Letters to the Editor
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What specifically is the crime?
If one wants to make a serious case that Bush should be impeached for committing a federal crime, then one should be prepared to demonstrate what specific crime Bush has committed. The author glosses over this completely, merely reciting the opinions of others that a crime has been committed. (Barbara Boxer's opinion that Bush committed a crime, plus Henry Hyde's opinion that Clinton committed a crime, plus 95 cents will get you a cheeseburger at McDonald's.) This is not a minor detail, but a major flaw in the article. The author characterizes FISA thusly: "The act authorizes a secret court to issue warrants to eavesdrop on potential suspects, or anyone even remotely connected to them, inside the United States." OK-fine. But that's an authorization, not a prohibition. Where in FISA or anywhere else in federal law does it specificaly say that it's a crime to conduct warrantless surveillance of the kind that Bush has admitted to authorizing? I'm not suggesting that such a provision doesn't exist, but I don't know, and not to find it and cite it seems sloppy, sort of like a certain reporter for the NY Times taking the administration's word for it about WMD in Iraq.
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Impeachment Proceeding Necessary
I believe that all citizens of the U.S. need to see and hear an impeachment process on Bush immediately. If it does not happen, it sets new precedent for the future. Bush has stretched the limits of his job which will be taken up by the next President, and so on, and so on. It needs to end now before the job becomes a Dictatorship.
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The Temperature Rises
There has been a lot of discussion about whether Bush's actions constitute an impeachable offense, or at least are in violation of the spirit of the Constitution.
Well, the impeachment argument is gaining a bit of steam, though the majority of congressional Democrats are waiting to see if it has any actual legs. You could say that they've learned to pick their battles as minorities in both Houses, or that they are toothless and cowardly lackeys, or maybe that they are hopelessly compromised by the fact that a good number of Dems were actually briefed on the spy program and have known about it for years and have effectively done nothing.
And I guess you’d be, if not right, at least on the right scent, on all counts. It’s becoming cliché, but accurate cliché, that the Democrats can or will effectively do nothing to really challenge Bush. Pelosi, Daschle, and others who knew about the program all along have been offering mealy-mouthed excuses that, while they knew about the program and its continual authorization, that they didn’t know the whole scope of the program.
I don’t really believe them. But I also don’t really care.
Anyone depending on the Democrats to defend the United States against repeated and egregious Constitutional violation is destined for a fairly profound disappointment.
It is really left to the people of the United States to determine what temperature they will allow the water to reach before they leap out of the pot. Democracy in a country as powerful and stable as the U.S. is eroded by slow degrees; here a Patriot Act, there a Guantanamo Bay, until the lines that once carried a strong definition become blurred.
But that line is not a linear, stable curve either. Rights have been given and taken away-there have been worse times and better times-and the line is constantly in flux.
During WWI and WWII, there was heavy censorship of domestic media and a strong imperative to back the president. J. Edgar Hoover was a more pernicious, egregious and ultimately longer-lasting spy on his own country than Bush. There have been darker episodes in American democracy than this.
It’s important not to lose perspective. Everything that has been chipped away, or seemingly lost, can be regained.
At the same time, I think we need to keep in focus the will to regain a sense of fair play, decency, optimism and good will in the United States. The American Constitution, one of the most conceptually powerful documents produced in the last three hundred years, is under real threat. The threat, as usual, is not the people of good or ill intention who seek to subvert it. Those people are always around, waiting for the right moment. The threat is the complacency of those who would let it happen.
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Believe it: warrantless surveillance is a crime
One responder asks, "Where in FISA or anywhere else in federal law does it specificaly say that it's a crime to conduct warrantless surveillance of the kind that Bush has admitted to authorizing?"
You mean besides the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution? ("The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.")
The FISA law does indeed say that it is a crime to conduct warrantless searches, in Section 1809 of the statute. See http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/title9/crm01075.htm and http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/50/chapters/36/subchapters/i/sections/section_1809.html
The penalty for violation of FISA is a fine of up to $10,000, or imprisonment for up to 5 years, or both.
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OK, I don't get something here
How is it that politicians like Fein are SURPRISED by any of this? It's not like Bush has been an ardent defender of the Constitution from day one, and suddenly he's pulled a 180-degree turn. Bush has shown contempt for the law and people of this land almost since he first came on board, the most egregious example of which is the entire damn war to begin with. The administration's fancy footwork on their reasons for going to war in Iraq should have been a clue to these people. Did they really think he would go only so far and no further? Since when do nationalistic warmongers ever stop their infringements of others' rights? It's always a step-by-step process which does not pause, and culminates in the inevitable slide. I mean, for god's sake, have these people never picked up a history book? We're just lucky it's all coming out in the wash.
Now we'll see if Congress has the stones to do something about it. I for one am not going to hold my breath.