With the introduction by Representative John Conyers last week of a resolution calling for the censure of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney as well as the release of report documenting potentially impeachable offenses, the possibility of impeachment took a dramatic step forward. Since shortly after President Bush took office there have been various efforts taken by activists to advocate the impeachment of President Bush, most notably the Vote To Impeach campaign, which even went so far as to produce a document containing 18 articles of impeachment. Of course, these efforts were restrict to far left groups, and indeed in the case of Vote To Impeach, the effort was sponsored by the antiwar group International ANSWER. Despite the fact that there still have been no major newspapers calling for impeachment, the possibility is gaining traction with a poll in November finding that 53% of United States citizens support impeachment if it is found that President Bush manipulated intelligence to build a case for invading Iraq. Interestingly, the support of 53% of the population came before the recent disclosures of extensive electronic surveillance of communications by the National Security Agency (NSA).
Impeachment remains unlikely given the current configuration of the Congress, but should it be undertaken, it will likely be rooted in the aforementioned NSA surveillance. Many in Congress view the NSA surveillance as another example of executive power being taken too far with Conservatives seeing it as a questionable, if not illegal, expansion of power. The generally conservative business magazine Barron’s ran an editorial raising the possibility of impeachment last week suggesting that the President greatly overstepped his authority and that his actions risked invalidating the powers of Congress to make laws. The editorial went on to suggest that Congresspersons who investigated President Bill Clinton’s sexual relationships for impeachment would be well served to pursue an investigation of President Bush’s actions.
