the president’s abuses of power — perhaps as soon as next week. Expert witnesses will be called. Kucinich says that a foreign official — who he has not named — is willing to testify regarding presidential wrongdoing. And Judiciary Committee chair John Conyers, the veteran Michigan Democrat who actually believes in presidential accountability but has had a hard time getting other top Democrats to embrace that belief, suggests that the hearing will review evidence of “all the (Bush administration actions) that constitute an imperial presidency.”
But, when all is said and done, the committee is only supposed to “accumulate” the evidence of imperial over-reach, not to act upon it.
If you needed any more evidence that the United States has now reached the point that we are completely unable to govern ourselves, and are, in essence, lurching forward like a drunk with a dysfunctional sense of balance and order, this should be the final clue. This is either an election year stunt and the Bush administration is owed a number of apologies, or the Democratic leadership themselves are complicit, or both. There is no other reasoning for this nonsense. Governments and political parties that engage in this sort of charade do not take themselves seriously, and they most certainly do not take the public seriously.
And why should they? Where is the outrage? Where is Pat Buchanan’s pitchfork brigade? Where is the outcry on the blogs? How can the leadership of an elected party say, with a straight face, that they intend to hold hearings into alleged malfeasance and criminal behavior, but don’t worry, they won’t do anything about it? It is a joke. It is worse than a joke. It is fraud.
Either put an end to this farce, or have faith in the process and act upon the information you find in a manner fitting with the Constitution and the law of the land. Or resign your office and go find employment doing something you are more ably suited to do well. I hear Burger King is hiring cashiers.