Story of the Week - March 19-23

Tremendous Harm

The Bush administration is so corrupt that the Democratic majority in Congress doesn't know where to start. By the time they unravel all of the corruption and prove it legally, Bush will be out of office, thankfully. But perhaps he should be out of office sooner than that.

If anything, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should have resigned last week, yesterday, an hour ago, whenever, but the fact that he still has a job today is just another example of the utter disregard that the Bush White House has for the people, laws, and Constitution of this country.

I'm trying to wrap my head around all of this. But here is what happened and what is happening. The Attorney General, with encouragement from the White House, fired 8 US attorneys who were seen as disloyal to the Bush Administration. U.S. Attorneys are political appointees, as is the Attorney General, and all can be fired by the President. However, the US Attorneys are also part of the Judicial Branch of government. So while the President has the power to choose US attorneys, he cannot tell them how to prosecute their cases. And if a US attorney thinks he's going to be fired unless he prosecutes according to the President's agenda, we might as well not have separation of powers in the Constitution.

Speaking of separation of powers, the Legislative Branch wishes to exercise its check on the Executive by asking key administration officials to testify before Congress. If, as the Bushies say, you did nothing wrong and you stand by the Attorney General, why not share with Congress? We don't have to, says the Bush Administration. Ok, you can talk to Karl Rove, but in a closed-door meeting with no transcript. And you can't place him under oath.

In other words: Here you go democrats, Karl's gonna sit in that chair and lie to you until you're satisfied.

And THEN the administration has the chutzpah to be appalled when the Democrats reject this preposterous offer (which the White House called "extremely generous" - seriously) and seek subpoenas. And it's almost guaranteed that the White House will use all means necessary, legal and illegal, to make sure that Karl Rove doesn't face the Senate Judiciary Committee under oath.

Any more of this, and Congress might be forced to draw up articles of impeachment. That's what Mayor Rocky Anderson, of Salt Lake City, wants. Here, read this:
http://www.slcgov.com/mayor/speeches/2007%20Speeches/pentagonrally31707.pdf

The Mayor of Salt Lake City, a democrat who was brought up Mormon, a multiple-term mayor of a very conservative city, is calling for Bush's impeachment on a daily basis. And he's 100% right.

"our love for our nation - our regard for our constitution - brings us here today to call for the impeachment of a President who has done and continues to do such tremendous harm to our country."


The Washington Post knows more about this than I do:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032001943.html?sub=new

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/22/AR2007032200213.html