Surprise -- Surprise

Currently C-SPAN is covering a hearing in the House of Representatives on the resolution by Dennis Kucinich to impeach the president. As everyone should be aware of by now, the president has been using the highest office in the land to sanction illegal activities such as torture and phone taps. He has subverted the Constitution and allowed (encouraged perhaps) subordinates in his administration to break the law. He has then provided shelter to the perpetrators through the use of presidential privilege. (Take Karl Rove for example.) He has done this without fear of prosecution since, by law, a sitting president cannot be prosecuted for anything while in office. The only remedy available to the citizens of this country to address malfeasance by our leaders is to impeach them after the fact. It is extremely unlikely we will see anything of this nature take place within the limited time left to George Bush.



Here is the surprise. After listening to the proceedings, I learned that the minute the President is no longer president he can be prosecuted for any crimes committed during his administration. On several occasions in the past (Nixon and Agnew come to mind) officials have been threatened or were prosecuted only to be pardoned by the next administration. The thinking behind the pardons, I guess, is that the satisfaction the public would receive by seeing the crooks convicted is overshadowed by the disgrace to the nation and the blow to our national pride. Can you imagine Bush defending himself on a charge of murder, as some in Congress are suggesting, for the torture deaths of several alleged terrorists while in US custody?



This time might be different. Of course, if McCain were to be elected, any course of action against people in the Bush administration will be squashed. Or if Congress insisted on prosecution, the perps would undoubtedly be pardoned. However, Obama might be inclined to stand back and allow events to take their course. Congress is royally teed off at Bush for his outright lies and policies of secrecy, and seems inclined to blame the executive branch for much of the public's loss of confidence in the legislature. Obama, I believe, would be sensitive to their position and would not be inclined to thwart their effort to restore the public trust. After all, he needs their support if he hopes to accomplish anything during his administration.



It is ironic that the president, while attempting to subvert many of our constitutional safeguards, hides behind them. We need to send a clear and strong message forward that Congress and the public will not tolerate abuses of law by our elected officials. If I were Bush I would be quaking in my boots.



What say you, fellow citizens, to these amazing developments?