Vermont Democrats call for Bush Impeachment

Hey! There are Democrats with some backbone -- it's just that most of them are not in Washington!

Reuters is reporting that the Democratic Party in Vermont has passed a resolution calling on Congress to impeach President George W. Bush.

Here's the big ideas in the story:

In an elementary school cafeteria strewn with American flags and copies of the U.S. Constitution, some 100 state party officials agreed to make the request to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Ah, the Constitution! That quaint document that once (prior to 9/11/01) was the document upon which our government was based. As we all know, the President, his Attorney General, and the rest of the administration, believe that the Constitution is no longer operable when Congress authorizes the use of force (no need to even declare war).

So, Democrats displaying copies of the Constitution in a call for impeachment are so pre-9/11/01 (that would make them/us Constitutionalists). Copies of The Federalist Papers would have been appropriate, too. You know, the series of documents that explained our system of government and the thinking behind it to the founding generation back in the late 18th Century?

Can anyone who backs this administration actually call for the appointment of "strict constructionists" to the federal courts any more, particularly in light of the monarchical view of the presidency being propagated by this administration? This administration is inventing constitutional law every day. The notion that their theories are somehow rooted in the fundamental doctrines of the founders is a bold-faced lie!

The Vermont Democrats are pretty clear that this Bush administration is acting far enough outside Constitutional parameters as to warrant House impeachment actions.

The measure asks the Republican-controlled House to pass articles of impeachment against Bush for misleading the nation on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and engaging in illegal wiretapping, among other charges.

Democratic state committees in Wisconsin, New Mexico, Nevada and North Carolina have taken similar steps.

Impeachment, for those of you keeping score, is the Constitutional equivalent of an indictment. The House Judiciary Committee and the House itself act as something of a grand jury. If a "true bill" is returned against a federal official, the process then moves to the Senate, which acts as the jury in the case.

The kind of extra-constitutional activities in which the Bush administration has engaged and even gloried in are precisely the kind of questions that the impeachment process was intended to resolve (not questions of determining if a president lied about a blow job).

If the Congress cannot bring itself to commence a thorough and genuine investigation of the actions of the Bush administration, then this Congress is not worthy of offices they collectively they hold because they do not have in them the moral force to carry out the duties of their oaths of office (which call on them to defend the Constitution and laws of the country).

If, by November, this Congress has not launched a legitimate investigation into the actions of this administration (as outlined by the Vermont Democrats and others), then that inaction becomes the basis for citizens to demand a change in the leadership of the Congress.

If, after a change in leadership, there is no investigation, then our form of government is dead.

This is the real deal. A Constitutional crisis of the highest order. If this administration can't be reined in, then we are a republic in name only.