Impeachable Offenses Occurred At The Highest Level Of the White House- By Robert Scheer

[kpete]

Can there be any more egregious example of betraying the oath of office of the president to uphold the Constitution than his deceiving Congress from the very well of the House on the reasons for going to war?

A Case for Impeachment
Posted on Jan 30, 2007

By Robert Scheer

.............................

The Libby case testimony, centered on the chicanery of the vice president, certainly suggests that impeachable offenses occurred at the highest level of the White House. Just how conscious the president was of the deceits conducted under his authority, what he knew and when he knew it, is precisely what an impeachment trial would determine.

Consider the testimony concerning White House use of former CIA Director George Tenet in the cover-up of the president’s distortions. The record is unmistakably clear that the CIA and other intelligence sources warned the White House before the president’s speech not to make the bogus Niger claim, and that the reference had been voided out in a previous speech. Yet, after Ambassador Joseph Wilson exposed this fact more than a year after the invasion, Cheney orchestrated a new deception to shift the blame to Tenet.

That is the smoking-gun revelation in the testimony of Cheney’s former spokeswoman, Cathie Martin, a Harvard-educated lawyer who still works in the White House. Her word is that of a sophisticated and top-level White House insider and, as described by the Washington Post, one that offers a devastating glimpse into the moral depravity of this administration:

“At length, Martin explained how she, Libby and Deputy National Security Adviser Steve Hadley worked late into the night writing a statement to be issued by George Tenet in 2004 in which the CIA boss would take blame for the bogus claim in Bush’s State of the Union address that Iraq was seeking nuclear material in Africa. After ‘delicate’ talks, Tenet agreed to say the CIA ‘approved’ the claim and ‘I am responsible’—but even that disappointed Martin, who had wanted Tenet to say that ‘we did not express any doubts about Niger.’ ” Tenet later was awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Certainly this deliberate corruption of the integrity of the CIA, the nation’s premier source of national security information, rises to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” which the Constitution holds out as the standard for impeachment. And can there be any more egregious example of betraying the oath of office of the president to uphold the Constitution than his deceiving Congress from the very well of the House on the reasons for going to war? The Constitution clearly delegates to Congress, and not to the president, the exclusive power to declare war, and deceiving our representatives in making the case for war is a far more important crime than the perjury charge against Libby.

..............................

more at:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070130_robert_scheer_a_case_for_impeachment/

[porphyrian]

1. I'll kick that. - n/t

[radfringe]

2. The PLATE for impeachment

1. get a paper plate
2. write an impeachment message to Pelosi/Reid/YOUR senator/rep
3. fold it up and place in envelope
4. mail it

[femmedem]

7. I love it!

I'm gonna do it, too.

[NoSheep]

13. Let's do it!!!

[twilight_sailing]

3. Bush & Cheney deserve a fair trial

[frogcycle]

5. before we hang 'em

but let's not take too much time with it

[Ganja Ninja]

15. Right! We'll skip the tar & feathering. n/t

[133724]

24. Oh No instructions for tar & feathering....

http://c1d1t1.com/?p=26

[LonelyLRLiberal]

31. In a military tribunal of our creation, and

without the right to counsel or to know the evidence against them. Also, we'll "interrogate" them using waterboarding and attack dogs and use the resulting confessions against them in the trial.

[MN ChimpH8R]

34. I'm reminded of an old episode of Hogan's Heroes

for some reason in which General Burkhalter tells Klink "I have dictated your confession myself, Klink, so there vill be no mistakes. You vill receive a fair trial, after which you vill be shot."

[frogcycle]

4. the degree to which this eclipses Nixon's transgressions

is mindboggling.

And of course Nixon's eclipsed Clinton's. It's like Clinton was an asteroid; Nixon was Jupiter, and bush is the sun - no, wait, the galaxy

[JackRiddler]

12. I'll ask you please

not to use these metaphors again. I like galaxies, stars, planets and asteroids. I really do.

[frogcycle]

35. yeah, i had a problem with it myself

but only astronomical units can convey the extent of his fuckedness

[kenny blankenship]

6. Warrantless wiretapping violation of the FISA law is enough by itself

Bush has violated the Constitution, violated statute law, and actually admitted to knowingly doing so.

[pberq]

8. not to mention violations of the Geneva agreements,

which are in turn violations of U.S. law. Torture ordered by the Whiite House is a criminal offense.

[Ino]

9. A quote from an original SC Justice on this very point...

James Iredell, one of the original SC justices appointed by George Washington, had this to say about impeachment...

The President must certainly be punishable for giving false information to the Senate. He is to regulate all intercourse with foreign powers, and it is his duty to impart to the Senate every material intelligence he receives. If it should appear that he has not given them full information, but has concealed important intelligence which he ought to have communicated, and by that means induced them to enter into measures injurious to their country, and which they would not have consented to had the true state of things been disclosed to them, -- in this case, I ask whether, upon an impeachment for a misdemeanor upon such an account, the Senate would probably favor him.

[redqueen]

16. I'd rather send that than a paper plate

to our Representatives and Senators who need reminding of this fact.

Thank you for posting that.

[spanone]

10. Kick & Recommend

[Jack Rabbit]

11. K/R

Impeach. Indict. Imprison.

[Ganja Ninja]

14. You could also make the argument that lying to get the country ..

into a war amounts to treason and treason is an impeachable offense.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

19. ... That's the point the article and the original poster make.

[Ganja Ninja]

20. No he's saying he violated his oath by lying to congress. n/t

[goclark]

17. One of the finest Patriots is Robert Sheer

I canceled my subscription to the LA Times when they fired him.

Loved the man.

[Luckyduck]

18. K&R

:applause:

[vssmith]

21. It proves that Tenet who liked to portray himself as a tough guy was

really a pussy

[Pooka Fey]

22. K&R

[dogday]

23. I am loving this

the uncovering of a cover-up and years of deception being outed.... :thumbsup:

[Poiuyt]

25. Unfortunately, we probably are getting immune to Cheney's lies

Testimony already has established that Libby was nothing more than a pawn used by Cheney in the vice president’s constant and ferocious campaign to trick the nation into war—not a totally surprising quest for a man who had served as CEO for a corporation that has profited so obscenely from the Iraq agony.

Cheney, like some Daddy Warbucks cartoon character of old, has been so blatant in his corruption of the nation’s second highest office that we seem to have become inured to further revelations of his evil influence. Instead of being shocked, we are more likely jaded by even more examples of the man’s use of his office to persistently undermine our democratic heritage. Too bad he wasn’t cursed by an overactive libido.

[Supersedeas]

26. Finally, will someone in the MSM connect the F'ing dots!!!

[fooj]

27. Tenet's reward...the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

You can't make this shit up.

[progressoid]

28. Scheer is cool

I remember sending Scheer a congratulatory email for an article he wrote that caused Loofa Boy O'Reilly to call him a traitor. And he wrote back.

Cool guy.

[xkenx]

29. No, it's TREASON

Maliciously blowing the cover of a covert CIA agent violates the Espionage Act of 1982. Impeachment is mild compared to what Bush and Cheney and others should have to face--a lot of years in the federal slammer.

[Seabiscuit]

30. Just a few of the dozens of grounds for impeaching these rat bastards! n/t

If Congress as a whole ever wakes up, it may be long since these rat bastards pass away. I don't see it happening in the next 2 years. That's how depressed I am about it all.

[omega minimo]

32. In honor of Molly Ivins, may she rest in shit kickin' glory and peace

a kick from the bottom of Page 1. :kick:


Tho she may have some salient comments about Joe Biden's hoof-in-mouth disease, she might have been too busy writing about imshrubment.

:yourock:

[MzNov]

33. It's 6:20 pm. PST and they're still not IMPEACHED !

oh wait, gotta get all those resolutions cleared up.....

[Bobbie Jo]

36. * is the very reason

Impeachment is provided for in the constitution. In the future....when you look up impeachment in the dictionary, you'll find his picture.