It's Time for Congress To Act

I and my kind have been saying that what the GOP has been seeking to do to this country is dangerous since day one. More and more conservatives have come to agree. It's not sweet to be right. We are living in dangerous times; we always have, but this is different. The "words" of the Constitution have always been a saving grace. They are a barrier to a Fascist state forming here. Now, there is a serious attempt to erase these "words."

Playtime is over. Congress is beginning to act. Since the Justice Dept. will not act, then Congress must assert it's authority, or all is lost. And I don't mean this figuratively. No one should inherit the powers that this administration has gathered -- Democrat or Republican. It will lead to a very, very dangerous and unstable world. A rogue United States (even more that it has been) is too terrifying to contemplate.

From a Washington Post article By Dan Eggen and Paul Kane:
"House Panel Votes for Contempt Charges in Firings Case" —

The House Judiciary Committee voted today to issue contempt citations for two of President Bush's most trusted aides, taking its most dramatic step yet towards a constitutional showdown with the White House over the Justice Department's dismissal of nine U.S. attorneys.

The panel voted 22-17, along party lines, to issue citations to Joshua B. Bolten, White House chief of staff, and Harriet E. Miers, former White House counsel.

Bruce Fein, a conservative and the author of the impeachment papers against Bill Clinton, was interviewed on Bill Moyers Journal with John Nichols the author of The Genius of Impeachment. Mr. Nichols barely had to speak; Bruce Fein gets it.

From the transcript of the July 13, 2007 of Bill Moyers Journal on PBS:

BILL MOYERS: Bruce you wrote that article of impeachment against Bill Clinton. Why did you think he should be impeached?

BRUCE FEIN: I think he was setting a precedent that placed the president above the law. I did not believe that the initial perjury or misstatements-- that came perhaps in a moment of embarrassment stemming from the Paula Jones lawsuit was justified impeachment if he apologized. Even his second perjury before the grand jury when Ken Starr's staff was questioning him, as long as he expressed repentance, would not have set an example of saying every man, if you're president, is entitled to be a law unto himself. I think Bush's crimes are a little bit different. I think they're a little bit more worrisome than Clinton's. You don't have to have--

BILL MOYERS: More worrisome?

BRUCE FEIN: More worrisome than Clinton's-- because he is seeking more institutionally to cripple checks and balances and the authority of Congress and the judiciary to superintend his assertions of power. He has claimed the authority to tell Congress they don't have any right to know what he's doing with relation to spying on American citizens, using that information in any way that he wants in contradiction to a federal statute called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. He's claimed authority to say he can kidnap people, throw them into dungeons abroad, dump them out into Siberia without any political or legal accountability. These are standards that are totally anathema to a democratic society devoted to the rule of law.