When
Presidents Pardon
Their Own Crimes
By David Swanson
04 July, 2007
Countercurrents.org
George
Mason (1725-1792), the father of the Bill of Rights (1791-2002), argued
at the Constitutional Convention in favor of providing the House of
Representatives the power of impeachment by pointing out that the President
might use his pardoning power to "pardon crimes which were advised
by himself" or, before indictment or conviction, "to stop
inquiry and prevent detection."
James Madison (1751-1836),
the father of the U.S. Constitution (1788-2007), added that "if
the President be connected, in any suspicious manner, with any person,
and there be grounds to believe he will shelter him, the House of Representatives
can impeach him; they can remove him if found guilty."
Of course, Bush has long
been connected in a suspicious manner to Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby,
Karl Rove, and others. Madison would probably have called for Bush's
impeachment when Bush first refused to investigate or hold anyone accountable
for leaking Valerie Plame's identity, or rather when Bush lied us into
the war in the first place, or when he confessed to illegal spying,
or when he detained people without charge and tortured them, or when
he overturned laws with signing statements or refused to comply with
subpoenas, and so on and so forth. Madison wouldn't have wanted to see
his Constitution tossed aside until the moment Bush commuted Libby's
sentence. But he certainly would have acted now if not before.
The trial of Scooter Libby
produced overwhelming evidence that Vice President Cheney personally
led the campaign to attack Joe Wilson through the media. This "get
Wilson" campaign included telling numerous reporters that Wilson
was sent to Niger by his wife Valerie Plame, a CIA operative. Cheney
was told by the CIA that Plame worked as a covert agent in the CIA's
Nonproliferation Division, which is the critical division of the CIA
responsible for stopping the spread of nuclear, biological, and chemical
weapons. Cheney's efforts to expose Plame actually exposed her entire
covert network, at tremendous cost to the CIA's secret war against terrorism.
If Plame's work had been exposed by a double-agent in our government
like Aldrich Ames or Robert Hanssen, that person would face prosecution
for espionage and treason. The evidence of Cheney's role is more than
enough to start an impeachment investigation. And, of course, a hand-written
note from Cheney, introduced as evidence in the trial, implicated the
President.
The Libby trial also exposed
the lead role of Vice President Cheney's office in manipulating pre-war
intelligence to defraud Congress into authorizing the invasion of Iraq.
Sworn testimony revealed that Cheney's office managed the evidence of
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, all of which proved to be lies.
Cheney personally visited the CIA several times before the invasion
to pressure the CIA to distort pre-war intelligence. And Cheney exerted
"constant" pressure on the Republican former chairman of the
Senate Intelligence Committee to stall an investigation into the Bush
administration's use of flawed intelligence on Iraq, according to the
new chairman, Senator Jay Rockefeller.
Libby's crime was obstructing
an investigation that appeared to be headed for Cheney and possibly
Bush. The proper course of action for Congress, in the face of Bush
commuting Libby's sentence, is to begin impeachment hearings against
Cheney and then Bush. With the White House openly disobeying a stack
of subpoenas, it is finally clear that impeachment is the only possible
check on Bush-Cheney power remaining to Congress. In fact, in the wake
of Bush's Scooter commuting, the following people all released statements
condemning Bush's action and recommending that Congress and the public
do absolutely nothing about it: Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton,
John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson. In contrast, Joe Biden
recommended that the public phone the White House and complain. That
ought to show them!
Bush has just obstructed
justice. His act of commuting Libby's sentence itself adds one more
small item to the pile of impeachable offenses. Congressman Jesse L.
Jackson, Jr. (D-IL), had the right reaction, releasing the following
statement:
"In her first weeks
as leader of the Congress, Speaker Nancy Pelosi withdrew the notion
of impeachment proceedings against either President Bush or Vice President
Cheney [actually she did that 8 months earlier, and Jackson began parroting
her line right away, but who's counting]. With the president's decision
to once again subvert the legal process and the will of the American
people by commuting the sentence of convicted felon Lewis 'Scooter'
Libby, I call on House Democrats to reconsider impeachment proceedings.
Lewis Libby was convicted of lying under oath to cover up the outing
of active, undercover CIA agent, Valerie Plame. It is beyond unthinkable
that the president would undermine the legal process to protect a man
who engaged in treason against the United States government, threatening
the security of the American people. In November's election, voters
put Democrats in charge of Congress because they believed our pledge
of oversight and accountability. Now it's time for us to honor that
pledge. The Executive Branch should be held responsible for its illegalities.
Our democratic system is grounded in the principle of checks and balances.
When the Executive Branch disregards the will of the people, our lawmakers
must not be silent. Today's actions, coupled with the president's unwillingness
to comply with Senate and House inquiries, leave Democrats with no other
option than to consider impeachment so that we can gather the information
needed to achieve justice for all Americans."
Very well said. It's tremendous
to see Jackson come around. There's only one problem. Congressman Dennis
Kucinich has introduced articles of impeachment against Cheney. Ten
other Congress Members have signed on. And Jackson isn't one of them.
Rep. Jackson and every other member of Congress needs to do one of three
things now: Sign onto Kucinich's bill, H Res 333, www.impeachcheney.org
, or introduce new articles of impeachment against Cheney or Bush, or
crawl out of town in fear and eternal shame.
Now, the articles that Kucinich
has introduced focus on war, and some Congress Members, terrified as
they might be to fight in a war, are equally terrified of NOT sending
other people to kill and die. Now would be the moment to introduce new
articles of impeachment against Cheney for his role in the retribution
against Wilson, for illegal spying, for torture, and for refusing subpoenas.
Or take your pick of the available menu of offenses and choose your
three favorites: www.impeachcheney.org
And now would be the time
for Nancy Pelosi to announce that she could not possibly have meant
that impeachment would stay off the table no matter what, that she meant
it was not on the table at that time. Numerous crimes and abuses have
come to light since that table clearing moment. Pelosi is in the clear.
She can renew her oath to uphold the Constitution. Or she can go down
in history as the appeaser of the new dictatorial U.S. regime, as the
person who looked fascism in the face and said "That looks worth
allowing to happen as long as we win in 2008," and whose party
went down in bitter flames in 2008 because the American people still
cared about their democracy.
Now is the moment for members
of the public to act. Go to your Congress Member's office. Sit down.
Read the U.S. Constitution aloud. Do not leave until they take you to
jail. Or come to Washington, D.C., and do the same thing--but do it
in the office of Congressman John Conyers, who is in the position to
save this Republic in a week, who has the knowledge and the skill to
do it, and who has absolutely no constitutional duty to step and fetch
or bow and scrape for Miss Nancy.
David Swanson can be reached
at: [email protected]
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