High Crimes and Ms. Demeanor
Impeach Pelosi Instead

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
December 5, 2007

Banta Singh was on his first visit to the city. As it happened, it was the day of the marathon.
Seeing hundreds of runners panting by, he asked his city cousin what was going on.
"They're in a race", replied the other, wondering how best to explain a marathon in a sentence.
"Why?" asked Banta Singh.
"Well, the winner gets a gold medal", the cousin offered.
"If only one guy gets the medal", demanded Banta Singh, "why do the rest of them run?"

These days, that kind of 'pragmatism' that would probably land Banta Singh a place in the top echelons of the Democratic Congress!

by Niranjan Ramakrishnan

For a whole year, high-ranking Democratic House and Senate leaders, including those running for president (except Dennis Kucinich), have all offered the same answers on several key issues: They have all spent the past year since their electoral triumph (1) Not doing anything to stop the war, (2) not doing anything about impeaching Bush and Cheney, (3) not doing anything to halt and reverse the numerous violations of privacy and erosions of rights, and finally (4) not doing any serious inquiry into any execess of the administration.

The all-purpose excuse: We don't have the votes.

If poor George Washington and his tattered cohorts had required guarantee of success as a precondition for confronting the British, we might all still be speaking English.

If Boris Yeltsin had wanted to be assured of coming out in one piece before standing up to the army tank in the summer of 1991, history would have had no piece of Yeltsin.

It is a good thing that the Italian police don't follow our Congress's line of reasoning -- they would have quit chasing Mafia figures long ago, given the low probabilities of conviction.

The Bible has something about the race not being always to the swift, but it does imply that one must at least participate in order to stand a chance. It speaks of the meek inheriting the earth, but says nothing about their inheriting the presidency. Even Mitt Romney could tell you this much.

With the Iranian intelligence report of today, it is ever more clear that the deceptions have only grown in scope. If after this Congress still does not take up the call for impeachment, it is itself open to charges of high crimes against the Republic.

Nancy Pelosi's impeachment is off the table stance is not only ridiculous, it is criminal. To leave unchallenged the deliberate misleading of the country to war, (and the effort to do the same a second time), makes her party a knowing accessory to the same misdeeds. Congress has an equal duty to protect the Constitution as the President. Each day of equivocation is one more steeped in the crimes of the Bush administration.

Moral and ethical arguments aside, even a purely political motive suggests that Democrats must seize the cry of impeachment. Surely, if the Republicans had not made as much of Clinton's doings and had refrained from the impeachment trial, the 2000 Presidential race would have hardly been a contest; Gore would have won in a landslide.

Dennis Kucinich has made a good, if belated, beginning with his impeachment resolution. But he will get nowhere with his "me, please" stance at the debates. He needs to hammer home to the public the enormity of what is taking place. His lacing of all his speeches with catchphrase-goo about world peace and universal immigration does nothing to enhance his seriousness: Mike Huckabee had a point when he noted that Jesus did not seek political office. Among the candidates, only Ron Paul has managed to combine an evident fealty to the Constitution with a feet-on-the-ground demeanor. As a proclaimed devotee of the Constitution, Kucinich should remember that that Good Book is silent on matters such as World Peace, Univeral Brotherhood, Multiculturalism, etc., a reticence he would be wise to emulate. He is running for President of the United States, not Savior of the World.

If the Democrats truly believe Bush and Cheney's crimes are of a magnitude deserving of impeachment, they can in good conscience speak of nothing else. If they do not, they should be forced to list each wrongdoing and say why they don't think it is a high crime. To agree that something is a high crime or misdemeanor against the Constitution, and then say in the same breath that we must let it slide because we lack the votes, is as egregious a violation of Constitutional responsibility as the original crime. It also belittles the entire nature of our polity as a deliberative enterprise, where it is presumed that minds can be changed on the basis of exposition, evidence, debate, and persuasion.

To paraphrase Lincoln's famous letter to General McClellan, it is time to tell Nancy Pelosi,"If you won't impeach Bush and Cheney, can we at least impeach you?"

Niranjan Ramakrishnan is a writer living on the West Coast. He can be reached at: njn_2003@yahoo.com.

Comments on this Article

ananda vardhana [Portland, OR. Dec 8, 2007 1:08:25 PM]
This page is intentionallly left blank ---------------------Page break--------------------------- Writing comment like "Very nice article" is redundant because Niranjan is incapable of writing bad articles. My politicaly un-awareness prevents me from making a comment on the content of the article. Hence the page has been left balnk intentionally!! anand