Ralph Nader is asking John Conyers, chair of the House judiciary committee, to consider the impeachment of President George W. Bush . Nader chides Conyers for going against the wishes of the American public and criticizes Congress for doing nothing, a well-deserved criticism. We may not agree with Nader's decision to run for president, but we can find no fault in his call for impeachment of the worst president in American history.
There is another option: do nothing. Since January 2007 - the politically expedient option of doing nothing has triumphed. Volumes can and will be written, about what can go down as the most serious abdication of impeachment responsibilities by a Congress in its history. No other president has committed more systemic, repeated impeachable offenses, with such serious consequences to this country, its people, to Iraq, its people and the security of this nation before, than George W. Bush. James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and their colleagues had just these kinds of monarchical abuses and violations in their framework of anticipation.
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It is never too late to enforce the Constitution. It is never too late to uphold the rule of law. It is never too late to awaken the Congress to its sworn duties under the Constitution. But it will soon be too late to avoid the searing verdict of history when on January 21, 2009, George W. Bush becomes a fugitive from a justice that was never invoked by those in Congress so solely authorized to hold the President accountable.
Is this the massive Bush precedent you and your colleagues wish to convey to presidential successors who may be similarly tempted to establish themselves above and beyond the rule of law?
Is this the way you and your colleagues wish to be remembered by the American people?