Benjamin Franklin, after signing the United States Constitution proclaimed, "Gentlemen, we give you a Republic - if you can keep it." A recent development shows yet again how the foundation of that Republic is trembling. This draft articles of impeachment of President Bush, plus Cheney, Rumsfeld and Ashcroft, consists of seventeen relativistic political gripes against the current administration. According to the website it appears on, the draft was concocted by a former U.S. government official, Attorney General Ramsey Clark of the Johnson administration. While all of the arguments are largely or completely specious, and the effort to impeach obviously will go nowhere, some of the charges are noteworthy.
Charge 15 condemns the adminstration for the act of investigating and preempting middle-eastern Islamic terrorists in the U.S. by investigating and surveiling middle-eastern and Islamic individuals. They villify this practical approach as "racial and religious profiling." High crime? Hardly. Misdemeanor? Nope. Demagoguery? Getting warmer!
Charge 17 proposes that the President should be removed from office for rejecting various international treaties and withdrawal from others that we're already signatories to. The last time I checked, this is a major component of the job description for "President of the United States of America."
(One wonders why the charges of "selected, not elected," and "tax cuts for the rich" were omitted from the list.)
Yet the most incredible and sinister charge is number 6. In order to make the charge seem legimate, AG Clark elevates both "the Charter of the United Nations and international law" to the status of "Supreme Law of the land," (yes, THIS land) as described "under Article VI, paragraph 2, of the Constitution." Chilling? Brrrr.
That a former legal officer of the federal government can soberly make such a claim is a bright flashing warning sign to all of us who value individual liberty.
Posted by JohnGalt at May 20, 2003 10:08 AMWell said. But isn't a great power of the Constitution its ability to shrug off the occasional Ramsey Clark?
Clark is running for President, but barring a victory, this stunt will get him some favorable press in "The Nation" but little else.
I am more concerned with the Senate filibusters of judicial nominees and (less, but still concerned) with the comical but evil abdication of the Texas Statehouse Democrats. Perhaps both groups will pay at he polls and all will be rectified but I fear the Constitution may be broken if these two electoral minorities are allowed to impose their will.
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