Bill Moyers Journal, Tough Talk on Impeachment
I’ve never been big on the “Let’s impeach the president/vice-president!” rally cry. I feel that most people that say it don’t actually know what it means to impeach a president and why. No doubt the impeachment of Bill Clinton did something to trivialize the idea of the act, considering the circumstances.
While I don’t like King George or Darth Cheney, an impeachment is a very serious and drawn-out process. Look at how long it took to NOT find Clinton guilty, and it cost $40 million to boot. Think about how long it would take to investigate Bush and Cheney for the plethora of transgressions they are no doubt guilty of. I’m not citing that as a reason to not impeach them, just to put a little bit of perspective on the idea. The problem I’ve always found with people calling for impeachment is that they never cite real crimes, credible reasons or make a compelling argument for doing it; they merely don’t like the administration and the war they’ve gotten the U.S. into. Well that’s all well and good, but is it really worth dragging this country into a costly legal war against two men who not only have deep, deep pockets but also carry heavy influence in many circles? Is it worth distracting this country for who knows how long and keeping it from other problems and issues that need to be addressed long after they are gone? And for what, to feel a sense of retribution or even revenge?
No one has ever answered those questions intelligently when talk of impeachment raises its gnarled head, until now. I must say that I have seen the light.
In Bill Moyers Journal, Tough Talk on Impeachment, Moyers sits down with Constitutional Law expert Bruce Fein and Nation contributor, author and political journalist John Nichols. Their reserved and lucid round-table discussion offers a compelling insight into not only what it means to impeach a president, but why we should do so to this one (and the vice-president). If you’ve got 24-minutes I urge you to watch it.
I don’t want to go into too much detail because then what would be the point of sitting through the thing? If you’ve ever been on the fence about this whole impeachment thing or think that it is just a bunch of political grand-standing, please watch. It gave me yet another perspective on why this presidency and administration as a whole are one of the worst in history and should go down in history as such (though that probably won’t happen*).
This presidency will indeed set a precedent, the question is whether it will be one of caution for future presidents or encouragement for future imperialists.
*see Lies My Teacher Told Me