Sometime in early July, I expect Chief Justice William Rehnquist to resign from the Supreme Court because of his failing health. President Bush will then have the opportunity to select a new Chief Justice and a new Associate Justice. Other Justices will likely leave before he finishes his second term.
This news is not welcome. Bush has already shown a tendency to choose extremist judges for federal court. In fact, one of his appointees, Janice Rogers Brown, once said that the New Deal was “the triumph of our socialist revolution” (Source: http://www.blackcommentator.com/61/61_cover_rogers.html ). But what is worse is that the Republicans have persuaded Democrats to agree not to filibuster court appointees unless there are “extreme circumstances.” The Republicans still reserve the right to end the filibuster if they think the Democrats have abused the agreement.
We can’t trust President Bush to choose competent justices and judges. That is because he has abused power several times to get into office and in holding it.
Bush cheated to win the 2000 presidential election over Al Gore. He conspired with his brother, Jeb, the governor of Florida and Katherine Harris, the Secretary of State, to remove the names of thousands of likely Democratic voters from the voting rolls ( http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=30&row=2 ). These voters were turned away at the polls, making the difference in the election results.
The mid-term election of 2002 also arouses suspicion. Polls showed a close race for control of the United States Senate. Shortly before the election, Bush demanded a vote on the authorization to use force in Iraq. He got that vote to go to war, which he called a “vote for peace.” Many Senators were afraid to vote against the President before Election Day.
Nonetheless, polls showed Democrats leading in enough Senate races to retain their lead in the Senate. Mysteriously, on Election Day, several Republicans who were expected to lose pulled off victories ( www.politicalstrategy.org/archives/000869.php ). Miraculously, the GOP got back control of the Senate and retained control in the House of Representatives.
Between the 2002 and 2004 elections, Bush continued to abuse power. He started a war against Iraq on false pretenses, telling the public (and the world) that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and thus presented an imminent threat to the United States. A recent memo revealed that Bush fit the facts to support his conclusion that war was necessary, a crime ( www.politicalgateway.com/news/read.html?id=3712 ). Having set the “bait,” Bush proceeded to change his mind several times about why he used force against Iraq.
With hundreds of U.S. and thousands of Iraqi lives now gone, Bush still will not admit he was mistaken. He calls himself a “wartime president” with two wars to his credit.
Also, Bush shifted money allocated by Congress for the war in Afghanistan to the war in Iraq (Source: Plan of Attack, Bob Woodward, Simon and Schuster, 137). This action violates the Constitutional provision that the president execute the laws passed by Congress and may well have been an impeachable offense.
In late 2003, Bush pushed a Medicare drug benefit bill through Congress. When the House vote looked to go against him, Republicans extended the time period by which members could vote. This unethical tactic assisted in the bill’s passage.
The election of 2004 brought new allegations of Bush misconduct. Similar to 2002, exit polls showed Bush’s opponent, Senator John Kerry leading in several key states on Election Night (Source: http://baltimorechronicle.com/112204MargieBurns.shtml ). Yet mysteriously, buoyed perhaps by electronic voting machines with no paper trail and friends like Kenneth Blackwell as Secretary of State of swing-state Ohio, Bush was declared the winner of just enough states to win the Electoral College.
So we have a president who rigs elections and breaks laws to get what he wants. If that isn’t enough, he is going to make his own imprint on the Supreme Court with extremists who will back up his policies, like the Patriot Act, which intrudes upon our civil liberties.
I would suggest impeachment but the Republicans control the House and the charges would never get out of the Judiciary Committee. I would also suggest we plan to vote the Democrats back into control of the House and the Senate in 2006. But that assumes the vote won’t be rigged.
We are the victims of a conspiracy brought about by our government. If this were happening in any other nation, we would call it a dictatorship or a “banana republic.” The least we can do is to tell ourselves the truth. Only then can we seek the freedom we deserve.
Dean Hartwell is a political scientist and the author of Truth Matters: How the Voters Can Take Back Their Nation. He also founded the website, Hartwell Perspective: Truth Matters in Politics. See his website at www.deanhartwell.com.
http://www.politicalgateway.com/main/columns/read.html?col=372
This news is not welcome. Bush has already shown a tendency to choose extremist judges for federal court. In fact, one of his appointees, Janice Rogers Brown, once said that the New Deal was “the triumph of our socialist revolution” (Source: http://www.blackcommentator.com/61/61_cover_rogers.html ). But what is worse is that the Republicans have persuaded Democrats to agree not to filibuster court appointees unless there are “extreme circumstances.” The Republicans still reserve the right to end the filibuster if they think the Democrats have abused the agreement.
We can’t trust President Bush to choose competent justices and judges. That is because he has abused power several times to get into office and in holding it.
Bush cheated to win the 2000 presidential election over Al Gore. He conspired with his brother, Jeb, the governor of Florida and Katherine Harris, the Secretary of State, to remove the names of thousands of likely Democratic voters from the voting rolls ( http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=30&row=2 ). These voters were turned away at the polls, making the difference in the election results.
The mid-term election of 2002 also arouses suspicion. Polls showed a close race for control of the United States Senate. Shortly before the election, Bush demanded a vote on the authorization to use force in Iraq. He got that vote to go to war, which he called a “vote for peace.” Many Senators were afraid to vote against the President before Election Day.
Nonetheless, polls showed Democrats leading in enough Senate races to retain their lead in the Senate. Mysteriously, on Election Day, several Republicans who were expected to lose pulled off victories ( www.politicalstrategy.org/archives/000869.php ). Miraculously, the GOP got back control of the Senate and retained control in the House of Representatives.
Between the 2002 and 2004 elections, Bush continued to abuse power. He started a war against Iraq on false pretenses, telling the public (and the world) that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and thus presented an imminent threat to the United States. A recent memo revealed that Bush fit the facts to support his conclusion that war was necessary, a crime ( www.politicalgateway.com/news/read.html?id=3712 ). Having set the “bait,” Bush proceeded to change his mind several times about why he used force against Iraq.
With hundreds of U.S. and thousands of Iraqi lives now gone, Bush still will not admit he was mistaken. He calls himself a “wartime president” with two wars to his credit.
Also, Bush shifted money allocated by Congress for the war in Afghanistan to the war in Iraq (Source: Plan of Attack, Bob Woodward, Simon and Schuster, 137). This action violates the Constitutional provision that the president execute the laws passed by Congress and may well have been an impeachable offense.
In late 2003, Bush pushed a Medicare drug benefit bill through Congress. When the House vote looked to go against him, Republicans extended the time period by which members could vote. This unethical tactic assisted in the bill’s passage.
The election of 2004 brought new allegations of Bush misconduct. Similar to 2002, exit polls showed Bush’s opponent, Senator John Kerry leading in several key states on Election Night (Source: http://baltimorechronicle.com/112204MargieBurns.shtml ). Yet mysteriously, buoyed perhaps by electronic voting machines with no paper trail and friends like Kenneth Blackwell as Secretary of State of swing-state Ohio, Bush was declared the winner of just enough states to win the Electoral College.
So we have a president who rigs elections and breaks laws to get what he wants. If that isn’t enough, he is going to make his own imprint on the Supreme Court with extremists who will back up his policies, like the Patriot Act, which intrudes upon our civil liberties.
I would suggest impeachment but the Republicans control the House and the charges would never get out of the Judiciary Committee. I would also suggest we plan to vote the Democrats back into control of the House and the Senate in 2006. But that assumes the vote won’t be rigged.
We are the victims of a conspiracy brought about by our government. If this were happening in any other nation, we would call it a dictatorship or a “banana republic.” The least we can do is to tell ourselves the truth. Only then can we seek the freedom we deserve.
Dean Hartwell is a political scientist and the author of Truth Matters: How the Voters Can Take Back Their Nation. He also founded the website, Hartwell Perspective: Truth Matters in Politics. See his website at www.deanhartwell.com.
http://www.politicalgateway.com/main/columns/read.html?col=372
