Impeach Pelosi
By Niranjan Ramakrishnan05 December, 2007
Countercurrents.orgBanta Singh was on his first visit to the city. As it happened, it was the day of the marathon.
Seeing hundreds of runners panting by, he asked his city cousin what was going on.
"They're in a race", replied the other, wondering how best to explain a marathon in one sentence.
"Why?" asked Banta Singh.
"Well, the winner gets a gold medal", the cousin offered.
"In that case", demanded Banta Singh, "why are all the others running?"
These days, that kind of pragmatic thinking that would guarantee Banta Singh a place in the top echelons of the Democratic Congress.
For a whole year, all high-ranking Democratic House and Senate leaders, those running for president included (with the exception of Dennis Kucinich), have all offered the same answer for (1). Not doing anything to stop the war, (2) not doing anything about impeaching Bush and Cheney, (3). Not doing anything to halt and reverse the numerous violations of privacy and erosions of rights, (4). Not doing anything.
The all-purpose excuse: We don't have the votes.
If poor George Washington and his tattered cohorts had required guarantee of success as a precondition for confronting the British, we might all still be speaking English.
If Boris Yeltsin had wanted to be assured of coming out in one piece before standing up to the army tank in the summer of 1991, history would've had no piece of Yeltsin.
A good thing too the Italian police don't follow our Congress's line of reasoning -- they would long have quit chasing Mafia figures, given the low probabilities of securing convictions.
The Bible has something about the race not being always to the swift, but it does imply that one must at least participate in order to stand a chance. It speaks of the meek inheriting the earth, but says nothing about their inheriting the presidency. Even Mitt Romney could tell you this much.
With the Iranian NIE report of today, it is evermore clear that the deceptions have only grown in scope. If after this Congress does not take up impeachment, it is itself liable to charges of high crimes against the Republic.
Nancy Pelosi's 'impeachment is off the table' stance is not only laughable, it is also criminal. To leave unchallenged the deliberate misleading of the country to war (and the effort to do the same a second time) makes her party an accessory to the same misdeeds. Congress has an equal duty to protect the Constitution as the President. Each day of equivocation is one more day steeped in the crimes of the Bush administration.
Moral and ethical arguments aside, even a purely political motive suggests that Democrats must seize the cry of impeachment. Surely, if the Republicans had not made much of Clinton's doings and refrained from the impeachment trial, the 2000 Presidential race would have hardly been a contest; Gore would have won in a landslide.
Dennis Kucinich has made a good (if belated) beginning with his impeachment resolution. But he will get nowehere with his 'me, please' stance at the debates. He needs to hammer home to the public the enormity of what is taking place. His lacing of all his speeches with goo about world peace and universal immigration does nothing to enhance his seriousness: Mike Huckabee did have a point when he said Jesus did not seek political office. Of all candidates, only Ron Paul has managed to combine an evident fealty to the Constitution with a feet-on-the-ground demeanor. As a proclaimed devotee of the Constitution, Kucinich should remember that that Good Book is silent on matters such as World Peace, Univeral Brotherhood, Multiculturalism, etc., and follow suit. He is running for President of the United States, not the World.
If the Democrats truly believe Bush and Cheney's crimes are of a magnitude deserving of impeachment, they can in good conscience speak of nothing else. If they do not, they should be forced to list each wrongdoing and say why they don't think it is a high crime. To agree that something is a high crime or misdemeanor against the Constitution, say in the same breath that we must let it slide because we lack the votes, is as egregious a violation of Constitutional responsibility as the original crime. It also belittles the entire nature of our polity as a deliberative enterprise, where people's minds can be changed on the basis of evidence, debate, and persuation.
To paraphrase Lincoln's famous letter to Gen. McClellan, it is time to tell Nancy Pelosi, "If you won't impeach Bush and Cheney, can we at least impeach you?"
Niranjan Ramakrishnan is a writer living on the West Coast. He can be reached at [email protected].Leave A Comment
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