Loose Leaf Notes

We have never had a presidency in which the single unifying thread that flows through its major decision-making was incompetence – stitched together with hubris and mendacity on a Nixonian scale. ~ Carl Bernstein
In a recent Vanity Fair article, Watergate veteran Carl Bernstein called for an investigation into the Bush presidency for what Bernstein describes as “the most disastrous five years of decision-making of any modern American presidency.”
The 35% of Americans who still support President Bush will likely accuse Bernstein of having a liberal bias, but they can’t suggest the same for the 6 retired military generals who recently broke their silence in a call for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation, charging mismanagement the Iraq war.
Similar to the climate that existed when the Nixon presidency was threatened with impeachment, more and more conservatives are publicly questioning not only President Bush’s rationale for and handling of the Iraq War, but the self-appointed authority he claims gives him the right to wiretap Americans without going through legal channels. Bush’s selective declassification of information for the purpose of having it leaked in an effort to win support for the war is another indication of misuse of power, as is the leak, traced to the highest level of the Bush White House, which outed a CIA operative in order to discredit her husband, a critic.
Whether it be the handling or Iraq or Katrina, the re-writing of torture language that led to the Abu Ghraib scandal, or gulag-like detainee practices, the cost in lost lives and U.S. credibility under the Bush Administration makes the impeachment of Clinton for lying about an affair seem trivial.
With some polls suggesting that close to 50% of Americans would support the impeachment of President Bush if it was determined that he deliberately lied to justify the invasion of Iraq, the idea of his impeachment is less of a fringe idea every day. In fact, Congressman John Conyers, the senior Democrat who took part in Watergate proceedings against President Richard Nixon in 1974, has called for a committee of inquiry into the grounds for Bush’s impeachment. Meanwhile, evidence continues to come forth suggesting that the invasion of Iraq was neither a last resort nor an urgent undertaking, as Bush told the American people it was. The 2002 Downing Street memo which states that Bush “fixed the intelligence reports (WMD) around (Iraq war) policy” is one such piece of compelling evidence.
I’m a registered Independent who is fiscally conservative and votes for Democrats because they represent my interests in civil rights, woman’s rights, labor rights, human rights, and the protection of the environment better than their counterparts. If there’s anything good to come out of the Bush presidency for me personally, it’s that the separating gulf between my values and those of moderate Republicans has narrowed.
I agreed with Republican William F. Buckley Jr. when he said: “It’s important that we acknowledge in the inner counsels of state that the war in Iraq has failed so that we should look for opportunities to cope with that failure.”
I agree with conservative columnist George Will’s assertion that, “Terrorism is not the only new danger of this era. Another is the administration’s argument that because the president is commander in chief, he is the ‘sole organ for the nation in foreign affairs….(which) is refuted by the Constitution’s plain language, which empowers Congress to ratify treaties, declare war, fund and regulate military forces, and make laws ‘necessary and proper’ for the execution of all presidential powers.”
And I agree with Republican Senator Arlen Specter’s response to Bush’s attorney general’s claim that the president’s secret order to wiretap Americans was legal. “He’s smoking Dutch Cleanser,” Specter said.
As much as I feel America has been set back by the disastrous policies of the Bush Administration, I find solace in the hope that sensible people of all political persuasions will ultimately unite against incompetence and the over-reach of power.
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