Q - Is it possible that what is being done by the government is so far off the mark that there could be an impeachment process for George Bush down the road?
A - That's a really interesting question. It's not at all inconceivable. And the ACLU was the first national organization to call for the impeachment of Richard Nixon back during the Vietnam War era, specifically because of the series of constitutional violations of constitutional rights and civil liberties in conjunction with the war in Southeast Asia. So it's conceivable that we could reach a point where we made the same conclusion about the current administration.
A - How far can this go without beginning to be fascism?
Q - Right, and Jean, I have to say I have no love lost for the policies of this administration that we've been talking about but it's very important to emphasize that Congress bears a huge amount of the responsibility here--that's why sometimes when some of my liberal friends demonize John Ashcroft too much and that really takes the sting off. It really relieves Congress of its responsibility of a co-equal branch of the federal government. Why is it that in the entire United States Senate, only one person votes against the USA Patriot Act? And you know, even, may he rest in peace, Paul Wellstone, voted in favor of the USA Patriot Act. And in Congress there were 66 votes against, but still the overwhelming majority of Democrats as well as Republicans not only voted for that law, but did so with no debate, almost no deliberations. It was a real abdication and travesty of the legislative process in our democracy. So, by saying that it would be conceivable that there would be impeachment against the administration, I also think that Congress is very culpable here. The second cautionary note or perspective that I wanted to inject is that I don't have any illusions that things would have been much different if this would have happened while Bill Clinton was president. Prior to September 11th, the worst terrorist act on US soil was the Oklahoma City bombing and Janet Reno and Bill Clinton acted in parallel fashion to John Ashcroft and George Bush by proposing and pushing what was then the most draconian anti-civil libertarian law, the so-called "Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act," which was fraught with civil liberties violations including cutting back on privacy and free speech and an overly expansive definition of terrorism with real damage to the writ of Habeas Corpus and due process rights.
Your legal remedy is ...????
No comments:
Post a Comment