If Napolitano should resign, Bush and Cheney should have been impeached

By GottaLaff

See that blog title (by Brent Budowsky)? IMHO, the "if" part could have been dropped. Bush and Cheney should have been impeached. Period:

If Janet Napolitano should be fired for her role in the Christmas bombing plot, George W. Bush should have been impeached for being warned about planes flying into buildings in New York and ignoring those warnings, and Dick Cheney should have been impeached for his role in the CIA leak case and prosecuted for his role surrounding torture.

That cannot be be stated often or more strongly enough.

[...] Napolitano could have handled this better, but the consequences of her mistakes are nothing compared to the consequences of mistakes by Bush, Cheney, Alberto Gonzales and many others.

BushCo could have puffed themselves up, donned their codpieces, and strutted around spewing their fear mongering and threats for another decade, but that wouldn't have compensated for the thousands who died on their watch. They didn't follow through, people were killed, and yet they boast like 8-year-olds about "keeping America safe".

President Obama has "kept us safe" longer than BushCo did, and he gets attacked relentlessly from the very man who was in charge on 9/11: Dick Cheney. It is he and his gang of thugs who should be condemned.

Perhaps the Obama administration could have handled the Christmas day situation better, but nobody died. The Obama administration says they are working to improve national security. Good. It needs improving, and most likely always will. Has any country eliminated terrorism completely? Is that even possible? No.

At least this president didn't ignore a briefing that warned him of some guy with explosives in his underwear, nor is he acting like an arrogant flight-suited peacock, bragging and parading around like a spoiled brat.

And again, nobody died.

It's time that the Rushpublics practice what they preach and support their commander in chief. Here's a thought: Try coming up with some solutions for a change. That would be a real step toward "keeping America safe".

Panel votes 6-1 against Sanford impeachment

By GottaLaff

In RushpbulicLand, you get to cheat on your wife, abandon your state (all why being a hypocrite), and then get rewarded with not-impeachment:

An impeachment resolution against Gov. Mark Sanford has been essentially killed, as a majority of the 7-member committee formed to weigh evidence against the governor voted against it today.

The vote, which came shortly after 3:30 p.m., was 6-1 against the resolution. The full House Judiciary Committee will still take up the resolution.[...]

Sanford was accused of abandoning his duties and using state resources for personal purposes.

If a Democrat had pulled this, he/she would have been kicked out within days, and the news dee jays would have stayed on the story non-stop, pausing only for the latest Tiger Woods cartoons.

Sanford impeachment measure to be formally considered

By GottaLaff

Will they dress in top hats and tails?

A special House committee in South Carolina will formally consider an impeachment resolution against Gov. Mark Sanford for the first time next Tuesday, the Republican chairman of the committee told CNN Friday. [...]

The measure currently states that Sanford committed "serious misconduct" by secretly leaving the state in June without informing his staff or establishing a chain of command.

Harrison said "the game plan" is for the four Republicans and three Democrats in the group to finalize the language in the resolution before passing it on to the full Judiciary committee, which will then vote in January on whether the measure should be sent to the full House.

This is what happens when you abandon your state.

Don't cry for me Argentina....

UPDATE: More here. (H/t: Ady)

Sanford impeachment resolution likely next week

By GottaLaff

Mark and his cha-cha-cha-ing are finally coming back to bite him in his lying, roving, C Street ass:

A resolution of impeachment against Gov. Mark Sanford is likely to be introduced next week during a special session of the South Carolina legislature, but lawmakers said the governor's job is safe for the time being.

Republican state Rep. Greg Delleney told CNN his resolution lists three charges against Sanford: dereliction of duty for leaving the state to visit his mistress in Argentina in June; attempting to cover-up the scandal; and bringing "disgrace and shame and ridicule" on the state.

One, two...

"If that is not serious misconduct in office, I don't know what is," Delleney said of Sanford's actions.

...cha cha cha! One, two...

But most Republicans in the legislature want the governor to resign and several are ready to begin the impeachment process, even as the results of a state Ethics Commission investigation into the governor's travel expenses are still pending.

Delleney said his goal is "to get the ball rolling" on impeachment in a committee before the legislative session officially begins in January, when he hopes the resolution can be quickly brought to the floor for a vote.

...cha cha cha!

Oooooops!

Mark Sanford, meet reality

By GottaLaff

Mark of C Street by way of Argentina had this to say:

"I think if anything is off the table, it's that I'm not running for president. It's 100 percent believable now."

-- South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R), quoted by Upstate Today.

Great grasp of the obvious, there, Mark. Now if he could only grasp this:

Sanford Prepares to Fight Impeachment

In an interview with the Greenville News, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) said that "he has no plans to resign, will fight any attempt at impeachment and believes he may have the best chance next year at pushing for government restructuring."

"He said he believes any violations of law found by an ongoing state Ethics Commission investigation would be 'technical' ones and he will fight any attempt by legislators to use those to oust him from office."

It will be interesting to see what the state legislature does when they're back in session early next year.

So much for reality.

The trials and tribulations of Mark Sanford: The "I" Word looms

By GottaLaff

Just minutes ago, I posted about a possible Mark Sanford ethics investigation. Wouldn't you know it? Right after posting that, I run smack into this:

A South Carolina Democrat told CNN on Thursday that Republican legislators have assured him there are enough votes to start a bipartisan push for impeachment against Gov. Mark Sanford when the legislative session begins in January.

Rep. Boyd Brown said ranking members of the House Judiciary Committee told him Wednesday that several Republicans on the committee are prepared to team up with Democrats to begin the impeachment process if Sanford doesn’t resign or agree to a full-scale investigation into his travel expenses before the end of the year.

At least one Republican on the Judiciary Committee contacted by CNN Thursday — Rep. Greg Delleney — said he would sign on to an impeachment effort.

This can't end well for Argentina Mark. ::ominous music:: I see impeached people.

Brown said ranking Republicans on the committee have told him: “We got your three votes.”

“The Republicans are on this as much as Democrats,” Brown said. “This thing’s going to get nasty come January if he doesn’t clear his name between now and then or resign.” [...]

The power of impeachment in South Carolina, according to the state constitution, is reserved for “cases of serious crimes or serious misconduct in office.” Impeachment requires a two-thirds vote in the House followed by a two thirds vote in the Senate.

Where's all that C Street power when you need it?

VIDEO: Bybee could face impeachment as a result of DoJ report

By GottaLaff

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Light at the end of the proverbial tunnel:

After a four-year probe, the Department of Justice has finally come out with its report on the torture memos–and it seems like they won’t be recommending prosecuting the lawyers who helped write them. But Michael Isikoff, the veteran investigative correspondent for Newsweek — says the report will be a bombshell and could recommend the impeachment of Bush White House counsel Jay Bybee.

Good, good, and good. But here's the part that stood out to me last night, as I watched the Tee Vee Machine:

Additionally, Isikoff emphasized that the ethics division’s recommendation of no criminal charges isn’t decisive.

The “no criminal prosecutions headline that is getting a lot of attention tonight — I’m not sure that’s quite as significant as people think,” he said. “The office of professional responsibility is the ethics unit. It’s not the criminal division of the Justice Department. They don’t make decisions on criminal prosecutions and there’s an entire separate track of potential criminal investigations flowing from this as we reported this week in Newsweek an ongoing criminal investigation into the CIA destruction of tapes and e-mails in this report could well shed light for the criminal division so I don’t think this is by any means over yet.”

I haven't heard one peep from any of the punditiots about this. Even Rachel followed right up by going back to her frustration over the "slaps on the wrist" issue. That puzzled me. My ears perked right up after hearing Isikoff's comments as stated above. That glimmer of hope was what all I needed... for now.

Mrs. Berlusconi: Ciao, Silvio

By GottaLaff

Arrivederci, baby:

Less than a week after writing an open letter criticizing her husband for cavorting with much younger women, the wife of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said she wanted to file for divorce.

“I’d like to close the curtain on our married life,” Mr. Berlusconi’s wife, Veronica Lario, 52, told the center-left daily newspaper La Repubblica in an article published Sunday. “I was forced to take this step,” she told the Turin daily newspaper La Stampa. “I don’t want to add anything else.” [...]

If Ms. Lario does file for divorce, it is unclear whether Mr. Berlusconi, 72, will be affected politically. Despite colorful gaffes that would sink a politician elsewhere, Mr. Berlusconi enjoys more power and popularity than ever, thanks to the disarray of his left-wing opposition and his brilliant reading of Italian sensibilities.

In fact, part of Mr. Berlusconi’s success lies in his ability to present himself at once as a devoted family man and as a consummate ladies’ man, a contradiction embodied in his marriage to Ms. Lario. [...]

She was also angered by press reports that Mr. Berlusconi had attended the 18th birthday party in Naples of Noemi Letizia, who has said in several recent interviews that she called the prime minister “Daddy” and that he gave her a gold and diamond necklace.

“That surprised me,” Ms. Lario told ANSA. “Because he never attended the 18th birthday parties of his own children, even if he was invited.”

If President Obama presented himself as "at once as a devoted family man and as a consummate ladies’ man", he'd be impeached (see Clinton, Bill). It's a good thing all Bush did was torture people.

Nadler-- Impeach Torture Memo Author: "It was not an honest legal memo. It was an instruction manual on how to break the law."

By GottaLaff

The groundswell is groundswelling:

Rep. Jerry Nadler, a senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called Monday for the impeachment of federal judge Jay Bybee, one of the principal authors of the torture memos released last week by the Obama administration.

"He ought to be impeached," Nadler said in an interview with the Huffington Post. "It was not an honest legal memo. It was an instruction manual on how to break the law. [...]

Nadler is meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday to argue that the release of the torture memos further buttresses a call he had made earlier for a special prosecutor on torture.

"Any special prosecutor on torture would have to look at the authors of those torture memos," said Nadler. "And certainly you have real grounds to impeach him once the special prosecutor took a good look at that. I think there ought to be an impeachment inquiry looked at in any event. Which should happen first, I'm not sure." [...]

"He should be a target. Yoo should be a target. There are a number of targets," said Nadler, referring to for Bush administration counsel John Yoo, who also authorized torture and is now a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Bybee, noted Nadler, "is the only one who's a federal court judge now." [...]

"This whole call of looking forward rather than backwards -- you can't say that. The fact is, if crimes were committed, we are duty-bound under our law, we must -- the United States must investigate torture if it happened in America. That's the law. And the fact is, the law specifically says that instructions from higher officials is not an excuse. And we are obligated to investigate and, if indicated, to prosecute. The failure to at least investigate would be a violation of law," he said.

Fasten your seatbelts.

VIDEO-- Claire McCaskill: We Need To Look At Impeaching Jay Bybee

By GottaLaff

I'm glad this is getting some attention:



McCaskill also reiterates what we already know: President Obama has made it clear he "doesn't want to look in the rearview mirror."

Steve Benen writes, “The question shouldn’t be whether to impeach Jay Bybee, but rather, how quickly the impeachment hearings can begin.”

My original post about calling for the impeachment of Bybee is here.

Impeachment's hottt again... if it's Obama

By GottaLaff

Impeach Bush? Never! Who cares about torture, lies, illegal wiretaps, fraudulent wars, etc.? No, no, pish-posh, what were we thinking? During the Bush presidency, impeachment was so Clinton ago. Well, guess what? It's 2009, Obama is in the White House, and impeachment is hotttter than evah!

After accepting illegal and unethical behavior for years from President Bush, the right wing has finally come around to advocating for the impeachment of a President. On Sat. March 21, more than 4,000 people gathered in Orlando for a “tea party” protest to denounce what they called “wasteful Washington spending.” The Orlando Sentinel quoted one attendee saying, “They need to shove that bum out,” referring to Obama. The signs that were distributed said “Obama Bin Lyin’ IMPEACH NOW”.

Holy cow! President Obama is trying to get us out of a depression via a bold stimulus package! Shove the bum out!

Dick Cheney, on the other hand, ran secret "executive assassination rings"... and that's A-OK with the tea-partiers.

Nothing wrong with that logic, right?

H/t: BuzzFlash

BREAKING: Blagojevich removed from office

By GottaLaff

I'm watching the vote live now. Tally: 40 votes in, that's what it took. Done deal.

Update: Final tally was 58-0, one no-vote. Unanimous.

One of the "yes" voters gestured with a "thumbs down" as he said "yes".

Pat Quinn is literally standing in the lobby, ready to be sworn in.

Blagojevich radio show in the works?

G-d know he has enough hot air to rival Limbaugh and O'Reilly. Sounds to me more like a bribe from the radio station just to step down already.

(CNN) – Rod Blagojevich's political career is likely over, but the embattled Illinois governor could have a future in the talk-radio business.

Bob Shromper, the program director of Chicago's WLS-AM, said Friday he's prepared to offer Blagojevich his own show on Sundays if the governor agrees to resign from office rather than be forcibly removed by the state Senate.

Shromper said he wants the governor to step down immediately, so to spare the state of further embarrassment.

Blagojevich impeached

Please dear jeebus, can we move on now?

SPRINGFIELD---In a historic vote, the Illinois House has impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich, directing the Senate to put the state’s 40th chief executive on trial with the goal of removing him from office.

The vote by the House was 114-1 and marks the first time in the state's 190-year history that a governor has been impeached, despite Illinois' longstanding reputation for political corruption.

Rep. Milt Patterson (D-Chicago) was the lone vote against impeaching the governor. Patterson, from Chicago's Southwest Side, said after the roll call that he didn't feel it was his job to vote to impeach the governor. He declined comment on whether he approved of the job Blagojevich is doing.

VIDEO: Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn slams Blagojevich for naming Burris to replace Obama in Senate

By GottaLaff

I liveblogged it here, but now you can see the accurate version on video!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Saying Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich should be impeached and convicted, Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn slams Blagojevich's decision to name a replacement for Barack Obama's senate seat.

L.A. Times Letter: We the people are culpable

By GottaLaff

A letter in today's L.A. Times:

We the people are culpable

Re “Lawless and soon long gone,” editorial, Dec. 24

Do you have any idea how ridiculous it sounds for you to offer up as a "reckoning" a "scathing report by the Senate Armed Services Committee"? Do you really think that Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld care about that?

I have an idea. The next time a criminal breaks into your house, instead of arresting and prosecuting him, let's just get the Senate to issue a scathing report condemning him and let him get away with that as his punishment. That'll teach 'em!

An impeachment inquiry would be such a nice option (albeit improbable at this point), and it would serve so many purposes: An investigation would bring new information to light (executive privilege doesn't extend to an impeachment inquiry), and also prevent Bush from pardoning anyone else.

Scathing reports may give us some details and soothe a few people, but they don't do much in the way of remedies.

Oh, and then there's that little matter of sending a strong message to future administrations that no president or vice president is above the law.

Mark Felt dies at 95

Why anyone would ask Pat Buchanan his opinion on Felt is beyond me. (they just did on Morning Joe)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - W. Mark Felt, the former FBI second-in-command who revealed himself as "Deep Throat" 30 years after he tipped off reporters to the Watergate scandal that toppled a president, has died. He was 95. Felt died Thursday in Santa Rosa after suffering from congestive heart failure for several months, said family friend John D. O'Connor, who wrote the 2005 Vanity Fair article uncovering Felt's secret.

If it's this easy, why can't they impeach Bush?

By GottaLaff

Rod Blagojevich did something that convinced enough people to begin impeachment proceedings against him. That didn't take long.

Bush has been doing things for eight years that are far, far worse. Impeachment? Off the table.

Democrats are condemning their governor and joining with Republicans in taking action against Blago. Too bad the same can't be said of House Republicans (and Democrats) and the Thug in Chief. Says a lot about their priorities, doesn't it:

The Illinois House voted 113-0 today to begin impeachment proceedings against Gov. Rod Blagojevich for his efforts to "sell" the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by Barack Obama, the Chicago Tribune reports.

113-0. See? Not so difficult.

There will be no White House ‘impeach Bush’ ornament after all

By GottaLaff

Retraction time. From the Department of the Washington Post Spoke Too Soon:

Sally McDonough, a spokeswoman for First Lady Laura Bush, reported this afternoon that the ornament would not be displayed:

“It’s inappropriate and it’s not being hung,” she said. She said that when asked about the issue yesterday, the White House tree decorations were not complete. “We reviewed the ornament along with all the [other] ornaments, and Mrs. Bush deemed it inappropriate for the holiday tree.”

"It's inappropriate and it's not being hung." The same could apply to our Idiot in Chief.

"Impeach Bush" to Hang on White House Christmas Tree

By GottaLaff

Pshyeah... As if Bush can read:

The Reliable Source notes a Christmas ornament saluting Rep. Jim McDermott's (D-WA) efforts to impeach President Bush was accepted for the White House Christmas Tree.

Said the artist: "Apparently, they didn't read it -- or Laura Bush is more progressive than I believed."

UPDATE: Here it is.

Paddy Update- Oh well, Pickles put the kibosh on the ornament as "inappropriate".