Michelle Goldberg on
Salon has a wonderful article where she has interviewed a number of experts (scholars, politicos, intelligence officers) on the justification for, and likelihood of, impeachment. You can read the entire article
here, by viewing an online ad first. It's a good article, and you should support Salon by reading it all. But, below the fold, I've brought forward some of the quotes only, because they are so striking, especially those from the right.
- Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute -- "I think if we're going to be intellectually honest here, this really is the kind of thing that Alexander Hamilton was referring to when impeachment was discussed."
- Former Nixon White House counsel John Dean called Bush "the first president to admit to an impeachable offense."
- Jonathan Turley, a professor at the George Washington University School of Law -- "We have finally reached the constitutional Rubicon. If Congress cannot stand firm against the open violation of federal law by the president, then we have truly become an autocracy."
- Bruce Fein, a former associate deputy attorney general under President Ronald Reagan -- "President Bush presents a clear and present danger to the rule of law. He cannot be trusted to conduct the war against global terrorism with a decent respect for civil liberties and checks against executive abuses. Congress should swiftly enact a code that would require Mr. Bush to obtain legislative consent for every counterterrorism measure that would materially impair individual freedoms."
- Chris Pyle, a professor of politics at Mount Holyoke College and an expert on government surveillance of civilians -- "This president has admitted committing the crime. He just claims he's above the law. So the issue is: Is the president above the law?"