Daily Blog - Tiger Software

                                  October 5, 2007
                            last updated 10/17/2007

                                 Impeachment

                   Perhaps, Nancy Pelosi Needs A Lesson
                        On The US Constitution:
         Just The Threat of Impeachment Is Key
    To Stopping A President Who Would Be King

   
     William Schmidt,     - Tiger Software's Creator
      (C) 2007 William Schmidt, Ph. D.  - All Rights Reserved. 

      No reproductions of this blog or quoting from it
      without explicit written consent by its author is permitted.

      Back to Home Page - www.tigersoft.com
__________________________________________________________________

                Send any comments or questions
                 to william_schmidt@hotmail.com

VERSUS

                                                                  Just The Threat of
                                                    Impeachment Is Key To Stopping
                                           A President Who Would Be King

                           Impeachment is a  central part of the US Constitution.  The founding fathers had good reason
             to know how readily Kings ran roughshod over legislative assemblies everywhere.  They knew first hand
             about the arrogance of executive power.  John Nichols' book The Genius of Impeachment makes this
             very clear.    Just the possibility of impeachment is a check on an otherwise runaway President.

                         What is she waiting for?  On October 17th, Bush's job approval rating fell to 24 percent from
            last month's record low for a Zogby poll of 29 percent. A paltry 11 percent gave Congress a positive grade,
            tying last month's record low.  "They tell us they want action on health care, education, the war and
            immigration, but they don't believe they are going to get it."  Following their usual  pattern, no
           question about impeachment was included!

                          "Nichols tells us that our obligation is to a nation and its constitution, not to a man, a
             political party, or a policy, that impeachment is the sole device we have to check the excesses of an
             executive, that even the threat of impeachment in the past has reigned in presidents who forgot or sought
             to stretch their constitutional limits. He refers to all nine presidents who were considered for impeachment
             charges. ... He chastises Democrats who ... (give way ) to the popular and inaccurate notion
             that criticizing the president about Iraq will make them appear weak on national security."

                        "The biggest skeptics of wartime presidents and promoters of the impeachment threat
             were, according to the author, Republicans for whom he heaps praise and accolades. Congressman
             Abraham Lincoln, challenged President Polk for sending troops into Mexico and occupying it. Theodore
             Roosevelt challenged Woodrow Wilson when he targeted the censorship, arrest, and deportation of his
             critics: 'To announce that there must be no criticism of the President or that we are to stand by the President,
             right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.'
             Dwight Eisenhower stated: 'The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
             We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We
             should take nothing for granted."                    
                          ( http://www.amazon.com/Genius-Impeachment-Founders-Cure-Royalism/dp/15955814055 )

                                                Nancy Pelosi Gives in without A Fight

                          Pelosi had hardly become Speaker of the House of  Representatives, when in a gesture
            of seeming cooperation - she uttered her now famous line,  "impeachment is off the table".  Why did she
            do this so gratuitously?    Even if she needed Congress to spend six months gathering evidence that might
            be used.in an impeachment, why did she rule it out.  Just the very threat of it is key to maintaining
            constitutional checks and balances. But Pelosi just flat-out took impeachment "off the table" right
            from the start. Why?    It's interesting to speculate.  We probably can never become cynical enough.
            So, this is a useful exercise.

                            Was there some hidden quid pro quo?  Did George Bush give her some consideration that
             she never mentioned?

                           Did he tell her he had something on her  and so she was blackmailed into making that
            famous statement?   

                          Did the fact that she had voted for the making war on Iraq hang over her head so much
            that the Act of  Impeachment constituted an extreme personal embarrassment and amounted to
            a telling indictment of her own failed judgement?

                        Is leaving George Bush in office a political calculation she has made that lets the
            Democrats saddle the Republicans with his cast iron political weight as long as possible?

                        Since she is in next line to become President if Bush and Cheney are removed, does she
            feel it improper for her to try to remove them directly?

                       Is she unwilling to affront or offend the American Power Elite. Big campaign contributors
           must not be offended. The media moguls must not be offended.  This is the reason often given when
          one asks why there are not more polls on impeachment. 

                      Is she a follower, not a leader?  Does she require 67% of the polls to favor impeachment first?

   
                       Motivations are difficult to decipher.   It could be any of these things, something I've
           not listed,.or a little bit of all these things.  She's not talking.  And that is troubling to the grass roots.
           It is a big factor in why Congress now has a lower approval rating than George Bush, which is
           down to that hard core between 25% and 32%. 

                      Books will certainly be be written about her decision not to try to remove  Bush.  The
           removal of Bush is quite popular, not that polls should decide anything in an "indirect" democracy.

                                                       Impeachment Polls: 43% in Favor

                        How can a country be run by a President that 43% want impeached?   The public's response
            seems contradictory, but a lot depends on how the question is asked and where you are in the country..

            The  latest CNN (9/7/07) polls state that 61% of  Americans feel Bush's policies are taking America in
            the wrong direction;

            that only 48% have confidence (8/5/07) in the Democrats in Congress under Nancy Pelosi as she
            opposes but does not seek the impeachment of Bush; and 

            that in July 2007, 62% of those polled said there is not criminal justification to begin impeachment. 
            ( http://www.pollingreport.com/bush.htm    )

            But contradictorily, on 11/4/05, a  Zogby poll found 53% of Americans said  "if it is found
            that President Bush did    not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress
            should hold him accountable through impeachment."
  
            On 1/16/06, a Zogby poll asked a question relating the NSA wiretapping scandal to impeachment: 
            "If President Bush wiretapped American citizens without the approval of a judge, do you agree
            or disagree that Congress should consider holding him accountable through impeachment.
             " 52% said yes, 43% said no.  http://democrats.com/bush-impeachment-poll-2

                      Bush is, of course, much more popular in the South, but more Red State voters have
             a negative impression of him than positive.  His base is breaking away,  One in 4 Republicans
             give him unfavorable ratings.  In the West and Central/Great Lakes, a 52% majority favors
             impeachment.    In the East 49% favor impeachment. In the South the number drops sharply to 34%.