I have been meaning to write this diary for sometime as I find Gore being quoted inaccurately on the subject of impeachment by several commenters.
Below the fold, please find some key remarks and statements by Gore with respect to impeachment. Of course, as always, I speak for myself and not for Al Gore or any other politician or political figure. I am presenting what he said in what I consider to be a proper sequence and context.
I will post my personal take on impeachment as a comment.
After his Jan 2006 speech excoriating Bush on warrantless wiretaps, torture and other executive branch excesses:
(youtube link for this clips video, full speech youtube, transcript, my diary on this),
Gore suggested that the ordering of the warrantless wiretaps by Bush "can be" an impeachable offense:
Gore Says Bush Wiretapping Could be Impeachable Offense
Submitted by davidswanson on Tue, 2006-01-17 02:17.
..
Asked by ABC News following his speech whether President Bush's domestic spying program constituted an impeachable offense, Gore said it might be and pointed to one of the three Articles of Impeachment that the House Judiciary Committee approved against President Nixon on July 27, 1974.
"That's a legal determination for the Congress to make," Gore told ABC News. "But Article II of the impeachment charges against President Nixon was warrantless wiretapping that the President said was 'necessary' for national security."
"It can be" an impeachable offense, he added.
The congress should have taken the steps as suggested by Gore in order to build a case for impeaching Bush on wiretaps. Inspired by and expanding upon Gore's prescriptions in that speech, I outlined a 10-step plan of action in this diary: Warrantless Wiretapping, Gore's speech, and an ACTION plan. For whatever set of reasons, the congress did not/could not take the necessary steps.
An inconvenient truth is that, impeaching Bush and Cheney on Iraq is not politically possible because a large number of Democrats co-opted Bush-Cheney's lies about Iraq (IWR text) when they co-sponsored and voted the Iraq war resolution, against Gore's advisement to not support Bush's proposed misadventures in Iraq. Many of the same that "went along" with Bush "to get along" on the war are still in congress or are running for President.
Possibly because the congress did not set the stage for impeachment (on wiretaps), Gore has said the following on May 30th, opining that impeachment may not be a realistic or feasible approach to take as he saw things at that point of time:
PBS Interview with Gwenn Ifill, Originally Aired: May 30, 2007
Gore's New Book Criticizes Bush Administration, Election Proces
"With a year and a half to go in his term and with no consensus in the nation as a whole to support such a proposition, any realistic analysis of that as a policy option would lead one to question the allocation of time and resources," Gore said during an interview with PBS.
Pressed on whether he believed that impeachment is a good use of time, Gore replied, "I don't think it is. I don't think it would be successful."
The wording makes it clear that this is an opinion and not a position. Further, many developments have taken place since Gore's May 30th opinion, and hence it should be considered dated. It doesn't mean that his opinion about the feasibility of impeachment has changed.
We should keep in mind that Gore is not a member of congress, and is occupied with his efforts on global warming, to be issuing regular updates of his opinions and views on impeachment.
Thanks for reading.