We're about to elect a new President -- maybe the "lame duck" Congress could do the country the favor of using this opportunity (November 5 to January 19) to debate the propriety of Bush's dismembership of the Constitution in order to implement a clear set of governing and interpretive principles going forward? You know, impeach that clown and dispatch the monarchist philosophy he has tried to implement.

It is not going to be "good enough" to run out the clock on the Bush Administration. None of Bush's impeachable offenses have been withdrawn or mitigated. Not one thing Bush has done has shown anything but continuing and increasingly blatant disregard for the American system of representative democracy and our Constitution. Bush and his administration haven't let up one bit. Interior's assault on NEPA in federal projects? "Accelerated" to facilitate the "review" of more than 300,000 public comments in a week, hoping to finalize the regulations before Bush leaves office. Public lands? Same story. Guantanamo Bay? Still open, even though they're running out of lawyers willing to ignore their allegiance to the Constitution and the rule of law to make Bush's arguments for him.

Impeach him. Between the election and January 20. Unwind the malice of the Bush Administration via concerted attention to the damage done to the structure of American government by Bush and his neocon puppetmasters, and set out the parameters of legitimate governance going forward. The President does not possess any "constitutional authority" to refuse to implement a law passed by Congress and signed into law by the President; the President does not possess the "constitutional authority" to order torture, or to hold suspects indefinitely without charge, or to violate the Fourth Amendment or federal law making it a felony to engage in warrantless wiretapping; the President does not have the "constitutional authority" to direct the Attorney General not to prosecute governmental officials for felonies where a White House lawyer wrote a memo. The Constitution does not afford the President "war powers" unless the Congress declares "war". And the President is, in fact, constitutionally responsible for the actions of his vice president and it is an impeachable offense to run "black ops" against the Constitution out of the VP's office with an idea that the President can argue "plausible deniability" by not asking what is being done by his administration.

The list goes on, and these aren't things that we need to be litigating over for the next couple of decades, they are things that should be put right and right now. The constitutional mechanism of impeachment was designed to allow the prompt correction of such things.

Both parties (and, oh by the way, the American people) have an interest in having a responsible Executive acting in accordance with the principles articulated in the Constitution. And yes, either party's candidate unfortunately has the kind of "base human interest", if victorious in the election, to try to perpetuate and preserve some of the odious dictatorial aspects of Bush's administration if his administration can get away with it -- and that, folks, is exactly why the Constitution was written with those quaint old "checks and balances". The "lame duck Congress" has an unique opportunity to engage in actual Statesmanship, the opportunity to do what is right instead of what is expedient, and to do so in an environment where nobody is trying to be re-elected during the process.

Impeach Bush.

This is written today, not after the election results are known, simply because whichever side wins the Presidency, the same analysis applies. I don't expect anyone to divert any attention from winning the election. I hope and expect Obama will win, but if he wins I want his actions to be consistent with the United States Constitution, not otherwise.

The most significant thing about George W. Bush voting absentee and not being heaped with "legacy events" is not the fact that the media ought to be apologizing to us for taking so long to figure it out.

What's important is that, notwithstanding the obvious disdain that the American public feels toward this treasonous and incompetent dolt (which the media may finally be picking up on), George W. Bush and his administration haven't let up one bit on the malicious attacks on the Constitution and the structure of American democracy. Interior's assault on NEPA in federal projects? "Accelerated" to facilitate the "review" of more than 300,000 public comments in a week, hoping to finalize the regulations before Bush leaves office. Public lands? Same story. Guantanamo Bay? Still open, and they're running out of lawyers willing to ignore their allegiance to the Constitution and the rule of law to make their arguments for them.

It is not going to be "good enough" to run out the clock on the Bush Administration. None of Bush's impeachable offenses have been withdrawn or mitigated. Not one thing Bush has done has shown anything but continuing and increasingly blatant disregard for the American system of representative democracy and our Constitution.

Impeach him. Between the election and January 20. Unwind the malice of the Bush Administration via concerted attention to the damage done to the structure of American government by Bush and his neocon puppetmasters, and set out the parameters of legitimate governance going forward. This is not a goal that can or will be achieved by "lawsuits" during the course of our lifetimes; it is a goal that the constitutional mechanism of impeachment was designed to achieve.

Don't forget, Mayor Palin's first act as an elected official was to contact the town library about banning books.

She's well-versed in how to fail to understand the First Amendment. Don't bother her with details like what it means.

I long for the day when one of Glenn's occasional fact-checkings of a rightwing polemic is simply acknowledged as another "dog bites man" story and we all move on.

But for now, I just LOVE to read stuff like this and imagining the squirming (or, for that matter, wondering when it's going to start registering with these numbskulls that maybe squirming would be appropriate). Thanks, Glenn.