March Boldness
The March issue of Harper’s has a long cover-story calling for Bush’s impeachment, which I think makes the monthly magazine the first major American publication to explicitly say Bush should be removed from office.
The piece, by Lewis H. Lapham (no surprise) relies heavily on a much-ignored report by Congressman John Conyers (D-Michigan) detailing misconduct by the Bush administration in the lead-up to the Iraq War. You’ll have to buy the issue if you want to read Lapham’s entire piece — it’s not online yet — but a representative quote is below…
Before reading the report, I wouldn’t have expected to find myself thinking that such a course of action was either likely or possible; after reading the report, I don’t know why we would run the risk of not impeaching the man. We have before us in the White House a thief who steals the country’s good name and reputation for his private interest and personal use; a liar who seeks to instill in the American people a state of fear; a televangelist who engages the United States in a never-ending crusade against all the world’s evil, a wastrel who squanders a vast sum of the nation’s wealth on what turns out to be a recruiting drive certain to multiply the host of our enemies. In a word, a criminal—known to be armed and shown to be dangerous.
UPDATE: An alert Slog reader points out that there is an excerpt of Lapham’s article available here.
UPDATE 2: Another reader notes that the Center for Constitutional Rights has articles of impeachment written and ready to go, here. Hey, those of you obsessed with the grassroots push for impeachment, put your favorite links in the comments — I’ve been meaning to do one big impeachment extravaganza Slog post, and your links will help me a bunch.
I wouldn't have thought impeachment likely either, but now that a thought leader like Lapham endorses it, we're sure to mobilize the whole country. After all, mainstream America respects Lapham almost as much as it does Noam Chomsky.