We Get To Vote On George Bush a Third Time!

by James Glaser
April 18, 2006

If Democrats Take the House This Fall, How Long Will George Last?

This fall Americans will vote on George Bush and his policies a third time. You see if a majority of the seats in the House of Representatives is taken by the Democratic Party, then everything George Bush has done in the last five years will be under some sort of investigation. Democrats have already tried to start some of those investigations, but with the Republicans in control of both Houses of Congress, they have been put on the back burner.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Representative John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, released the following statement regarding today's release of a staff report entitled "The Constitution in Crisis: The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retributions and Cover-ups in the Iraq War." The Report is my best effort to examine all of the charges of misconduct by the Bush Administration concerning the Iraq War.
Conyers Report: http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/iraqrept.html

"In brief, we have found that there is substantial evidence the President, the Vice-President and other high ranking members of the Bush Administration misled Congress and the American people regarding the decision to go to war in Iraq; misstated and manipulated intelligence information regarding the justification for such war; countenanced torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in Iraq; and permitted inappropriate retaliation against critics of their Administration. There is at least a prima facie case that these actions that federal laws have been violated—from false statements to Congress to retaliating against Administration critics.

In response to the Report, I have already taken several initial steps. First, I have introduced a resolution (H. Res. 635) creating a Select Committee with subpoena authority to investigate the misconduct of the Bush Administration with regard to the Iraq war and report on possible impeachable offenses. In addition, I have introduced Resolutions regarding both President Bush (H. Res. 636) and Vice-President Cheney (H. Res. 637) proposing that they be censured by Congress based on indisputable evidence of unaccounted for misstatements and abuse of power in the public record. There are a number of additional recommendations in the Report that I expect to be taking up in the coming weeks and months.

The Report rejects the frequent contention by the Bush Administration that their pre-war conduct has been reviewed and they have been exonerated. No entity has ever considered whether the Administration misled Americans about the decision to go to War, and the Senate Intelligence Committee has not yet conducted a review of pre-war intelligence information, while the Silberman-Robb report specifically cautioned, that intelligence manipulation "was not part of our inquiry." There has also not been any independent inquiry concerning torture and other legal violations in Iraq; nor has there been an independent review of the pattern of cover-ups and political retribution by the Bush Administration against its critics, other than the very narrow and still ongoing inquiry of Special Counsel Fitzgerald."

Representative Conyers is a Democrat, and he has been leading the charge to investigate Bush, but he keeps hitting the stone wall of the Republican Party in charge. However if that changes this fall, and the Democrats have the power to proceed with hearings, there might not be enough committee rooms to handle everything the Democrats feel is wrong with this White House and George Bush. I believe that as of right now 33 Democrats have signed on to Conyers' resolutions. After a successful fall campaign, that number could swell, and there is a good chance that some Republicans would join in.

There are still Republicans who believe in that quaint Oath of Office they took, and they still want to defend and protect our Constitution. The problem now is that they are in the minority of their Party and don't have the guts to speak up because they know they would have to face the wrath of their leadership come election time.

V.B. Price, of the Albuquerque Tribune asks, "If it weren't for a GOP-controlled House and Senate, would this President still be in office?"  

Price goes on with, "Imagine Nixon or Clinton engaging in massive, electronic, warrantless spying on Americans, in direct opposition to a law Congress passed to protect us from just that. Could they have lasted a moment longer than it takes to say 'impeachment'?"

Well you know the Republicans would have been all over Bill Clinton in a heart beat. They tried getting him on anything they could, so you know if Bill was doing what George is doing, it would have been all over. But remember the Republicans were in charge of Congress back then, and now they are still in charge. The Party in Charge can go after the President, or they can protect the President.

Come fall we will be voting on George Bush again. If America puts the Democrats in, we will be able to find out what has happened to our government, but if we keep the Republicans in control, we will be saying to George Bush, "Heck of a job, George."




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