Posted on 03/15/2006 11:07:22 AM PST by MikeA
Republicans are denouncing Senator Russ Feingold's proposal to "censure" President Bush for his warrantless wiretaps on al Qaeda, but we'd like to congratulate the Wisconsin Democrat on his candor. He's had the courage to put on the table what Democrats are all but certain to do if they win either the House or Senate in November.
In fact, our guess is that censure would be the least of it. The real debate in Democratic circles would be whether to pass articles of impeachment. Whether such an inevitable attempt succeeds would depend on Mr. Bush's approval rating, and especially on whether Democrats could use their subpoena power as committee chairs to conjure up something they could flog to a receptive media as an "impeachable" offense. But everyone should understand that censure and impeachment are important--and so far the only--parts of the left's agenda for the next Congress.
As a legal matter, Mr. Feingold's censure proposal is preposterous. The National Security Agency wiretaps were disclosed to Congressional leaders, including Democrats, from the start. The lead FISA court judges were also informed, and the Attorney General and Justice lawyers have monitored the wiretaps all along. Despite a media drumbeat about "illegal domestic eavesdropping," Mr. Bush's spirited defense of the program since news of it leaked has swung public opinion in support.
But as a political matter, the Wisconsin Senator knows exactly what he's doing. He knows that anti-Bush pathology runs so deep among many Democrats that they really do think they're living in some new dictatorship. Liberal journals solemnly debate impeachment, and political-action groups have formed to promote it. One of our leading left-wing newspapers recently compared Mr. Bush to J. Edgar Hoover and Richard Nixon, as if there were even a speck of evidence that this White House is wiretapping its political enemies.
When the fever gets this hot in supposedly mainstream forums, Mr. Feingold is right to conclude that the facts behind any censure or impeachment motion won't really matter. All that will count is the politics, which means it will come down to a question of votes in Congress. And several leading Democrats have already raised the "impeachment" card.
California Senator Barbara Boxer loudly wrote four legal scholars late last year asking if the NSA wiretaps were impeachable. John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, has introduced a resolution calling for the creation of a "select committee to investigate the administration's intent to go to war before congressional authorization, manipulation of pre-war intelligence, encouraging and countenancing torture, retaliating against critics, and to make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment."
In other words, everything that Mr. Bush has been accused of during the last five years, no matter how Orwellian or thoroughly refuted, will be trotted out again and used as impeachment fodder.
your Fuhrer so sweetly portrayed on your homepage. And yes, I have been here A LOT longer than you have.
You being here "A lot longer" doesn't make you right. Your ridiculous comments are what matters, not how long you've been on Free Republic spouting the Pat Buchanan line. Talk about a Fuehrer, let's talk about the Jew hater, Saddam loving Buchanan...
I am too. But I get suspicious of anyone from this moron state as well. This state is one big seething cancer of wrong-headedness.
I don't care if you are as old as dirt. You are posting like a dog butt sniffing troll.
If you are serious, I think Cheney is going to have the same legal problems Libby has. Cheney could quietly resign and be replaced by Bush with someone squeaky clean. I think Bush has to address the wiretapping matter NOW before this goes any further. It is a very serious problem that most on FR are blowing off and has nothing to do with national security, just Nixon-esque enemies list stuff. Hastert has some ethical problems that haven't been publicized much but certainly will be if impeachment talk goes any further.
Well...we have freepers that have been "underground" over at DU for years also...doesn't make them a DUmmie.
So...just cause you signed up in 1998...doesn't make you a conservative, Republican OR freeper.
LOL, now you are profiling my state, home of the great Ronald Reagan himself? I live in Republican San Diego with no Congressman because he is in jail for taking bribes. I don't want Bush to be a screw-up, but he is and the sooner we deal with it the better off we will be.
"I can see you have no interest in anything except worshipping your Fuhrer so sweetly portrayed on your homepage."
Oh boy.
I can see you have no interest in anything except worshipping your Fuhrer so sweetly portrayed on your homepage. And yes, I have been here A LOT longer than you have.
Ahhhh...one of those "Bush is Hitler" arseclowns.
We have drug-induced Islamopigs spouting daily that they want to kill us/force YOU to wear a black sack/want to kill jews, etc. Who would you trust to run the country? The current tenant or the party of Cindy Shee-hadi?
Cheney could quietly resign and be replaced by Bush with someone squeaky clean. I think Bush has to address the wiretapping matter NOW before this goes any further. It is a very serious problem that most on FR are blowing off and has nothing to do with national security, just Nixon-esque enemies list stuff.
First of all, according to the Washington Post from yesterday it was Richard Armitage who was the originator of the Plame leak, something that wasn't illegal in any event since she was just a pencil pusher at Langley and wasn't a field agent with cover status.
Second, you have ZERO evidence and none has even been suggested that the president wiretapped his political opponents. Even the head of this program at the NSA has said these are all Al Qaeda targets and they are rigorous in ensuring the people whose phones are tapped are people against whom there are serious reasons to believe they are intertwined with Al Qaeda.
Man, you are REALLY a victim of the Bush bashing news media. It shows in everything you post, even to such an extent that you've bought into the "domestic wiretapping" lie when this is an international wiretap program tapping phone calls from known Al Qaeda operatives coming from abroad to people here in the states. GET INFORMED!
Yea .. that one caught my attention a few months back
I cast a vote with every expectation the people I am voting for will fulfill the terms of their offices. That's a very high bar to jump, and I don't see it happening, Jonathon Turley's opinion notwithstanding.
Ah, figures. There seems to be an acute shortage of duct tape for littleleaguemom's head today.
Cindy is trashed by the Democrats. She has a few pals in the black caucus and such but that is it. The Boxer conned her out of running against Feinstein. That would have been hilarious as the Feinstein has no Republican opposition and thinks she is Senatress for Life. Did you know about her husband's war booty? He has huge contracts in Iraq. Some left-wing guy in SF wrote a big expose on it. I am sure they helped buy DF's new $16.5 million mansion.
"Whoever first compares his opponent to Hitler automatically loses the argument."
LOL, now you are profiling my state, home of the great Ronald Reagan himself? I live in Republican San Diego with no Congressman because he is in jail for taking bribes. I don't want Bush to be a screw-up, but he is and the sooner we deal with it the better off we will be.
I'm from this state, so stop acting like this is some unfair assault on California from an outsider. If you live here then you should know it's not been anything like the state of Ronald Reagan since the early 90s. If you believe Ronald Reagan could get elected to this state today with the leftist trash that have taken it over, then you're deluded. Schwarzenegger himself who brought this state back from the brink of disaster will probably lose his governor's race to some unknown fool like Angelides or that other hack. We couldn't even get basic reforms passed here in November like sane legislative districts and increasing teacher tenure. Wake up.
And no, Bush isn't a screw up. You are for being deceived by the media and the Democrats. Come on, own up. You've become a Democrat haven't you, like Arriane Huffington another good little California girl who got seduced by the sick political environment of this god-forsaken state.
great post--why anyone would believe an 'ad' or tv commercial from a political group or union, without an attempt to find the "real truth", is beyond me---just like the 'ports deal' that was taken over by the "rats" as an issue who ran with it---when did 'hitlery or chuckie' ever defend anything of value for our nation?--then the chicken-shit 'rhinos' jumped in and all the stupid people came on board as well---I hope they shut down our bases and throw us out of the UAE for the insult we gave to those who would help in the area---Free Republic has more than its share of loons, Bush haters, and gutless citizens who flop back and forth, so don't believe all you read here--
Sorry, you need to get informed. The NSA has already admitted to spying on Quakers, antiwar folks, etc and that no one they spied on was actually a terrorist. Moreover, the criminal Duke Cunningham's "co-conspirators" were actually front companies for CIFA, Pentagon intelligence. In other words, they weren't happy with their huge budget, so they bribed Duke into getting them some bogus contracts so they would have even more loot for domestic spying. Duke is so dumb he had no idea they were front companies.
I will never be a Democrat. They showed how worthless they were over the bogus ports matter. But of course Duncan Hunter right here was a ringleader in making Bush look like an ass on one of the few times he was totally correct. The Democrat candidate for Duke's seat totally blew it when they gave her the opportunity to do the weekly radio address and she spitted out ports propaganda.
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