Aug 06 2007
NSA Leak Investigation And Impeachment
We may be on the brink of a Constitutional showdown the likes of which this country has not seen in a couple hundred years. First we have the progress noted on the NSA leak investigation – which could end up leading to the halls of Congress if rumors are correct regarding hand written memos only a few people could have access to. At the same time, and a bit too coincidentally, some in Congress have submitted documents to bring censure (if not impeachment) against Cheney and Bush. One of the elements of the censure is the now legal NSA surveillance program. If the NSA leak probe leads to Congress as some think, the Congress may fight back with an impeachment push – setting up a battle royale for the future of American political power in this country.
George Soros pulls the strings. Do the Dems really want a country run by Soros?
The Dems will not push for impeachment as to which they’d lose anyway..and the censure motion is just more meaningless posturing which is pissing off the entire country,AJ.
I really don’t think they will try to impeach Bush, in fact I doubt if they have the votes for censure.
Bring it on! This will backfire SO BIG on the dems it will be fantastic.
Shows you what they’re made of when they caught. Completely dishonorable and dishonest.
Clarice, I’d say bring it on! It just makes the American Public see what the Democratic party really is. And you’re right…it will backfire on the Dems.
The administration has been really shady who knows anything about anything up there in DC, but especially VP Cheney he really doesn’t like to talk! Back in July I guess he was president and he went to his home in Maryland, found at:
http://blog.housefront.com/?p=82
Wonder what it would be like if Cheney was actually president, how secretive would things be?
Part of the Dems impeachment thought was that the President was lawless, and the Dems granted him all the power he asked for by passing the NSA program. Let’s see how they square that with lawlessness.
Where’s our resident Leftist? Had his computer taken away??? Just wondering. He usually likes to comment on these types of threads….legal and all…. 🙂
Thanks to the vote this last weekend, there is now no legal basis for any impeachment over the NSA program. (The house may try to impeach over Iraq intelligence assesments, but that’s a different matter) Here’s why:
The case for the legality of the NSA intercepts rested on two completely different legal theories; the first, which is the one the administration adhered to consistently, was that the terms of FISA allowed this type of surveillance so that no violation had actually occurred. (alright, it’s a little bit more complicated than that, but that’s not my point) The secondary line of justification for the actions is just as valid, although it hasn’t been talked about as much by either side. This is the point that EVEN IF the actions violated FISA, and EVEN IF warrants were indeed required for these types of listening operations under ordinary circumstances, the exigency of the situation and the threat to national security operated as a blanket waiver for any existing warrant requirements. This is not unusual; exigency of the circumstances is one of the standard warrant waiver conditions that is available at all levels of law enforcement, and it is used every day by police forces to enact warrantless searches.
So how does this relate to the recent vote? Both House and Senate just passed a revision of FISA which granted even broader powers to the Executive with regards to these intercepts than were ever originally taken, and the justification was the nation’s urgent national security needs. In other words, the case for a national security based exigency exception to any warrant requirements by the Executive branch has just been ratified by both House and Senate, and that is more than enough to overcome any legal challenge.
short form of the argument: how can anyone ever again dispute the President when he says this warrant waiver was required for national security, now that both houses have by majority vote agreed that these exact actions were required for national security?
No legal case remains here. The impeachniks will have to bark up the Iraq pre-war intelligence tree from now on, which is pretty slim pickin’s.
(of course, it will be months before the “centrist” democrats figure out that’s what the vote last Friday and Saturday meant, and the nutroots will never figure it out)
btw, “censure” is an idiotic, meaningless and legally insignificant action and even Feingold knows it. It has some effect in parliamentary systems of government, which We are Not.
censure in our system = “mommy, mommy, he said mean things to me and I don’t like him, and my friends don’t like him either!!!”
nothing more.
Great Digs the Cheney’s have. They deserve them.
This is incredibly stupid as there are only a handful of weeks to pass a dozen of so appropriations bills after the recess.
If this censure gets any legs, we are heading for a shutdown bigger/longer than that of Newt. As Congress appears destined for single digit approval, this will kill incumbents next year.
Perhaps lost on Congress is that the ruling last week on William “IceBox” Jefferson in regard to “Congressional Privilege” clears the way for precedent setting ruling on “Presidential Privilege” along much the same grounds.