American Caesar

I know there's no blow job involved, but we still need to impeach the Worst President Ever.

It's hard to imagine saying this just five years ago, but the fact that the President personally authorized a secretive eavesdropping program in the United States more than three dozen times isn't the big deal here. It isn't because it's just one more drop in the bucket. Once more instance where this President has shown his disregard for our Constitution and the Rule of Law. As Jack Cafferty said on CNN on Friday:

Who cares if the Patriot Act gets renewed. Want to abuse our civil liberties-Just do it! Who cares about the Geneva conventions? Want to torture prisoners-Just do it! Who cares about rules concerning the identity of CIA agents. Want to reveal the name of a covert operative? Just do it!

Who cares about whether the intelligence concerning WMD's is accurate. You want to invade Iraq? Just do it. Who cares about qualifications to serve on the nation's highest court. Want to nominate a personal friend with no qualifications? Just do it.

And the latest outrage, which I read about in "The New York Times" this morning, who cares about needing a court order to eavesdrop on American citizens. Want to wiretap their phones conversations? Just do it.... What a joke. A very cruel, very sad joke.

(And he left out the parts where the DOD spies on peace protesters and where we "render" [kidnap] people to places where we know that they will be tortured or killed. )

We need to start seriously saying the "i" word.

And, yes, I know that the Republican controlled House of Representatives will never bring articles of impeachment against Bush. As this article shows, they cannot be counted on for even the most basic oversight:

In an interview last week, Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, said "it's a fair comment" that the GOP-controlled Congress has done insufficient oversight and "ought to be" doing more.

"Republican Congresses tend to overinvestigate Democratic administrations and underinvestigate their own," said Davis, who added that he has tried to pick up some of the slack with his committee. "I get concerned we lose our separation of powers when one party controls both branches."

Democrats on the committee said the panel issued 1,052 subpoenas to probe alleged misconduct by the Clinton administration and the Democratic Party between 1997 and 2002, at a cost of more than $35 million. By contrast, the committee under Davis has issued three subpoenas to the Bush administration, two to the Energy Department over nuclear waste disposal at Yucca Mountain, and one last week to the Defense Department over Katrina documents.

But that does not matter. We need to talk impeachment because it is warranted and because we need to ready the American public for it. The word needs to be out there. It needs to be a regular part of the debate NOW or winning in 2006 won't matter all that much because starting to talk impeachment them will just be seen as so much payback.

MyDD asks the question here: "Should MyDD run professional polls on censuring or impeaching Bush for spying on US citizens without a warrant?"

Our answer must be: YES!

(If you're at all still uncertain as to whether Bush should be impeached, there are some excellent arguments to be found here, here and here.)

Ours is a government of laws, not men.

Bush has betrayed the American People and our Supreme Law (the Constitution).

If we do not call him out as the Caesar that he is, we do not deserve to call ourselves Americans.