First Things First

Why is Congress holding hearings on whether or not to confirm Justice Alito before they conduct investigations into the legality of the Bush administration’s eavesdropping on American citizens? For that matter, why is our government continuing in a “business as usual” manner instead of taking action on a possible felony committed by the President of the United States? There is no more urgent issue for the House and Senate than performing their sworn duties of protecting and defending the constitution and if, as it appears, this president has violated citizens rights and liberties protected by that document it is their duty to remove him from office.

Let’s take this a step further. Congress should propose legislation to withhold funding for the recent appointments made by Bush while they were recessed. They should additionally refuse to acknowledge these appointments as official and prevent the appointees from assuming their new positions until the investigation of Bush’s actions are complete.

If Congress holds hearings that result in the adoption of articles of impeachment against Bush and the impeachment proceedings succeed in removing him from office, the country will be saddled with the political appointments and a Supreme Court Justice placed in their positions by a felon.

Of course, this suggestion will drive conservatives up the wall with self righteous indignation and surely unleash a firestorm of criticism and accusations. So please consider the reasons this proposal is made:

• A majority of Americans believe the president has over-stepped his authority by ordering these wire taps and a great deal of legal experts have opined that this is a direct violation of the FISA law which is a felony and demands the impeachment of the President.

• Congress must investigate the citizen surveillance carried out by the NSA as ordered by the president because he openly and publicly admitted to this. Regardless of his claim that he advised Congress of this program, or that the Patriot Act gives him authority to carry out the surveillance, or that as Commander in Chief he has this right due to the concern for national security, spying on private American citizens has been and is presently illegal with monumental judicial precedent to back it up. President Nixon was forced to resign the presidency for exactly the same type of illegal activity and the same laws must apply to Bush.

• By acknowledging the unwarranted invasion of American citizens, Bush has in effect pleaded guilty to violating the law. Consequently, he has assumed a posture above the law, one neither restrained by its authority nor subject to its penalties. In other words, a Dictator.

• Bush’s assertion that he needed to circumvent the FISA court to expedite investigations is not tenable because of the 72 hour grace period allowed by the court in which to apply for and obtain a warrant. It is a logical conclusion then, to believe that Bush has avoided the FISA court because the target of surveillance was not an issue of national security, but one of political nature. Recall the corrupt Republican gambit of spying on the Democrats in Congress when they “accidentally” tapped into shared memory files on government computers. Also, that when an investigation was undertaken to determine how this could have happened a suspicious anthrax scare occurred in Sen. Frist’s office which prevented investigators from accessing the computer of Frist and his staff. No anthrax was ever found and the timing and probability of such an event has never been credible.

• It is now known that Bush authorized the NSA surveillance prior to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This totally repudiates his assertion that it was for national security purposes.

Conservatives would no doubt demand to know what gives me or anyone else the right to question our Commander in Chief and to make demands on Congress to impeach a sitting president. The authority behind my demands is the same each of us holds as citizens of this country. It is the authority invested in each patriot who defends the document this nation was founded upon which begins with the empowering phrase “We the People”. It is the constitutional authority and responsibility of every citizen to ensure we remain faithful to the spirit and wisdom embodied within the courageous words of our forefathers when they established a new government based on democracy, liberty and equality.

Each of the principals listed above is anathema to the Bush administration and they have gone to great lengths to eradicate them. If Congress will not take action to prevent this president from establishing a dictatorship then it must be done by the people of this nation who do not want to see over 200 years of democracy wiped out in the course of one president’s administration.