Top Ten reasons for impeaching Gonzales
or, How I learned to stop worrying and love Jay Inslee
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by Madeline Zane, Unknown News
August 6, 2007
Congressman Jay Inslee (D-Washington) and 14 co-sponsors, as of this writing, have put forward a resolution to investigate whether there are grounds to draft articles of impeachment against Alberto Gonzales. (Here's a hint: Yes.) I'm convinced that not only is this the right thing to do, but it's one of the smartest ideas I've heard in a long time. Why? Well ...
1. Up to this point, The White House has avoided all attempts to be held the least bit accountable for anything. They refuse to obey subpoenas. They claim that Congress can't file contempt charges. What else but impeachment is left? Well, perjury charges, which leads to the next point ...
2. Perjury charges won't work -- just ask Scooter Libby. John
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Conyers, head of the House Judiciary Committee, so far favors investigating Gonzales with an eye toward bringing perjury charges. Which sounds great until you remember the ancient history of a few weeks ago, when Bush pardoned a member of his administration who helped the White House at the expense of American democracy, and then lied to cover it up. The Constitution very specifically states that the President cannot pardon an official who has been impeached.
3. The so-called "leadership" of the Democratic party has not already promised to not impeach Gonzales. When Nancy Pelosi said that impeachment was "off the table" (arrgh!), I'm pretty sure she was only talking about Bush and Cheney. That means that the Dems can actually do something that is absolutely necessary to preserve our democracy -- but without losing face, which some of them apparently find much more important.
4. Every single good idea that was denigrated as a "fringe" when it was first brought up has found it's way into the mainstream. Ending the war. Opposing the PATRIOT Act. Promising we wouldn't stay in Iraq forever. As the Justice Department scandal keeps metastasizing in new and exciting ways (just this week we found out that the Chiquita terrorist payments and the OxyContin scandals both had their roots in a corrupt Justice Department) more and more people will realize that a radical change is needed.
5. Impeaching a mere Attorney General, as opposed to the President or Vice President, is less likely to be seen as "too divisive." It does not have the same (fake) stink of retaliation for Clinton that the pundits would never shut up about if you tried to impeach George Bush. The only people who buy those Republican-backed arguments (except for Democratic "leaders" and every single member of the mainstream media) are people who aren't paying enough attention because they're not that political. And those people could give a rat's ass if you took someone as obscure as the Attorney General out behind a barn and shot him (which is not what I'm suggesting). "Articles of what against who is this, again?"
6. Out of all this administration's top criminals, Gonzales seems to have left the messiest trail of documents and witnesses in his wake. Many of his subordinates and even leaders in other departments (like Robert Mueller from the FBI) have already contradicted his testimony. Every week, almost every day, it seems, we get more and more documentation about some criminal enterprise or other with a trail leading right to Alberto's office.
7. Gonzales' crimes are a lot more accessible to the general public than those committed by Bush and Cheney. Your complaints about the president giving himself dictator-like powers may not play well at the next family reunion picnic, but start talking about how the justice system is only working for a handful of rich corporations and cronies, and see how many of your middle-of-the-road aunts and uncles suddenly agree with you.
8. People from both parties have been screwed over by the Justice Department, and people from both parties are ticked off about it. Remember that the most famous victims of this out-of-control Justice Department -- the nine fired attorneys -- are Republicans. Not only does this make it more likely to get fed-up moderate Republicans to sign up, it is the perfect defense to (bogus) accusations that impeachment charges are motivated by pure partisanship.
9. Getting Gonzales out of office would not have the practical consequence of promoting someone even more evil. If you impeach Bush, all you're doing is making Cheney's job title official. If you impeach Cheney first and remove him from office, Bush gets to select his replacement. There's not an obvious choice of someone to appoint as the new Attorney General who would be much, much worse than Gonzales. Except maybe Karl Rove. Oh. Wait a minute.
10. Impeach Gonzales to save our democracy. Seriously. Let's get going on that.
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Out of all this administra-
tion's top criminals, Gonzales seems to have left the messiest trail of documents and witnesses in his wake.
Many of his subordinates and even leaders in other departments (like Robert Mueller from the FBI) have already contradicted his testimony.
Every week, almost every day, it seems, we get more and more documentation about some criminal enterprise or other with a trail leading right to Alberto's office.
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