The constitutional crisis we face is more serious than we imagine. The consistent and persistent attacks by Bush/Cheney on constitutional principles and practices are well documented in detail elsewhere so I won’t go into it them here. But Bush/Cheney attacks on the Constitution aren't the crisis for our Republic that I'm concerned about.
No. I’m writing about a different constitutional crisis, namely, the crisis in the House of Representatives of the United States.
When members of the Senate and the House take office, they take the following oath.
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
Follow me below the fold for more details on the oaths that 3 of my very favorite CongressPersons apparently believe they have sworn.
Nancy Pelosi (CA-08) on impeachment via NewsMax.com
"I made a decision a few years ago, or at least one year ago," said Pelosi in a recent interview, "that impeachment [of Bush] was something that we could not be successful with and that would take up the time we needed to do some positive things to establish a record of our priorities and their short-comings."
"The President isn't worth it... he's not worth impeaching. We've got important work to do... If he were at the beginning of his term, people may think of it differently, but he's at the end of his terms. The first two years of his term, if we came in as the majority, there might be time to do it all..."
EPluribus Media reports that bloggers Mike Stark of Calling All Wingnuts and
Dave Johnson of Seeing the Forest had a June 28th conference call with the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on the subject of impeachment.
When Stark suggested impeachment proceedings against Alberto Gonzales, Pelosi launched into the comment about impeaching George W. Bush.
Stark followed up with, "Respectfully, the question is whether or not the Constitution is worth it.
"Well, yeah, the Constitution is worth it if you can succeed," replied Pelosi.
Notice that Pelosi doesn't even pretend to couch her position against impeachment in terms of defense of the Constitution itself.
Practically speaking, the oath Nancy Pelosi is acting as if she took is as follows
I do solemnly swear ... that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic if there is a guarantee that my participation in the action to defend it will succeed...
George Miller (CA-07) on impeachment via SFGate.com
And for those demanding impeachment now of President Bush (who Miller described as "the worst president in the history of our nation"), the congressman suggested that focusing on bringing the troops home as soon as possible is a higher priority than battling the Republicans for 18 months to unseat Bush. Despite the rhetoric that was music to the ear of many in the crowd, Miller reminded the audience, "I didn't vote for this war in the beginning."
Miller was one of just 133 members of the House who opposed the use of force resolution in 2002.
Notice, here, that the Congressman doesn't understand that impeachment is about defending the Constitution against the consistent and persistent attacks of Bush/Cheney. Instead, for him, it's a Democrat vs. Republican fight and hence has to be evaluated along with a slew of other priorities.
For both Pelosi and Miller, when they think about impeachment, it is as if the defense of the Constitution clause of the oath did not even exist.
Evidently, the oath that George Miller believes he took is as follows:
I do solemnly swear ... that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic if I decide that defending it is the highest priority...
Ellen Tauscher (CA-10) on impeachment via a conversation with her Communications Director
I have spoken also to staff in the office of my Congresswoman (Ellen Tauscher) to get her position on HR 333, the bill to impeach Dick Cheney.
I was told that Congresswoman Tauscher is not in favor of that impeachment bill at this time. I spoke to her Communications Director Kevin Lawlor and I asked him to forward me information on Congresswoman’s Tauscher’s position on removing the consistent and persistent attack that the Bush/Cheney administration have conducted on our Constitution.
As best as I can summarize it, his response was that Congresswoman Tauscher had other responsibilities (specifically funding the government) that were important and that pursuit of impeachment, evidently, would impede her fulfilling those other responsibilities.
In fairness to Congresswoman Tauscher, I want to restate that this summary of her position is of my own phrasing and that I will await his response and post it here with an update when he gets back to me with a written statement.
But in the meantime, let me try to rephrase the oath of office that Congresswoman Tauscher is behaving as if she took.
I do solemnly swear ... that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic if in doing so I and others are not distracted from our responsibility to fund the government...
Has there ever been a time in our history when the Constitution was under such consistent and persistent attack (except for during the Civil War)?
My friends, the crisis in this country is that even among our favorite Representatives, there is so little understanding of what's at stake for our Republic.
What is your CongressPerson's position on impeachment?
Here's the specific question to ask the staff in your Representative's office.
CongressPerson x swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic. It must be clear by now that the Bush/Cheney Administration have conducted a consitent and persistent attack on Constitutional principles and practices. I'd like to know CongressPerson x's position on impeachment and/or what specific action the CongressPerson is engaged in to defend the Constitution against attack.
Post their answers to your question in this thread.