by Lauren Schwartz

Created on: December 18, 2008

Bush should not, and can not, be impeached. Asking whether or not Bush should be impeached is a rhetorical question; superficial discourse, if you will. Impeachment, by definition, is the accusation of improper conduct of a public official in front of a tribunal. "Deciding whether Bush should be impeached" is clearly ridiculous. In 34 days, George W. Bush will not be holding public office. With much gratitude to Dennis Kucinich, he proved this point in early June.

On June 10 of this year, Dennis Kucinich officially introduced, to a nearly empty House Chamber, his 35 articles of impeachment of George Bush. With Robert Wexler as his co-sponsor, it took the Clerk over 4 hours to read the proposal onto the record. It was then refereed to the Judiciary Committee. The House voted 251 to 166 to refer the impeachment to the Judiciary Committee on July 25. The time span the resolution took to go through the motions after being introduced, not including the time it took for Kucinich to build up his case, surpassed Bush's final number of days in office.

Naturally, one is left to wonder "well if this process of impeachment take so long, why hadn't anyone brought it up 3 years, hell 1 year, ago"? The following reflex, usually a piercing regret mixed with utter stupefaction, can be remedied. If you think this reflection hurts, imagine if Bush HAD been impeached? Dick Cheney, that's what. Knowing we dodged THAT bullet should soothe your pain. This is why Bush can't be, nor should have been, impeached. With Cheney at the helm, he wouldn't be wrecking havoc behind the scenes any more. That's how the defense "executive privilege" became so popular - pre-emptive safeguards.

Dick Cheney will be needing quite a large legal team in his near future. Violating the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, the prohibition of warrantless search and seizure, is a biggie considering the whole "protect and honor" pledge. Warrantless wiretapping remained in place, despite legal analysis that it was unconstitutional. Ironically, this turned out to be a 2-for-1 criminal act, since Bush abusing his power violated another Constitutional element - Checks and balances. It has also been determined that by authorizing warrantless domestic wiretapping, Bush violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveilence Act (FISA), constituting a felony. Invading Iraq is its own set of crimes which extend internationally. Lying to Congress, lying to the world, crimes against humanity...the last one is especially ironic considering the situation.

On January 20, when Obama has said the last word in his inauguration speech, Bush and Cheney and every last person on the administration's payroll should be simultaneously handcuffed, and escorted out of office in silver "bracelets". That's how destiny wants it, evidently. Fate has decided not to impeach Bush because when all is said and done, he can't give blanket pardons from behind bars.

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