Even GOP leaders are now considering the impeachment of this ‘cowboy president’.Republican Senator Says Bush Impeachment A PossibilityBy Cliff Montgomery – Mar. 26th, 2007President Bush’s flouting of truth, Congress and the American public with his cowboy, go-it-alone approach on Iraq has so angered lawmakers on both sides of the aisle that even some Republicans now consider impeachment an option.GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and long a critic of the Iraq War, stopped just short of demanding Bush’s impeachment during an appearance on ABC’s This Week. He made clear however that some lawmakers now consider that an option, should Bush choose to push ahead despite public sentiment and the staggering facts which argue against the war.”Any president who says, ‘I don’t care, or I will not respond to what the people of this country are saying about Iraq or anything else’, or ‘I don’t care what the Congress does, I am going to proceed’–if a president really believes that, then there are…ways to deal with that,” said Hagel, who is considering a 2008 presidential run.The Senate planned to begin debate today on a war spending bill which would set a rather useless, non-binding goal of March 31, 2008, for the removal of combat troops.The Senate debate comes after the House narrowly passed a bill Friday which would pay for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year, but would require that combat troops come home from Iraq before September 2008–or earlier if the Iraqi government did not meet certain requirements.On Sunday, Hagel said he was bothered by Bush’s clear examples of disregard for American sentiment on Iraq, such as his decision to send additional troops. He added that lawmakers now are ready to stand up to the president if they must.In the April edition of Esquire magazine, Hagel described Bush as a politician who seems to think he’s a king.”[Bush thinks] he’s not accountable anymore, which isn’t…true. You can impeach him, and before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment. I don’t know. It depends on how this goes,” Esquire quotes Hagel as saying.In his weekly address Saturday, Bush predictably accused Democrats of partisanship in the House vote and claimed it would cut the number of troops below a level that U.S. military commanders say they need–that of course falsely presumes that anyone outside the White House thought this war was needed in the first place.Vice President Dick Cheney also accused Democrats of undermining U.S. troops in Iraq and of sending a message to terrorists that America will retreat in the face danger. But as a more savvy American public is beginning to figure out, the people who are undermining the troops and sending bad messages to the enemy are the ones who lied to American troops to get them–and keep them–in a false war based on made-up evidence, not the ones who wish to stop it.Cheney is like a quack doctor who claims that the patient who wishes to change treatments is proving they do not care for their own health–otherwise they’d stick with the half-baked procedures of the quack who clearly is putting them into an early grave.Senator Hagel agrees.”We have clearly a situation where the president has lost the confidence of the American people in his war effort,” said Hagel.”It is now time, going into the fifth year of that effort, for the Congress to step forward and be part of setting some boundaries and some conditions as to our involvement.””This is not a monarchy,” he wisely added, referring to the possibility that some lawmakers may seek impeachment. “There are ways to deal with [such a politician]. And I would hope the president understands that.”Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), added on CNN’s Late Edition that the Senate bill seeks to heed the recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group by setting a goal of withdrawing some troops, while leaving others behind to train the Iraqi army for border patrol and other missions.”That, combined with a very aggressive, diplomatic effort in the region is what we’re going to need to have,” Nelson said.On Fox News Sunday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), said it’s simply right to set a timetable, recognizing a time when all clear-thinking people must admit the current Iraq plan just isn’t working.”People of this country have spoken overwhelmingly. It’s been constant now,” said Feinstein. “They want us out. It is time for the Senate to weigh in. I hope we will have the votes.”
How Necessary Laws Are Killed These Days
Lawmakers generally only fight to protect the things they care about – and all too often, that just doesn’t include the lives of most of their constituents.
