McGovern: Time to Impeach Bush

Memo to Speaker Nancy Pelosi: George McGovern Has a Message for You.

Time to Impeach President George W. Bush.

George McGovern, the Democratic Party’s 1972 nominee for president, is calling on Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

In an editorial in Sunday’s Washington Post, McGovern writes the case for impeaching the current president is “far stronger” than the case made against former President Richard Nixon — the man who soundly defeated McGovern in the general election match up.

“Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses,” McGovern writes. “They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after time.

“Their conduct and their barbaric policies have reduced our beloved country to a historic low in the eyes of people around the world,” he continued.

McGovern, a former three-term senator who ran for president on a fiercely anti-war platform, also called the administration’s policy in Iraq a “a murderous, illegal, nonsensical war” in violation of international law.

“This reckless disregard for life and property, as well as constitutional law, has been accompanied by the abuse of prisoners, including systematic torture, in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions of 1949,” he added.

But McGovern acknowledged there is little bipartisan support for an impeachment effort, blaming “superficial partisanship” among Republicans, and a “a lack of courage and statesmanship on the part of too many Democratic politicians.”