The Best Path To Impeachment

  Unlike many DKos contributors, I don't want President Bush to be impeached for the recent NSA spying episode, based on the evidence we have currently available.

  Such a process would immediately become a monstrous stage for Republicans to wrap themselves tightly in the American flag, with Bush standing proudly on their shoulders.  The framing would be easy.. the Democrats don't want us to spy on Osama!  The Democrats want another 9-11!  It would be exactly the same rhetoric we hear on fright-wing radio and Faux News.. except it would be shown in prime time, on network TV, for weeks.

  If he spied on Americans based on evidence that they had terrorist affiliations.. the American people are going to back the President.  Fear will override their concern about liberty;  We have seen it before, we will see it again.  If he spied on Americans randomly, and without any obvious bias towards his political enemies, the American people will back him.  Regardless of the importance of the Fourth Amendment to our American civil liberties, despite its prominent place in ensuring that the dream of the Founding Fathers continues, the people of our country will cast their eyes away from that dream in fear.  We cannot allow that step to be taken as things now stand.

  Before we proceed, we must have incontrovertible proof that he spied on Americans purely for political or personal gain.  How can we possibly obtain such proof, when Bush holds all of the evidence tightly locked behind a manufactured shield of 'national security'.  They routinely classify as 'secret' anything of potential embarassment to their political fortunes.. often allowing actual secrets out without realizing it.  If we cannot find out who attended an energy task force meeting, what indicates we might get them to reveal something that would ruin them if it were to see the light of day?  How do we get around their inevitable excuse of national security, and force them to tell us exactly who was chosen for these extra-legal wiretaps?

  It's actually simple.  Fool-proof.  Non-partisan.  Impossible to deny.  

  A resolution should be written requiring that the NSA retroactively provide all instances of electronic and/or physical surveillance to the FISA court, excluding any where a FISA authorization has been obtained.  It is likely that additional FISA judges will need to be empaneled to handle new FISA requests, to avoid adding a bottleneck to new terrorist-related activity; however, it is important that the existing panel be allowed to review every case that should have been provided to it.

  For all instances where it is decided that the FISA court would have authorized the surveillance, there should be no further punitive action.  This will remove any objection that the White House could possibly have towards allowing the NSA to participate.

  For all instances where the FISA court determines that the surveillance was unrelated to terrorist activity, the information should be provided directly to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence for review.  Let them see how they were used.  

  Impeachment will follow.  If it needs to.