Washblog

There are at least two ways to achieve accountability: censure or ... Wait!  We are reluctant to mention the i word (impeachment) because the topic is rarely taken seriously in Congress or in the media, and  mentioning it may doom this essay to rejection.  So we have chosen to allow censure as an (inferior) option, because we believe that it is vitally important that accountability be openly discussed.

Some people argue that pursing accountability would be a distraction from the real things that matter.  But Bush, Cheney, and their supporters are the real problem.  It's not as if Congress is accomplishing all that much now anyway.   Congress hasn't ended the war, enacted SCHIP, or reversed Bush's many regressive tax, environmental, and social policies. Until Bush and Cheney are stifled, things will continue to be bad (and will get a log worse if Bush attacks Iran).

Some people argue that the populace has no patience for drawn-out hearings. But according to a recent Reuters/Zogby poll, Bush's approval ratings are 24%, and according to polls this summer by American Research Group, 45% of Americans favor impeachment of Bush, and 54% favor impeachment of Cheney.  (We know of many Democrats who would love to see Bush and Cheney in jail but who believe that pursuing impeachment is a waste of time; we beg to differ.) One of the reasons Congress' approval l ratings are even lower than Bush's is that Congress hasn't stood up to the Administration.     Worldwide, many people would be thrilled if Congress tried to hold Bush and Cheney accountable.

In contrast to Bill Clinton, whose "crime" involved lying about sex, Bush and Cheney are responsible for misleading the country into a disastrous war based on falsehoods; for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians and nearly 4000 US soldiers; for displacing several million Iraqi; for promoting torture; for wasting $500 billion; for illegal wiretapping; for signing statements that thwart the will of Congress; for revealing the name of a CIA agent; for politicizing the Justice Department; for denial of fair trial at Guantanamo;  for obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plume case and in the firing of federal prosecutors; for suppression of inconvenient evidence; and for gross incompetence and corruption in the management of federal agencies, federal contracts, the Hurricane Katrina disaster, the war, and veterans' care.  

Democrats have a clear majority in the House and so impeachment (indictment by the House) is a real possibility, if the Democrats show some nerve. Even if the Senate is unable to convict, investigative hearings would embarrass and weaken the Administration and its supporters.   Most of all, hearings would reveal the truth, reestablish the rule of law, and demonstrate that Americans defend their Constitution and hold criminals accountable.

What higher crimes are there than promoting torture and misleading the country into a disastrous, mismanaged war based on lies?

We have an obligation -- to the Constitution, to the world, to Justice, and to posterity -- to at least try to hold Bush and Cheney accountable for their crimes and for their incompetence.  People who say "it won't succeed" are engaging in a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Some countries allow their criminal leaders to escape unpunished, but in the United States we know better.  We demand accountability!

   Donald A. Smith
   Chris Tombrello

Email me at ThinkerFeeler@yahoo.com if you would like to be a co-signer of this letter, which I plan to submit to the Seattle Times as an Op-Ed piece.  See http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/333117_moveon26.html for a previous Op-Ed that I co-wrote with 14 other MoveOn supporters.

[The master version of this essay is available here:  http://conservativethought.org/Accountability.pdf]