Reply #63: If we don't get an impeachment or resignation, we still NEED an ammendment on pardons!

[cascadiance]

That is minimally what I would accept for this term of congress. If we can't work a deal to help get Bushco out of office before his term is up, then I'd say we should still try to push with the Republicans that minimally we need a change to keep Bush and others following him from pardoning those members of the executive branch. Find some way to get some set of concrete and constructive limits on who a president can pardon (so that he can't pardon members of his own cabinet, or a previous administration's cabinet, etc. under certain conditions). The goal would be to prevent the "recycling" of folks like Elliot Abrams, Negroponte, etc. back into positions of power where they cause the same damage again. If we can get that accomplished that will be a big step forward towards preventing this sort of mess from ever happening again, even if someone like Pelosi or another Republican isn't put in power before 2009.

Holding some of the extreme cases criminally liable and putting them in prison hopefully also would provide a greater disincentive for someone to try power grabs and other illegal fascist behavior in the future too.