[Clips] Impeachment hearings: The White House prepares for the worst

Tue Jan 24 14:48:15 PST 2006

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  Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2006 17:47:40 -0500
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  From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
  Subject: [Clips] Impeachment hearings: The White House prepares for the worst
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  <http://www.insightmag.com/Media/MediaManager/impeachment.htm>

  Insight

  Issue Date: January 23-29, 2006, Posted On: 1/23/2006

  Impeachment hearings: The White House prepares for the worst

  President Bush waved to the press on Jan. 22 after returning to the White
  House from Camp David. (Susan Walsh/Associated Press)

  The Bush administration is bracing for impeachment hearings in Congress.

  "A coalition in Congress is being formed to support impeachment," an
  administration source said.

  Sources said a prelude to the impeachment process could begin with hearings
  by the Senate Judiciary Committee in February. They said the hearings would
  focus on the secret electronic surveillance program and whether Mr. Bush
  violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

  Administration sources said the charges are expected to include false
  reports to Congress as well as Mr. Bush's authorization of the National
  Security Agency to engage in electronic surveillance inside the United
  States without a court warrant. This included the monitoring of overseas
  telephone calls and e-mail traffic to and from people living in the United
  States without requisite permission from a secret court.

  Sources said the probe to determine whether the president violated the law
  will include Republicans, but that they may not be aware they could be
  helping to lay the groundwork for a Democratic impeachment campaign against
  Mr. Bush.

  "Our arithmetic shows that a majority of the committee could vote against
  the president," the source said. "If we work hard, there could be a tie."

  The law limits the government surveillance to no more than 72 hours without
  a court warrant. The president, citing his constitutional war powers, has
  pledged to continue wiretaps without a warrant.

  The hearings would be accompanied by several lawsuits against the
  administration connected to the surveillance program. At the same time, the
  Electronic Privacy Information Center has filed a Freedom of Information
  Act lawsuit that demands information about the NSA spying.

  Sen. Arlen Specter, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman and Pennsylvania
  Republican, has acknowledged that the hearings could conclude with a vote
  of whether Mr. Bush violated the law. Mr. Specter, a critic of the
  administration's surveillance program, stressed that, although he would not
  seek it, impeachment is a possible outcome.

  "Impeachment is a remedy," Mr. Specter said on Jan. 15. "After impeachment,
  you could have a criminal prosecution. But the principal remedy under our
  society is to pay a political price."

  Mr. Specter and other senior members of the committee have been told by
  legal constitutional experts that Mr. Bush did not have the authority to
  authorize unlimited secret electronic surveillance. Another leading
  Republican who has rejected the administration's argument is Sen. Sam
  Brownback of Kansas.

  On Jan. 16, former Vice President Al Gore set the tone for impeachment
  hearings against Mr. Bush by accusing the president of lying to the
  American people. Mr. Gore, who lost the 2000 election to Mr. Bush, accused
  the president of "indifference" to the Constitution and urged a serious
  congressional investigation. He said the administration decided to break
  the law after Congress refused to change the Foreign Intelligence
  Surveillance Act.

  "A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our
  government," Mr. Gore said.

  "I call upon members of Congress in both parties to uphold your oath of
  office and defend the Constitution," he said. "Stop going along to get
  along. Start acting like the independent and co-equal branch of American
  government that you are supposed to be under the constitution of our
  country."

  Impeachment proponents in Congress have been bolstered by a memorandum by
  the Congressional Research Service on Jan. 6. CRS, which is the research
  arm of Congress, asserted in a report by national security specialist
  Alfred Cumming that the amended 1947 law requires the president to keep all
  members of the House and Senate intelligence committees "fully and
  currently informed" of a domestic surveillance effort. It was the second
  CRS report in less than a month that questioned the administration's
  domestic surveillance program.

  The latest CRS report said Mr. Bush should have briefed the intelligence
  committees in the House and Senate. The report said covert programs must be
  reported to House and Senate leaders as well as the chairs of the
  intelligence panels, termed the "Gang of Eight."

  Administration sources said Mr. Bush would wage a vigorous defense of
  electronic surveillance and other controversial measures enacted after
  9/11. They said the president would begin with pressure on Republican
  members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Mr. Bush would then point to
  security measures taken by the former administration of President Bill
  Clinton.

  "The argument is that the American people will never forgive any public
  official who knowingly hurts national security," an administration source
  said. "We will tell the American people that while we have done everything
  we can to protect them, our policies are being endangered by a hypocritical
  Congress."

  --
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  R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
  The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
  44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
  "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
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  experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'