Tuesday, December 27, 2005

A Vast Two-Winged Conspiracy?


No, it's just the will of the people!

It started with his nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, and it's continuing with each and every new revelation about domestic spying authorized by George Bush in apparent violation of FISA laws.

Liberals have been attacking Bush’s motives and actions since the day he took office, but now conservatives appear to be climbing on the bash Bush bandwagon so fast its starting to look like a San Francisco cable car on a warm Saturday in August.

This week, the conservative business magazine, Barron’s, published an editorial calling for impeachment in particularly strong terms.

Willful disregard of a law is potentially an impeachable offense. It is at least as impeachable as having a sexual escapade under the Oval Office desk and lying about it later. The members of the House Judiciary Committee who staged the impeachment of President Clinton ought to be as outraged at this situation.
The Federalist Society, known for promoting conservative principles in the legal community, posted a document (PDF) on their website offering a critique of the administration’s policy on domestic surveillance that included stinging rebukes.

The text of FISA is unambiguous: “A person is guilty of an offense if he intentionally engages in electronic surveillance . . . except as authorized by statute."

(snip)

The president has acted in the face of an express statutory prohibition. In my view, he has overreached.

Congressional Republicans like Arlen Specter and Lindsey Graham are among the many calling for a Senate investigation.

As George Bush is finding out, it’s one thing to ask the country to support him as a “war president” in a never ending “war on terror,” but it’s another thing altogether to belligerently claim to be above the law and beyond any judicial and legislative oversight because of it!

Unlike Bill Clinton, who could reasonably claim that the attacks on his presidency were “a vast right wing conspiracy,” this one seems to be flying with both wings flapping. And it’s moving in a big, but slowly shrinking, circle above the President!

Update: Add former Clinton era attack dog and Congressman, Bob Barr, to the chorus with this op-ed piece from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:24 AM

    The sky is black with buzzards over the entire leadership of the Republican Party. Bush has the illegal spying thing to go with a disputed election and increasing violence in Iraq. Cheaney is hoping that Scooter doesn't flip. Frist has the insider trading deal. Delay is twisting in the wind back in Texas, and now the Supremes are planning to look into the Texas redistricting scheme, which was his baby. And Abramoff knows how the caged bird sings; if his testimony convinces Doolittle and Pombo to follow their friend Duke into retirement, he'll have rid California of our 2 most embarassing Congressmen. 2006 promises to be an eventful year...

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  2. Anonymous11:49 AM

    Here's a chance to save me from eternal damnation. (I've been praying for a real under-achiever to make it through all the qualificatons to become a member of the Secret Service presidential protection detail to lower their depressingly high standard of competence--but I'd really rather not have blood on my hands, even of someone else's spilling.)

    Let there be convicions! Let there be impeachment! Let's have back the America I'm old enough to remember (I'm 71 now) -- before erosion of hard-won rights; before the XianXrazies attempted to mold us into a homophobic, punitive, intolerant theocracy; before intellectual curiosity and a willingness to read/study other points of view became a suspect activity.

    As Hamlet said (Act 3, Scene 1), "'tis a consummation
    devoutly to be wish'd".

    And it might even keep me out of hell!

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  3. xristim -

    As long as creatures like Dick Cheney walk the earth, there will be no room in hell for frustrated patriots like you.

    Or, hopefully, me. I've been praying for sudden loud noises in the VP's office!

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