No Wonder The Beltway Media Love Him
Feb 6th, 2008 at 3:25 pm by Susie
So if lying to get us into a war or spying on Americans without a warrant isn’t a “grave breach,” what is? So much for Obama’s background in constitutional law - clearly, when push comes to shove, politics comes first.
Mr. Obama, you do know if you’re elected, you take an oath to protect the Constitution, right?
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama laid out list of political shortcomings he sees in the Bush administration but said he opposes impeachment for either President George W. Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney.
Obama said he would not back such a move, although he has been distressed by the “loose ethical standards, the secrecy and incompetence” of a “variety of characters” in the administration.
“There’s a way to bring an end to those practices, you know: vote the bums out,” the presidential candidate said, without naming Bush or Cheney. “That’s how our system is designed.”
Actually, no, it isn’t. Our system is designed for impeachment. You actually taught this stuff?
[...] Obama, a Harvard law school graduate and former lecturer on constitutional law at the University of Chicago, said impeachment should not be used as a standard political tool.
“I think you reserve impeachment for grave, grave breaches, and intentional breaches of the president’s authority,” he said.
“I believe if we began impeachment proceedings we will be engulfed in more of the politics that has made Washington dysfunction,” he added. “We would once again, rather than attending to the people’s business, be engaged in a tit-for-tat, back-and-forth, non-stop circus.”
one more reason not to go gaga for obama.
Yeah, ’cause Hillary is so much better. =P
No one’s trying to sell Hillary as a progressive savior. Since I’m not thrilled with either of them, I do reserve the right to insist on truth in packaging.
edwards wasn’t pushing for impeachment either.
why are you suddenly insisting on truth in packaging now, when you weren’t holding your own candidate to the same standard? i mean, edwards’ pre-2006 record was not always that progressive at all.
oh and it’s worth adding that obama is 100% right when he says:
“I believe if we began impeachment proceedings we will be engulfed in more of the politics that has made Washington dysfunction”
a year ago that wouldn’t necessarily be true, but now there is no doubt in my mind that obama is right. there’s another better method of getting rid of bush/cheney. an impeachment proceeding would take almost as long as bush has left in office. at this point, it would be nothing but a distraction from beating bush’s successors. at this point, mccain and/or romney are much more of a danger to confront.
I don’t read the entry as pushing for impeachment. I read it as upset that the way Obama rules out impeachment implies that he doesn’t regard Bush/Cheney’s actions as “grave” and “intentional breaches of the president’s authority”, as does treating calls for impeachment as if they were calls for using it as a “standard political tool”.
A constitutional law scholar should certainly be able to recognize the gravity and intentionality of the many Bush/Cheney excesses, while any practical person can see that there are limited political gains and major political problems involved in actually pursuing impeachment. So why not say both — that impeachment is (emphatically) warranted but not practical? Especially if you believe in upholding the Constitution? That would be truth in packaging, and it wouldn’t require him to do a thing differently… except briefly characterize unconstitutional actions as such.
The interview is almost a year old, Noz.
Then why bring it up now?
Suzie, You really seem to have a hard-on for Obama.
I don’t think HE is packaging himself as the progressive savior, I think some in the media are painting him as such.
I think that he is just being pragmatic on this issue.
Let’s let them serve out their terms, then try them as war criminals.
Let’s let them serve out their terms,
then try them as war criminals.
Yeah, but Paraguay, where Dubya has bought his huge
retirement ranch, has no extradition treaty with the U.S.