Pelosi's Toothless Threat to Sue Bush Imperils Constitution

(Reposted from edit. by request)

Pelosi's Toothless Threat to Sue Bush Imperils Constitution

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/22305

Pelosi's Toothless Threat to Sue Bush Imperils Constitution
By Dave Lindorff

The bankruptcy of the Democratic Party leadership’s position in Congress on impeachment was revealed in stark terms yesterday, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she would sue the president in court if he resorted to a signing statement to kill the next version of Congress’s Iraq funding bill.

Suing Bush over a signing statement, given the number of Federalist judges that this administration has named to the federal district and appellate courts, and to the US Supreme Court, is not just an exercise in futility; it is a dangerous tactic which could backfire disastrously by leading to a ruling that it’s perfectly constitutional for a president to ignore laws passed by the Congress. Does Pelosi really want to risk such a catastrophe?

The only solution is to impeach the president over his signing statements, and there is no need to wait for the next one to take action. Bush has invalidated more than 1200 laws or parts of laws passed by Congress since 2001 using what are called “signing statements.”

Republican apologists for the president have noted that other presidents, including Clinton, also issued signing statements, which is true. But they fail to mention that other presidents did not use those signing statements to then ignore or invalidate laws passed by Congress. They merely used them to register their view that a law, or a part of a law, was unconstitutional.

Bush has made a wholly different argument. For the past six years, he has been claiming that because he is commander in chief in a time of war, by which he means the so-called “war” on terror, he has had what he calls “unitary executive” authority. By this he means that legislative and judicial power, as well as executive power, are all in his hands for as long as the threat of terrorism is with us. Since this “war” on terror never really ends, what he is claiming is that separation of powers no longer exists in America. Indeed, the Constitution itself is set aside. The president is a dictator during his term of office, and Congress is just a debating club.

At this point, it should be clear to anyone, including Speaker Pelosi, that the only remedy for this gross abuse of power by the president is impeachment.

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All Pelosi's bullshit suit is is an open invitation for some Federalist Society clone-judge to issue a ruling fully supporting this Administration.

oxymoron

if they let it go to the courts, the repubicon appointed "judges" are likely to give the cheney mis-administration the whole ball game...remember how they came to office in the first place.

a toothless attack imperils you because it exposes you as defenseless.

...and that if she sues, the judges will determine it is perfectly legal for the president to ignore congress.

Should such a thing happen, would it be safe to assume that everyone ought to just throw in the towel? Because that sounds like the end of Democracy itself in America.

may be unavoidable.

Articles of Impeachment

Text of CA Democratic Party Impeachment Resolution
April 30, 2007, San Diego, CA
CALLING FOR FULL INVESTIGATION INTO ABUSES OF POWER
BY PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH AND RICHARD B. CHENEY

WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney have acted in a manner contrary to their trust as President and Vice President, subversive of the Constitution, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of California and the United States of America, by intentionally disseminating and propagating knowingly false and fabricated “evidence” regarding the threat from Iraq in order to wage a tragic, bloody war with the loss of thousands of brave American troops and Iraqi civilians, and

WHEREAS, it is clear that since September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have abused their powers of office by: 1) using information they knew to be false as justification for the U.S. invasion of Iraq; 2) condoning and authorizing the torture of prisoners of war; 3) authorizing wiretaps on U.S. citizens without obtaining a warrant; 4) disclosing the name of an undercover CIA operative contrary to law in order to harm her for her husband’s opposition to the Iraq War; 5) having suspended and denied the historic Writ of Habeas Corpus by ordering the indefinite detention of so-called enemy combatants without charge and without access to legal counsel; and 6) overstepping Presidential authority by signing statements used to ignore or circumvent portions of over 750 Congressional statutes he brought into law; and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the California Democratic Party supports vigorous investigation of these charges by the Congress of the United States, including the full use of Congressional subpoena power authority to completely disclose the actions of the Administration to the American people and to take necessary action to call the Administration to account with appropriate remedies and punishment, including impeachment.

Submitted by Senator Art Torres (Ret.), Chairman of the California Democratic Party; CDP Resolutions Co-Chairs; Emily Thurber; Bob Farran; Michael Barnett; Tim Carpenter, Joye Swan; Patrick Henry Demo Club; 69th AD Cmte.; The Hull-Richters; Alexandar, Mark and Natasha

(Adopted April 29, 2007)

It sounds like she is going up the constitution and the will of the people . It makes the dems look even weaker than they are begining to look already .

Toothless??? Did anybody say Toothless???? :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

And the investigations are only a few months old. With more on the way, too.