Keith Olbermann asked a really good question on Countdown last night. He sort of tossed it off as part of a discussion on a larger issue, but I think it’s a really good point and an important question.
To what degree, he asked, is George Bush merely cashing a blank check handed to him by Nancy Pelosi when she took impeachment off the table?
Oversight is an important function of Congress, and for six long years a Republican Congress failed utterly in that responsibility. Impeachment, or the threat of impeachment is part of the functionality of oversight, and to the degree to which that is true the new Democratic Congress is failing its responsibility as well. Nancy Pelosi announced in advance, in fact, that the Democratic Congress would not perform that part of its responsibility. It’s called “abdication” and that abdication is without question part of the reason for the strength of George Bush’s intransigence today.
I do not necessarily believe that Congress should begin impeachment proceedings; perhaps they should, perhaps not. Personally, I would like to see this whole executive branch impeached, but wiser heads than mine need to make that decision. What I do know is that the threat of impeachment should have remained in place, for without it the executive branch has run amok. Nancy Pelosi has proven that she is not, as apparently she thinks she is, wiser today than our founding fathers were when they framed our government.
We have a constitutional crisis today, we need to correct the problem now, and it requires Congressional oversight and Congressional action to do so. Congress is still failing in its responsibilities. With only 18 months left in the Bush White House they appear unwilling to take assertive action.
We cannot merely wait and let Bush “run the clock out” on these issues, for they will not go away.
Congress needs to investigate; not merely engage in political posturing and grandstanding as they are doing today, but actually investigate. Instead of senators and congressmen asking a list of preplanned political questions and not listening to the answers, they need hearings with real lawyers doing cross examination of hostile witnesses, drilling down to get real answers and facts. They need to be issuing subpoenas and dragging people away in handcuffs when they refuse to appear.
Oversight does not mean merely watching and finding wrongdoing. It means taking doers of wrong out of a position where they can do further harm.
When the answers given by witness reveal misdeeds Congress need to be issuing arrest warrants and filing charges for the corruption and malfeasance that is uncovered. Where those guilty of corruption and malfeasance can be fired, they must be fired. Where they cannot, they must be impeached.
Oversight does not mean merely finding wrongdoing and removing the doers, it means putting into place corrective measures to prevent a repeat of the abuses that have been discovered. Oversight means assuring that offenses against our government, against the people of this nation, are not repeated.
The next government will almost certainly be a Democratic executive and a Democratic Congress. How much oversight do you think will be going on? If we hand over to the next president all of the same powers than have been usurped by this one, do we really believe that no further abuses will occur?
Closing Gitmo will do no good if the statute that permits indefinite detention without charges and torture of political prisoners is allowed to stand.
A new President and newly appointed Attorney General will not restore the confidence of the legal community in what has become a corrupt Department of Justice. How can the public be sure that politics within that department is not continuing?
A new FBI head does not assure the public that they are not being illegally being spied upon, that they are “secure in their persons,” unless the abuses of the Patriot Act are brought to light, the lawbreakers held to account, and the Patriot Act itself revised or revoked.
The list goes on. We all know what the issues are.
When Congressional oversight revealed the degree to which Americans were being spied upon and wiretapped, Congress passed something known as FISA. When a president overstepped his war-making authority, Congress passed the War Powers Act. This Congress has watched abuse after abuse by this president and so far has made no effort to put in place any method to stop this or any future president from continuing to abuse the office.
Therein lies the mere 24% approval of Congress.
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