McGovern: Impeach Bush, Cheney Now

CBS News ^ | 1/6/08 | David Morgan

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(CBS) The former Democratic nominee for president who ran against a president later driven from office under threat of impeachment, today said that impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney is "the rightful course for an American patriot."

George McGovern, a former South Dakota Senator who ran on the Democratic ticket in 1972 as an anti-war advocate, wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post that, while he steered clear of calling for the impeachment of Richard Nixon in the '70s - fearing it would appear as "an expression of personal vengeance" against his opponent who won re-election in a landslide - McGovern said after seven years of the current administration, he has "belatedly and painfully concluded that the only honorable course for me is to urge the impeachment" of the president and the vice president.

McGovern also called the case for impeaching Mr. Bush and Cheney "far stronger" than what was the case against President Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew after the 1972 election.

McGovern admits that while there is little bipartisan support for instituting impeachment hearings (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, has announced that impeachment is "off the table"), he said, "Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses.

"They have repeatedly violated the Constitution.

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I found it interesting that the Rapid City Journal gave this hit piece front page treatment right under the Name of the paper, with the headline “McGovern: Impeach Bush”. by journal staff beneath that.

The CBS article was not quoted, as far as I could tell with a cursory read, but the Post editorial was, which I assume was all George McStupid, all the time. Interesting in the CBS article was the mindless and over used talking points that made their way into the mix in an attempt to justify with specious evidence the Bush derangement syndrome. Interesting too, is the use of the word controversy, at the bottom of paragraph one to help raise discredited talking points to the level of impeachment.

Excerpts of CBS article and George McGovern quotes:
there is no protection of executive privilege allowed under an impeachment investigation.

Therefore, any documents and testimony relating to the destruction of videotapes depicting torture, to the firings of U.S. attorneys, to the outing of a CIA operative, to secret energy meetings involving Cheney and oil industry figures, to surveillance of Americans without court-order warrants or any other controversy which the White House has refused to produce for Congress, must be given in evidence.

“Impeachment is unlikely, of course,” McGovern wrote. “But we must still urge Congress to act. Impeachment, quite simply, is the procedure written into the Constitution to deal with presidents who violate the Constitution and the laws of the land. It is also a way to signal to the American people and the world that some of us feel strongly enough about the present drift of our country to support the impeachment of the false prophets who have led us astray.

“I believe we have a chance to heal the wounds the nation has suffered in the opening decade of the 21st century. This recovery may take a generation and will depend on the election of a series of rational presidents and Congresses. At age 85, I won’t be around to witness the completion of the difficult rebuilding of our sorely damaged country, but I’d like to hold on long enough to see the healing begin.”

By David Morgan
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