Is hearing to impeach Bush merely 'anger management'?

They lined up by the hundreds to be a witness to history at the Judiciary Committee's unofficial impeachment hearings of George W. Bush today.

It wasn't called that of course. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-S.F.) had balked at a real impeachment hearing. Something about fearing a voter backlash from the public, already in a bad mood about Congress' inaction on core issues.

But today's hearing by the House Judiciary Committee -- billed as an inquiry to the Bush administration's use of executive power -- was ripe with opportunity for those who want to evict the president from office.

Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) accused the administration of diminishing legislative power "beyond recognition" and cited "a litany of wrongful actions," accusing the White House of "a dangerous consolidation of power."

Rep. Maurice "Mo" Hinchey (D-N.Y.) said of the White House, "I think this is the most impeachable administration in the history of our country."

But Republicans (except for one, Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina, an outspoken Bush foe) defended the White House.

Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the ranking Republican on the committee, belittled Democrats' attempts to turn the proceedings into an impeachment forum. If last month's hearing with former White House spokesman Scott McClellan amounted to a "Book of the Month Club," he said, today's is "an anger management class. Nothing is going to come out of this hearing on impeachment."

And Rep. Steve King of Iowa argued that after 45 hearings -- with such witnesses as Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff David Addington, McClellan and former

Ambassador Joe Wilson -- there was no evidence that the Bush administration had committed any high crimes and misdeameanors. King also claimed that a recently declassified CIA document proves the president's controversial 16-words in his 2003 State of the Union address about Saddam Hussein seeking uranium from Niger are corroborated by Wilson's report.

Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) reminded them both that "to the regret of many, this is not an impeachment hearing."

The hearing did however afford an opportunity for Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) to air one of his 35 articles of impeachment about Bush -- the one about manipulating intelligence to hoodwink the public and Congress about Iraq's stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.

And the hearing also gave an opportunity for former Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia, now the Libertarian Party's presidential standard bearer, to note that because of the Bush administration's politicalization of the Justice Department, four times as many Americans now have more trust in the Post Office.

-- Johanna Neuman

(An earlier version of this post misidentified Bob Barr as having represented Texas, not Georgia. Thanks to eagle-eyed reader "John Gaither" for alerting us.)

Comments

[Sal B]

Yeah, why should anyone actually do anything about Bush's illegal actions? Don't worry, be happy! Americans get the government they deserve.

[Curt]

Of course, a president get's impeachment hearings against him for having sex, but ruining the economy, getting us into a totally unjustified war, and lying over and over to the American people and congress...well that we can't impeach for...unbelievable.

[Pete R]

The horses have escaped, and the barn has already burned down.

Why impeach him now? What good will it do? He's already trampled all over the bill of rights, and done grave and irreparable harm to our reputation. He has brought us to a level lower than that of our enemies - at least they are honest in their hostility and combativeness. We do things like suspend habeas corpus and the rule of law in general when it suits us.

You can't stuff the tree back in the acorn. The damage has already been done, and loads of bad precedents have already been set. Let's not set another that says "abuse and desecrate your presidential powers and office and we'll go through the motions of displeasure after it's too late to matter, for us or for you."

[Logan Waters]

Yes, this is Anger Management for the Weirdo Disgruntled Left. Not to be taken seriously. Why?

Let's see... the lead article on this website at the moment is "Overheard at Comic-Con, superhero confessions".

Why should anyone pay any attention to justice for the war criminals (and their spineless enablers) running this country when the mainstream media prioritizes things this way?

Go, Batman.

[Ryan]

These hearings are a waste of time!

Our economy's tanking. Our deficit's soaring. And our young soldiers are pointlessly dying. I'm no fan of GW, but conducting hearings on a lame duck president who will be out of office in 6 months anyway is a waste of valuable time!

C'mon democrats! We voted for you guys in hopes that you would bring about change, yet all you've given us is more of the same old pointless bickering!!!!

I'll be voting for Obama this year, however if this trend of inefficiency by both parties continues, I may begin voting exclusively for 3rd party candidates.

[peabody3000]

"Nancy Pelosi had balked at a real impeachment hearing. Something about fearing a voter backlash from the public, already in a bad mood about Congress' inaction on core issues"

===================

YES, voter backlash on issues SUCH AS balking at impeachment hearings

one can only hope that the dems feel they can prosecute bu$h more appropriately when hes out of office. the war criminal bu$h regime deserves any punishment that can be meted out

[Drew Lucas]

Sal B, anything about that comment strike you as bigoted or ill-thought out ? Accepting that you're not, the rest of the world doesnt deserve the government the americans lock in, and certainly not that old cocaine-snorter.

[arnold]

impeach that sob, he truly deserves it

[Ronnie X]

I wrote a little poem some time ago, borrowing heavilly from Fmr. President Gerald Ford. It's title is "January 20, 2009, slightly after 12:00 PM Eastern Standard Time."

Our long national nightmare is over,
The work of our worst president is done;
Our long national nightmare is over,
Let us not have another one.

I won't miss the Obama inauguration for anything. Oh, happy day!

[Fernando F]

There are 2 political parties. Now is Republican, next is going to be Democrats, then Republicans, then Democrats, for ever and ever.... the name of the game is not to do too much waves between each other. The only solution is to vote independent. Of course you have to elect Obama on this election, but for the Senate and the Houses people should vote independent. Is the only way to break the pattern when they vote for bills written by the Corporations and Lobbyist.

[Jeffrey Allen Miller NY]

Do they realize how deeply disturbing this is? Do they wonder what makes us middle-aged white conservative men so angry? So, Pres. Clinton is impeached (can't recall why at the moment - was it a lie?...) but dictator Pres. Bush gets a mock-trial. I'm a Republican... and if Nancy Pelosi is concerned about a backlash for her party, she should be worried. The Democrats have failed miserably to keep this sitting president in line and I will *forever* hold that against her party. My party meanwhile has other issues as its strayed from our roots to support special interests groups. Not only should Bush be impeached, for what does amount to war crimes at the very least, but so should Pelosi, H. Clinton, the list drags on to include everyone who voted for the '02 Iraq Resolution.

[DCX2]

Impeach him now so that it may serve as a deterrent for future generations of Presidents who wish to violate clear federal and international laws.

[Jon Anderson]

Impeachment is not merely the removal from office(though it would still be worth it just to remove him from office). It is similar to a criminal charge. The reason to go through with this despite "tanking economy"s, "misprioritized media"s, or any other supposed larger problem is that to allow a president to arrogantly violate laws and constitution without any negative consequences is the dangerous precedent - not that we'll react "too late"(seemingly what is meant by "too late" in the above comments is "after the impeachable offense was committed"?), but that we won't react at all. That's the terrible precedent that YOU are advocating. You're suggesting that to avoid "late" action, we take no action?
You're suggesting that it is better to not hold a public officer accountable than it is to hold him accountable years after the offense?

I'm responding to various comments, not the blog post.

[Judy]

"Anger Management?" If it was, they weren't "managing" it well. Bugliosi holding up his book before testifying is a perfect example of the type of hypocrisy exhibited by the Democrats today. The only ratings for elected officials lower than our current President is for the Democratic controlled Congress. It was a opportunity Democrats to make excuses for themselves in hopes of improving how those that elect them feel about their failure to perform their duties. They all should be "impeached!"

[John Adama]

Conyers and Pelosi this votes for you!

McCain 08

Absolute Cowards!

[LockUp]

Every member of congress and the senate should be locked up as well as Bush. The government is out of control, spending is ridiculous, they are overstepping their bounds in business affairs, and they can be bought and sold for a few bucks. Cramer from Mad Money stated it takes as little as $6,000 in contributions to get the vote you want. We need third, fourth and fifth party candidates to get things back under control. Like Jesse Ventura says we’re a lot better off then having a dictator we have two choices. The government is going to bail out the mortgage companies for their bad choices, which will cost taxpayer billions, but is charging Sirius and XM a legal bribe of approx. $20 million to merge. The moron idea to have a tax rebate cost way more then it was worth, I received three mailings to tell me my check was coming (one after I received the check), this cost taxpayers millions. According to the Kiplinger Tax Letter, due to the flood of calls regarding the rebate checks the IRS has reassigned agents costing over $500,000 million in lost revenue in this year alone. Not to mention the overspending by the Pentagon, which has an accounting system so out dated there is no way to track a payment once it is made, meaning over payments are common. The Pentagon’s accounting system is in such disarray they are unable to have an audit (an ex-IT guy stated he could not sleep some times because he was afraid it would fail completely) even though the U.S. passed a law years ago that every government entity needs to be audited. Who is getting rich off of Pentagon misspending companies like Halliburton and we all know who is affiliated with them. If you robbed a liquor store you would be locked up for ten years, these individuals are stealing billions of taxpayer’s money and living a life of luxury.

[Mike]

Like Fox news does not lie or even biased, Bush is guilty!

[Adolfo]

As Politician line up to practice Democracy, bringing up credible facts to impeach the Bush Administrtion. Corporate news media (like LATimes) line up to play down the legal democratic prosses. I'm sorry that was'nt about sex.

[fairness]

Yeah, all that rant by people saying it's no point impeaching him... etc... I beg to differ. A precedent needs to be established for future morons who might get elected, given the electorate of this country. This country goes on preaching about holding people accountable for their actions. Believe it or not, a homeless person steals bread in america, and gets badly punished. A president commits horrendous crimes against humanity, and people are like "oh well, its too late, its no point... blah.. blah...".

[Pronghiorn]

Shame on Steve King, John Conyers, Nancy Pelosi, and everyone else in Congress who is not pressing forward on an Impeachment!!!!!! I WAS a Republican for many, many years. I'm not affiliated, any longer, with either the Democratic nor Republican parties.

Congress and the two-party system no longer represent the people. Whether or not we are still a Constitutional Republic is at best, doubtful. Bush has committed many high crimes, and he, Dick Cheney, and all their cohorts should be tried as traitors. The price for a conviction as a traitor was historically the penalty of death. Maybe it's time to reconsider who the traitors and real "terrorists" are.

For those of you who state we are a "democracy," we are not. Having a Republic means we are governed by the rule of law. The Founding Fathers formed our nation as a Constitutional Republic, under the rule of law.

If we now have a "democracy" it is because the fools in Washington pander to the "whims of the masses." The comments of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Rome's most famous legal mind ever, closely parallel the USA's situtation, today. Circumstances leading to the fall of the Roman empire are very similar to what we face here, today.

Will we fall prey to the same stupid mistakes, or learn from history? Perhaps it's time to, as critics stated several years ago in regard to Congress, "throw the bums out" of Washington. There are only a few of them worth saving and re-electing.

[Never Too Late]

I agree with "fairness". It is never too late to do the right thing and impeaching Bush is absolutely the right thing. Allowing this administration to run roughshod over the Constitution, Geneva Conventions, human rights, environmental protection laws etc, etc can not go unpunished.

[Kim]

Too late? Yes, however... can we let this go unpunished? Then it would really be too late. We need to set an example.

[hawe]

Waste of time??!!

If you have a burglerer you got the evidence to convinct should you arrange for trials? Not according to the gullible "it's a waste of time" guys! These guys are saying that "oh but the damage is already done".

But of course the damage is done! And it's precisely because of this damage you should go for crimial trials. This is the very reason you have trials like this.

The "waste of time" guys probably thinks we should have trials for an administration which did no damage at all.

The "waste of time" guys are people who are unable to think straight. This "it's a waste of time"-attidute is not even their own. They copy this argument from others. It provides a good way to be "cool" and "reasonable" without standing up for something which the know is right. History is full of these gullible people.

See through this nonsense and don't be one of them.

[Ed Ram]

I saw the whole thing on CSPAN, it was a good eye opener, the argument does have two legs to stand in. It was mind blowing to see that those GOP members where not thinking with their brains, I hope the people that they represent took notice (and decide with their voting power later on). Logic and good judgement where out of their reach they only saw an elephant with their eyes, not fairness and justice.
A person that this article fail to mention was Bruce Fein, he has an impressive mind, this administration deserves to be punish for leading this nation astray and destroying the core (i.e. the constitution) of this great nation.
Write to your representative, it is time to make justice.

[ShowMe State of Mind]

Vincent Bugliosi, prosecutor from California accuses Bush of first degree murder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45f1Riv_z1I