Bush’s High Crimes and Misdemeanors

The country may be running out the clock on the Bush administration, but impeachment advocates are hoping that President George W. Bush leaves office sooner than Jan. 1, 2009. Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduced 35 articles of impeachment in the House of Representatives last week, even though his party leader, Nancy Pelosi, had declared impeachment attempts to be “off the table.”

The House voted to send the articles to the House Judiciary Committee, headed by Rep. John Conyers, who has said that while the administration has committed impeachable offenses and felonies, he does not believe that Democrats should pursue impeachment proceedings.

Kucinich’s allegations of high crimes and misdemeanors include obvious and well-documented misdeeds that should be familiar to anyone who’s picked up a newspaper in the past seven years. Topping the list of impeachable offenses are Bush’s creation of a secret propaganda campaign to manufacture a false case for war against Iraq, and fraudulently and “with criminal intent” linking the 9/11 attacks to Iraq while making a case for war.

But the articles also include matters that are less well known, such as illegally misspending funds to secretly begin a war of aggression, which refers to Bush’s use in 2002 of $2 billion appropriated for Afghanistan and other programs to build airfields in neighboring Qatar and to make other preparations for the invasion of Iraq. As Kucinich notes, Bush did not notify Congress of these activities, a violation of the U.S. Constitution and the War Powers Act of 1973.

Kucinich’s articles of impeachment also include crimes involving Bush’s expansion of his presidential powers, such as creating secret laws; announcing the intent to violate laws with signing statements; failing to comply with congressional subpoenas and instructing former employees not to comply; and spying on American citizens without a court-ordered warrant. The articles also document how seriously the Bush administration has politicized the government. Covert CIA employee Valerie Plame’s outing is included, as is the administration’s role in tampering with elections to achieve Republican victories in 2004.

And the administration’s cruelty is also included. Article IX is “failing to provide troops with body armor and vehicle armor,” Article XX is “imprisoning children,” Article XXXI covers Bush’s failure to plan for and adequately respond to Hurricane Katrina, and Article XXXV is “endangering the health of 9/11 first responders.”