January 10, 2008
by Robert Fantina

'The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.' Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution

In U.S. history, the concept of impeachment of a president has been publicly used three times: Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were impeached, but not removed from office. The threat of impeachment was sufficient to cause President Richard Nixon to resign the presidency.

A look at impeachment and those three situations is instructive, especially in the context of conditions today.

Impeachment is the first official step in removal from office; the second is conviction. When a politician is impeached, formal charges against him or her have been approved. There then follows a second vote, for conviction or failure to convict. This was the case with Messrs Johnson and Clinton.

Mr. Johnson, in 1867, was impeached for violating the Tenure of Office Act. This act basically stated that once a member of the president's cabinet had been approved by the Senate, he or she would remain in that office until a successor was thereby approved. Mr. Johnson removed the Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, replacing him with Adjutant-General Lorenzo Thomas, without the advice and consent of the Senate. This was sufficient for Congress to impeach the president. The second vote resulted in 'failure to convict' and Mr. Johnson was not removed from office.

One hundred and thirty-one years later Mr. Clinton was impeached as a result of lying during testimony he gave regarding an affair with Monica Lewinsky. He was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice. The second vote, like that on the charge against Mr. Johnson, resulted in 'failure to convict.'

Mr. Nixon's name will forever be associated with hotel in Washington, D.C., the Watergate. In 1972, several months prior to Mr. Nixon's landslide reelection, five people were arrested breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at that hotel. The subsequent investigation by the FBI, the Senate Watergate Committee and the House Judiciary Committee, aided all along by the press, revealed a wide variety of campaign fraud, political espionage and sabotage, and other crimes. Rather than face certain impeachment and almost certain removal from office, Mr. Nixon resigned.

To summarize, two presidents have been impeached, one for improperly removing a cabinet member from office and improperly replacing him. The second was impeached for lying about a sexual affair. The one president who resigned faced impeachment for a wide variety of illegal political activity and his efforts to conceal them once discovered.

The degree of political motivation for the impeachment of Mr. Johnson is difficult to determine a century and a half later. Mr. Clinton was impeached by a lame duck session called by the Republican leadership immediately after mid-term elections. Mr. Nixon was universally derided for his crimes, and both parties were united in their support of impeachment.

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Let us look now at the administration of George W. Bush. He misled Congress by stating that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was somehow involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. He convinced Congress to authorize war in this way. He wiretaps U.S. citizens' telephones in stark violation of the first and fourth amendments of the Constitution. He has approved 'enhanced interrogation techniques,' what the rest of the world calls 'torture,' in violation of international and U.S. law. He signs laws and then issues executive orders contravening those laws. His second attorney general was his longtime friend and counselor, and ran the Justice Department as such.

Surely, one must believe that at the very least a special prosecutor should be appointed to explore these issues. Are they not at least as significant as the violation of the Tenure of Office Act?  Is Mr. Clinton's sex life of more grave importance to the national security of the United States than unjustified imperial wars? Are even the shocking crimes of Mr. Nixon of greater severity than the deaths of thousands of Americans for no other purpose than to enrich already rich oil men and women?

One can understand the FBI not investigating Mr. Bush's crimes; in addition to the fact that that organization is too closely allied with the Administration to ever look at it impartially, his crimes are not those generally investigated by that organization. But since there was a 'Senate Watergate Committee' during the Nixon years, why is there today not a 'Senate Iraq Committee,' or a 'Senate Torture Committee,' or a 'Senate Wiretapping Committee,' to name only a few possibilities? Why are the House and Senate ignoring the president's crimes?

While these Congressional deficits are understandable given the current, cowardly Congress, the silence of the press is indefensible and inexcusable. It was the press that uncovered and doggedly pursued the truth during the Nixon years. But the press today acts in concert with Congress to look the other way as Mr. Bush runs amok over the Constitution.

The nation and the world are in the last desperate throes of the administration of George W. Bush. Whether or not the nation's long nightmare will end with the inauguration of a new president remains to be seen. But while Mr. Bush has run roughshod and with impunity over the Constitution for seven years, and will surely never again run for office, Congress must be held accountable. Congress members who refuse to pursue the impeachment of this criminal president must pay a price the next time their name is on a ballot box. That is the only recourse the citizenry has, and it must be used. Otherwise the Bush Administration sets a dangerous precedent for the future.

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Robert Fantina [send him email] is a long-time activist for peace and social justice. He has worked with the Coalition for Peace Action in New Jersey. Following the 2004 presidential election, he moved to Canada, where he now resides. Robert is the author of Desertion and the American Solder: 1776-2006.

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