MB Civic

Playing the Impeachment Card
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Thursday 25 May 2006

“All in all, the framers would probably agree that it’s better to impeach too
often than too seldom. If presidents can’t be virtuous, they should at least
be nervous.”

– Joseph Sobran

Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan is a small and soft-spoken
man. One gets the definite sense upon meeting him that here is a man who could
probably have made a fortune in Hollywood, had he chosen a different direction
in life, playing the role of the wise and kindly grandfather. He wound up in
public service, and today – if you listen to Karl Rove and the GOP – he is
easily the most terrifying man in America.

Back on May 10th, Howard Fineman wrote for MSNBC: “Then there is the
attention being paid – and it’s just starting – to obscure Democratic characters
such as Rep. John Conyers of Michigan. As of now, only political junkies know
that Conyers, an African-American and old-school liberal from Detroit, would
become chairman of the Judiciary Committee if the Democrats regain control of
the House. Few know that Conyers has expressed interest in holding hearings on
the impeachment of the president.”

A direct-mail piece from Senator Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) popped up several
days ago. In the mailer, Dole warned that unless the faithful donate money for
the midterm elections, rampaging Democrats were going to, “increase your
taxes, call for endless investigations, Congressional censure and maybe even
impeachment of President Bush.”

A Fox News online editorial acknowledges the very real possibility of a
Democratic takeover of the House, and proposes several steps the Democrats
should take in such an event, in order to do right by the country. “Step one,”
reads the Fox editorial, “would be for the Democratic leadership to definitively
put to rest any loose talk of impeaching President Bush. They should say in
one and two syllable words that impeachment will not happen once they are in the
majority and thus take away a potential rallying cry for the beleaguered
Republicans.”

This may be, when all is said and done, one of the funniest moments in
time in all of American political history.

Approval ratings for the Bush administration are at historic lows, and
approval ratings for the Republican Congressional majority currently languish in
a root-cellar beneath those historic lows. There are 159 days until the
November 7th midterm elections, and the Republican majority has absolutely nothing
to run on. The economy? They say it is strong but no one believes them, and
rising gas prices don’t do their arguments any favors. Immigration? This is a
self-inflicted brawl that has ripped a wide rift down the middle of the
Republican coalition. National security? Iraq.

On top of this big three, the White House and the Republican
Congressional majority are also walking around with NSA domestic spying, the investigation
into the outing of Valerie Plame, the now-axiomatic belief that Bush left New
Orleans to die, and a half-dozen other millstones hanging around their necks.

The White House can’t shed these millstones, because just about all of
these catastrophes came out of 1600 Pennsylvania. The Republican Congressional
majority can’t shed them, because they stapled themselves to this White House a
long time ago, and there are no pliers in the world large enough to extricate
them from that association.

The abandonment of Congressional oversight is a lot of the reason we are
in such a sorry state, and that abandonment was authored by Republicans who
were stupid enough and opportunistic enough to trust that Bush and his people
would lead them to the promised land of a permanent majority. This won’t be
forgotten by November.

Beyond that, few people are going to rise in response again to the waving
of the bloody shirt of September 11. The Cunningham and Abramoff scandals
continue to grow, chopping down Republicans left and right. The GOP’s usual
electoral strengths – morality and security – are gone, and the Republican base is
abandoning them. The cupboard is just about empty.

What’s left? Vote for us, or else we’ll be held accountable! That’s just
funny.

Usually, the Republican National Committee has to roll out horror stories
about mandatory abortions, the planned annihilation of every Bible in the
land, and the prospect of Jack and Joe’s civil union eviscerating the sanctity of
millions of unhappy marriages everywhere. To be sure, these themes will be
played throughout the upcoming election seasons, but clearly the GOP overmind is
not confident that the masses will dance to the tune.

Thus, the warning: if the Republicans lose in November, Bush will be
impeached, and the Earth will immediately thereafter hurtle into the sun. This
isn’t just a lot of smoke and scare-tactics, however. The Republicans are
genuinely worried about what will happen if the Democrats re-take the House in
November. They have ample cause for concern.

Beyond the specter of John Conyers doing an impersonation of Peter Rodino
should Conyers become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee – in an
interesting historical quirk, Conyers sat on the Judiciary Committee when Rodino
shepherded it through drafting the three articles of impeachment against Nixon,
and voted “Yes” on all three articles – lie a number of other House Democrats
whose rise to a chairmanship would be devastating to the White House.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) sits on the Committee on Government Reform,
and will become chairman should the Democrats re-take the House in November.
Waxman, in 1998, founded the Special Investigations Division within the
minority offices on this committee, “to conduct investigations into issues that are
important to the minority members of the Government Reform Committee and other
members of Congress.”

There are more than fifty investigations that have been performed and
continued to be performed by Waxman’s Special Investigations Division. Among
these are investigations into the torture at Abu Ghraib, Cheney’s notorious energy
task force meetings, a variety of Halliburton payoffs, electronic voting, the
administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina, and the vast scandal
surrounding administration abuse of Iraq intelligence and the exposure of CIA agent
Valerie Plame.

There is enough meat on that bone to keep Rep. Waxman, armed with
subpoena power, busy as a beaver for the foreseeable future. It is also worth noting,
when considering the formidable arsenal of information Waxman can bring to
bear against the Bush White House, the legacy of Dan Burton.

Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) became notorious as chairman of Government
Reform during the Clinton administration. He fired off enough subpoenas to fill an
oil tanker, almost all of them inspired by baseless and scurrilous
accusations. Without actually proving much of anything, beyond the fact that subpoena
power is an astonishingly large stick to hand to someone, Burton managed to keep
the Clinton administration tied in knots for years.

Burton was throwing mud. Waxman will be throwing fire, if handed the
opportunity. Beyond Waxman and Conyers, there will be Barney Frank chairing the
House Financial Services Committee. There will be Louise Slaughter chairing the
House Committee on Rules. There will be Charlie Rangel chairing the Ways and
Means Committee. This list goes on, and on.

As amusing as the GOP’s fear of impeachment is, the truth is that this
Constitutional doomsday device is the least of their worries. Conyers does not
have to impeach George W. Bush to throw a few torpedoes into the side of the
Republican battleship. All he has to do, along with Waxman and the other chairs,
is investigate with subpoena power. Tell the truth in public hearings with
the principals under oath. Let the facts come to light in a way we have not seen
for many years.

The result of this would be an even greater Democratic Congressional
victory in 2008, and an incredible series of obstacles for any Republican
presidential nominee to overcome. A drumbeat of truth about Iraq, Katrina, Abu Ghraib,
Halliburton, Plame and all the rest of it would have every Republican who has
ever uttered Bush’s name in public fleeing for their lives. The long-sought
permanent majority lusted after by the GOP would be transformed into a cemented
minority, reminiscent of the shattered state of the Republican party in the
aftermath of Watergate.

All of this only comes to pass, of course, if the Democrats re-take the
House. What was considered an incredible long-shot even a few months ago has
become an even-money proposition. Nothing is guaranteed by any stretch, and
events may well transpire that swing the electorate back in favor of Bush and his
Congressional allies. The fiasco that is electronic voting and the Help
America Vote Act will stand in favor of the GOP come November, as it always has. If
the Democrats want to win in November, they will have to work harder than they
ever have before.

For now, it is enough to be amused by the smell of fear emanating from
the GOP. This newest tactic – warning people about the potential for impeachment
– begs one simple question: if they have nothing to hide, what are they
afraid of? The answer, clearly, is John Conyers. He is, you’ll hear soon enough, a
terrifying man.

ï¿∏ï¿∏ï¿∏William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and internationally bestselling
author of two books: War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn’t Want You to Know and
The Greatest Sedition Is Silence.