While newly elected Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave her Republican colleagues assurances that “impeachment is off the table,” at least one former Democratic presidential candidate disagrees.
The Capital Times reports:
George McGovern has a word for Vice President Dick Cheney: “Resign.”
Responding to Tuesday’s conviction of Cheney’s former chief-of-staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and lying to the FBI – after a trial that revealed Cheney’s intimate involvement with a scheme to discredit a critic of the administration’s war policies – the former congressman, senator and presidential candidate said it was time for the vice president to go.
“What we have learned about how he has conducted himself leaves no doubt that he should be out of office,” McGovern says of Cheney. “If he had any respect for the Constitution or the country, he would resign.”
Regarding President George Bush and impeachment, McGovern had this to say.
“I think this is the most lawless administration we’ve ever had,” he says of the Bush-Cheney team. That’s a strong statement coming from a man who tangled in 1972 with Nixon, and then saw Nixon’s presidency destroyed by the Watergate scandals. But McGovern says there is no comparison.
“I’d far rather have Nixon in the White House than these two fellows that we’ve got now,” said the former three-term senator from South Dakota. “Nixon did some horrible things, which led to the effort to impeach him. But he simply was not as bad as Bush. On just about every level I can think of, Bush’s actions are more impeachable than were those of Nixon.”
Of particular concern to McGovern is the war in Iraq, which he has steadfastly opposed.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi should heed McGovern’s wisdom.
Bush is more impeachable than Nixon, but the Democratic Congress haven’t the spine to do it.
Larry,
I blame it on:
1. War profiteering in the Congress
2. Half the senate is running for president
3. The Iraq war is such a swell issue for Democrats to run on
“Impeachment is off the table.” Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Yeah, we get it, Nancy.
I’m ready to strangle Harry Reid at the moment! What is wrong with this man? He’s pandering to the right wing nutcakes.
The answer to all of this? KEEP THE PRESSURE ON HARRY AND NANCY TO DO THE RIGHT THING!
Americans are in the firing mood. We want to see heads roll.
Pelosi will never live that statement down. It made many of us wonder if she has ties to the K Street gang of crooks and she’s just covering her Armani-swathed butt. I’m really perplexed by her leadership. She got the job because the American people want the Iraq war to end and they put their trust in the Democrats. Thus far, I see very little action on this and a whole of nothing.
The Democrats, having been out of power for 12 years – an eternity by political standards, are behaving like they’re afraid to wield their power. Someone in charge of budgets needs to stop giving Bush the billions needed to keep this lethal war going.
If Democrats don’t wake up, I predict they will begin to see their numbers fall and they may very well lose their hard fought majority.
I would hope Cheney would resign, but I’m afraid Bush will just pardon Libby and get away with it. The Democrats are already letting Republicans shape public opinion on it.
Unfortunately, you can’t impeach a president for ineptitude.
However, you CAN order the Articles of Impeachment for:
- Unconstitutional domestic wiretaping
- Lying the country into a war
- Warcrimes
But Larry is right. The 110th doesn’t have the spine.
The truly tragic thing to me is, how many more Americans will die in Iraq before the next occupant of the Oval Office is sworn in and the war stopped? It could all begin coming to an end in weeks if we had leadership.
Too bad we don’t.
McGovern is a disgraced liberal with zero credibility. Quoting him is like quoting Jimmy Carter. Sad. So sad.
Go fuck yourself, steely dan.
As Nancy and Harry dither, 3,188 American soldiers have died in Iraq.
Nixon was a crook and dangerous. Bush is pure evil and dangerous and so are the people around him.
Nixon didn’t try to destroy Social Security and Medicare through pressures brought about by a huge national debt. (The military budget and capital for big business will be greatly hurt by this debt, thus going against Bush’s own right-wing — this his through shear stupidity.)
Nixon didn’t try to hold back medical advances by putting a gag order on research like Bush Jr. did on embryo research. Nixon was the one who created the “War on Cancer” through large federal speding on research.
Nixon went on record as saying to Reagan that Reagan should ignore those in the Republican Party who demanded an end to abortion. Nixon said “you’ll never be able to appease the extremists”.
Nixon told his aids that he thought Reagan’s budget and attack on social programs were “too severe”.
Nixon tried to find a way to treat drug addiction rather than just throwing people in jail — the number of drug addicts was too large.
Nixon was VERY careful about trying to stay on good terms with the Islamic countries. Bush Jr. scared Iran into starting a nuclear weapons program.
Though I was very unhappy with Nixon at when he was President, I agree with McGovern that Nixon was much better than Bush Jr.