Once again Republicans backtrack on their beliefs about America's Rule of Law. Once again they have a case of amnesia.
I'm sure many of you remember the Impeachment trial of former President Bill Clinton, right? Do you also remember the arguments that Republicans used as reason for trying to Impeach and convict President Clinton? If not, here are a few examples of what some of the more well known figures said back then about the Rule of Law:
Here's what former House Majority Leader Tom Delay said back in 1998 when the House was debating whether to impeach President Clinton:
I believe that this nation sits at a crossroads. One direction points to the higher road of the rule of law. Sometimes hard, sometimes unpleasant, this path relies on truth, justice and the rigorous application of the principle that no man is above the law.
Now, the other road is the path of least resistance. This is where we start making exceptions to our laws based on poll numbers and spin control. This is when we pitch the law completely overboard when the mood fits us, when we ignore the facts in order to cover up the truth.
Shall we follow the rule of law and do our constitutional duty no matter unpleasant, or shall we follow the path of least resistance, close our eyes to the potential lawbreaking, forgive and forget, move on and tear an unfixable hole in our legal system? No man is above the law, and no man is below the law. That's the principle that we all hold very dear in this country.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.) said the following:
He called Clinton a "serial violator of the oath" to tell the truth. "Equal justice under the law, that's what we're fighting for," he said. "And when the chief law enforcement officer trivializes, ignores, shreds, minimizes the sanctity of the oath, then justice is wounded, and you're wounded, and your children are wounded."
Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) said:
"If our country looks the other way, our country will lose its way"
House Speaker Bob Livingston(R) said:
>
"We're not ruled by kings or emperors and there is no divine right of president."
Bill Bennett said in his article, "The Death of Outrage":
And so the question the House Judiciary Committee must decide during the next month is the same one that faced the committee a quarter-century ago, when it considered whether to impeach Richard Nixon: Will it reaffirm the time-honored American ideal that no man is above the law?
Bill Bennett also this:
In particular, the thirteen House managers who prosecuted the Clinton case in the Senate are truly, in the words of William Bennett, "authentic profiles in political courage," men who were willing to risk their careers to stand up for principle and the rule of law.
Rep. John Boehner(R) said the following during Clinton's impeachment event:
Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, every member of Congress takes an oath of office to uphold and defend the Constitution. And today we're challenged to do our duty under that oath. No person in this House is without fault or without sin, but the question before us is not whether the president has sinned. The question before us is whether the president has committed illegal acts, including perjury, obstruction of justice and abuse of power.
Under the Constitution that we swore to defend, these are serious crimes, crimes that our constituents would go to prison for. And do we hold the president, the top-ranking law enforcement official in our country, to a lower standard?
John Locke once wrote, "Where the law ends, tyranny begins." Mr. Speaker, if we believe in our Constitution, then the law does not stop at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. In our constitutional democracy, no one, not even the president, is above the law.
None of us sought the burden of impeachment when we ran for this office, but every one of us raised our right hand and swore to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. And who are we to ignore that obligation by turning a blind eye to crimes by the leader of our government?
I have no choice but to honor my oath of office. I have no choice but to impeach this president and send this matter to the Senate, as my oath of office requires me to do.
My fellow Americans, as former President Ronald Reagan once said, "Facts are stubborn things!"
The United States signed the Geneva Convention saying we would NOT torture prisoners. President Bush, VP Cheney and many other top officials from the Bush administration have now admitted they water boarded prisoners. We now have written documentation saying we waterboarded prisoners.
Waterboarding is torture. People of been put to death or gone to prison for committing this crime in our past history.
The RULE OF LAW has been ignored my Republican friends, get over your political posturing and admit it. Stand up and defend your Constitution like you 'claimed' to be doing during the Clinton Impeachment trial. We must punish those that authorized these war crimes.