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Impeach Bush
According to the U.S. Constitution, the president shall be impeached for “high crimes and misdemeanors.” This large-sounding phrase is not defined by the document itself. Clearly it does not mean only violations of the criminal law. It means, most importantly, political crimes, crimes against the state. The decision to impeach a president is ultimately a political act in the true sense of the word, meaning that in the view of the Congress and the people the president has acted in such a wrongful and harmful way against the nation, in a manner so grossly incompatible with the purpose and function of his office (as federal prosecutor John Doar put it during the Nixon impeachment debate), that he should be removed from office. President Bush’s pursuit of open borders, and, even worse, his unprecedentedly outrageous lies in support of that policy (Clinton never told lies this big), amply justify his impeachment. Never in American history has a president lied this grossly on an issue of such vast consequence. Bush describes as a “guest worker” program a policy that bears no relationship to historical guest worker programs, all of which involved seasonal agricultural workers who had to return to their home country at the end of their seasonal employment, as former California Governor Pete Wilson pointed out in a speech he gave to the Hudson Institute last week. Bush’s “guest worker” program would allow foreigners (who underbid an American for a job, any job) into the U.S. for an open-ended period, and within four years, if they are still employed and have enrolled in an English class, they would automatically qualify for legal permanent residency, which then of course would mean that their spouse and minor children would also be admitted into the U.S. and would receive legal permanent residency. Bush denies that his program is an “amnesty.” But by allowing illegals to stay here legally (after perhaps a very brief trip back to Mexico), and then, as with the “guest worker” program, opening up legal permanent residency to them, his program, contained in Senate bill S.2611, is self-evidently an amnesty. For lying so baldly, for showing such bad faith and such contempt for the American people on such a fundamental issue that has the potential to transform and destroy our nation, Bush should be impeached.
Of course there will be no such move to impeach Bush, since the members of Congress who oppose Bush’s amnesty are his fellow Republicans. But I am speaking of the way things ought to be. And to speak of the way things ought to be is the beginning of politics. Email entry |