Impeachment Nonsense By Charles Krauthammer

[jbfam4]

Impeachment Nonsense

By Charles Krauthammer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/22/AR2005122201102.html?nav=hcmodule
Friday, December 23, 2005; Page A21



Administration critics, political and media, charge that by ordering surveillance on communications of suspected al Qaeda agents in the United States, the president clearly violated the law. Some even suggest that Bush has thereby so trampled the Constitution that impeachment should now be considered. (Barbara Boxer, Jonathan Alter, John Dean and various luminaries of the left have already begun floating the idea.) The braying herds have already concluded, Tenet-like, that the president's actions were slam-dunk illegal. It takes a superior mix of partisanship, animus and ignorance to say that.



Presidents always jealously guard executive authority. And Congress always wants to challenge the scope of that authority. This tug of war is a bipartisan and constant feature of the American system of separation of powers. President Bush's circumvention of FISA is a classic separation-of-powers dispute in the area in which these powers are most in dispute -- war powers.

Consider the War Powers Resolution passed over Richard Nixon's veto in 1973. It restricts, with very specific timetables, the president's authority to use force. Every president since Nixon, Democrat and Republican, has regarded himself not bound by this law, declaring it an unconstitutional invasion of his authority as commander in chief.

Nor will it do to argue that the Clinton administration ultimately accepted the strictures of the FISA law after a revision was passed. So what? For the past three decades, presidents have adhered to the War Powers Resolution for reasons of prudence, to avoid a constitutional fight with Congress. But they all maintained the inherent illegitimacy of the law and the right to ignore it. Similarly, Clinton's acquiescence to FISA in no way binds future executives to renounce Clinton's claim of "inherent authority" to conduct warrantless searches for purposes of foreign intelligence.


Contrary to the administration, I also believe that as a matter of political prudence and comity with Congress, Bush should have tried to get the law changed rather than circumvent it. This was an error of political judgment. But that does not make it a crime. And only the most brazen and reckless partisan could pretend it is anything approaching a high crime and misdemeanor.

letters@ch arleskrauthammer.com

[BikeWriter]

1. It's the Constitution, read it!

[november3rd]

5. Like all the top-of-the-line Fox commentators,

Like all the top-of-the-line Fox commentators, he's the toilet paper to the neo-cons' "poopers".

[BikeWriter]

6. Cheap asswipe at that!

[sojourner]

2. this man is a neocon asswipe, always was. hate him. hate what he writes.

:puke:

[EST]

3. Dr. K. again demonstrates his proud grasp

of his own pseudo-intellectualism. We are a nation of laws, not political expediency. I had thought the constitution and bill of rights so clear and unambiguous that an understanding of at least the basic elements was available to even the most jaded or mentally lazy.
The evidence for brain fever mounts.
Sometimes I am thoroughly ashamed of being related to people.

[ArbustoBuster]

4. Krauthammer's statement makes no sense.

How does it not rise to the level of a high crime and misdemeanor? A parking ticket is a misdemeanor. Is this moron saying that breaking the Constitution and several important laws, not to mention going to Congress to ask for war powers inside the US and being rejected (and then using those war powers, illegally, anyway) is less illegal than a parking ticket?

Krauthammer is the worst kind of journalistic whore.

[alarimer]

7. I wonder what he'd say if Clinton did this

What he actually did was so minor (if in fact it was even a crime, which I doubt) but what Bush has done is cause a Constitutional crisis. He is a criminal- he admitted to breaking the law. He thinks he is above the law.

[Cha]

8. Fuck that Idiot,

krauthammer is an idiot from way back..he has no street cred.