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President Gore Impeached
A satirical commentary
By Jerry Ghinelli
06/21/06 "ICH" -- The Republican controlled House of Representatives approved today, by a vote of 228 to 207, the first article of impeachment against the 43rd president of the United States, Albert Gore Jr., for his failure to prevent the attacks of 9/11, engaging in a false and deceptive rationale for war and for lying to Congress about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
A divided House of Representatives, which voted along straight party lines, recommended that the Senate remove the nation's 43rd President - Albert Gore Jr. - from office.
“The President of the United States has committed serious transgressions," said House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-Texas).
"Among other things, he took an oath to God to protect and defend the people of the United States, and then he failed to do so. He repeatedly lied, violating his sacred oath of office. To ignore this is dereliction of duty, and this seriously undermines the rule of law," Delay said.
The Republicans, if you recall, are still bitter at Al Gore, alleging that he stole the 2000 presidential election.
On Dec. 12, 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, effectively ended Texas Governor George W. Bush's run for president by upholding the decision of the Florida Supreme Court to allow the recount to continue. Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas voted with traditional court liberals Stevens, Souter, Breyer and Ginsburg, upholding the lower court's ruling.
The 5-4 decision in Gore v Bush 531 U.S. 98 (2000) upheld the Florida Supreme Court's decision to allow the recount to continue. The subsequent recount changed the voting results and Secretary of State Katherine Harris reluctantly declared Albert Gore Jr. the winner by less than 600 votes in Florida, thus making Gore the 43rd President of the United States.
The House Republicans, led by Majority Leader Tom Delay of Texas, charged Al Gore with stealing the 2000 election and with "high crimes," for violating his oath of office to preserve, protect and defend the United States.
“Gore ignored repeated warnings by experts that al Qaeda was preparing an imminent attack and he embarked on an undeclared illegal invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq to distract the country from the failed leadership of the Gore Presidency," noted Delay.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced just after the House vote that senators "will be prepared to fulfill their Constitutional obligations."
Republicans claim CIA director George Tenet, appointed during the second Clinton-Gore administration, at the behest of President Gore and Vice President Lieberman, deliberately, willfully and with malice aforethought exaggerated the threats posed by Iraq and led us into an unnecessary war. Delay charged that the war was part of a "vast left wing conspiracy" and suggested the intelligence was manipulated to fit Gore's "wag the dog" attack to distract attention from his 9/11 blunders.
The Republicans charged that Gore learned well from former President Bill Clinton when he, too, waged a similar, but smaller “wag the dog" attack on Iraq in December of 1998.
Termed Operation Desert Fox, Republicans back in 1998 charged Clinton-Gore with shifting the focus from a White House sex scandal. Clinton and Gore insisted in 1998 that "our mission was to strike military and security targets in Iraq that contribute to Iraq's ability to produce, store, maintain and deliver weapons of mass destruction. The timing of our mission to Clinton's impeachment proceeding was purely coincidental," noted Gore.
Former Texas Governor George W. Bush, who narrowly lost the presidency to Al Gore in 2000 in the disputed Florida recount, criticized President Gore for lying to the American people, Congress and the world community, and charged Gore was engaging in "nation building."
Bush, you'll recall during the campaign of 2000, vowed, if elected, he would return honor and dignity to the White House. During a debate with then Vice President Al Gore on Oct. 11, 2000, in Winston-Salem, N.C., Bush said, "I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation building.”
Bush praised the judgment of his father, former President George H.W. Bush, former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell for their wisdom and restraint when, in 1991, they did not invade Iraq nor remove Saddam Hussein from power.
George Bush charged Al Gore with irresponsible behavior for endangering the lives of our young men and women in the military and for discarding the wisdom, judgment and restraint of the 1991 Bush, Cheney and Powell team.
Bush Jr, also reminded us of the diplomacy of his father, Dick Cheney and Colin Powell for getting an international coalition and obtaining a unanimous United Nations Security Council resolution in 1991 before liberating Kuwait from Saddam.
In the bitter impeachment debate in the House, many Republicans often referred to Gore as a "chicken hawk" for his cushy assignment as a photographer during the Vietnam War. Gore, you'll recall, did go to Vietnam, but never saw a shot fired in anger during his service as a photographer and war reporter. It is alleged by Republicans that Gore's father, then Senator Albert Gore Sr. of Tennessee, a rich, influential politician, pulled stings, allowing "junior" to avoid military combat.
The attacks became quite personal as Republicans accused Gore of a life of privilege and wealth.
“Had his father not been a member of Congress and he not been born to wealth and privilege, Al Gore would have served in the infantry and would never have been elected 43rd president,” one anonymous House Republican said.
"Gore was born on 3rd base and thinks he hit a triple," he added.
President Gore was also criticized by Republicans for dressing up in a flight suit and staging a landing on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln back on May 1, 2003. When a slightly overweight Gore landed on the carrier and declared, “Mission accomplished,” he was universally mocked and ridiculed by Republicans. Since declaring “mission accomplished,” the Gore administration conceded that over 700 Americans have died and nearly 5,000 have been wounded in Iraq.
The Fox News Network's Bill O'Reilly, and right wing talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, praised the House impeachment vote and predicted Gore, unlike his friend and mentor Bill Clinton, would lose a Senate trial and be the first American president to be removed from office.
Limbaugh, on his nationally syndicated radio program, accused Gore of neglect, dereliction of duty and incompetence for failing to protect the nation from the attacks of September 11, 2001. Limbaugh also accused Gore of willfully deceiving Congress, the United Nations and the American people, and engaging in a war in Iraq to distract attention from the failures of his administration to protect America from the attacks of 9/11. Limbaugh mocked Gore's military service as a joke.
"The bugle corps saw more combat action than the pampered, tree hugging, roving photographer," Limbaugh said.
At a press conference, President Gore, accompanied by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, defended his action to invade Iraq, claiming the world was a safer place now that Saddam was removed from power. Tony Blair reminded the press that he, along with the Clinton-Gore administration in 1999, removed another dictator, Slobodan Milosevic, from power. Gore was animated and told the press that ” 70 percent of the Senate Republicans did not to support the NATO air campaign to remove the brutal dictator Slobodan Milosevic from power in 1999.“
Gore read the following remarks made by Republican Senator Don Nickels of Oklahoma and then House Republican whip Tom Delay in 1999:
"He (Milosevic) is stronger in Kosovo now than he was before the bombing. ... The Serbian people are rallying around him like never before. “Clinton and Gore have no plan for the end" and "recognizes that Milosevic will still be in power," added Delay. "The bombing was a mistake. ... And this president (Clinton) ought to show some leadership and admit it, and come to some sort of negotiated end."
"The world is a safer place now that Slobodan and Saddam have been brought to justice," noted Gore. If the Republicans had their way, Slobodan would still be in Belgrade and Saddam would still be in Baghdad. It was, after all, Republican President George H.W. Bush who left Saddam in power in 1991, and when Saddam "gassed his own" people it was during the Republican administration of Ronald Reagan," said Gore.
Former Governor George W. Bush, now an analyst for the conservative Fox News Network, criticized both Gore and Blair for engaging in nation building and exhibiting a reckless disregard for our young men and women in the military.
Bush referred to Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor party as "liberal evildoers" and mocked Blair, calling him "Gore's poodle."
When asked if he thought the Senate would vote to impeach the 43rd President, former Governor George Bush declared, "It's a slam dunk!"
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