Talk of impeachment? It's about time [If not Bush, Alberto Gonzales]

Capital Times ^ | 6-1-06 | John Nichols

[SJackson]

California Congressman Darrell Issa is one of the most conservative Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee. So it should come as no surprise that he offered an appropriately cautious and responsible solution for the constitutional conflict created when members of the Bush administration ordered federal agents to raid the Capitol Hill office of a sitting member of Congress. "We have the power to impeach the attorney general," Issa told Tuesday's Judiciary Committee hearing titled "Reckless Justice: Did the Saturday Night Raid of Congress Trample the Constitution?" Much of the Washington press corps, which maintains a familiarity with the Constitution that is roughly equivalent to its acquaintance with the truth, dismissed Issa's suggestion that the committee might want to consider the ultimate political sanction for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The Washington Post's lamentable Dana Milbank, who stands ever ready to ridicule any defense of the Constitution, huffed that the California congressman was being "dramatic." Dramatic? Let's hope so, because the times are dramatic, and the concerns that have been raised by the raid on Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson's office demand a response that is equal to them. AP Photo/Ron Edmonds Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and President Bush. There is no question that Gonzales, a champion of executive overreach since his days as White House counsel, used the Constitution as a doormat when he ushered FBI agents into Jefferson's office. The investigation of Jefferson, a Tom DeLay-like sleazy member of the House who conveniently for the ever-political Gonzales happens to be a Democrat, had already yielded more than enough evidence of wrongdoing. The raid was, as George Washington University law Professor Jonathan Turley described it, a "gratuitous insult" motivated not by necessity but by "raw arrogance." The raid was, as well, unconstitutional, according to former Reagan Justice Department aide Bruce Fein. The whole concept of a separation of powers between equal branches of government demands that Congress respond aggressively and appropriately to the raid not in defense of William Jefferson, but in defense of the principle that the executive branch does not have the authority to send its foot soldiers into the offices of the legislative branch. If the precedent of the raid on Jefferson's office stands, this administration which has already signaled its intention to track down and prosecute whistle-blowers and others who might dissent from its imperial impulses will not stop in the office of one ethically challenged congressman from Louisiana. And future administrations will retain, rather than return, the powers that have been seized. When he denounced the raid at the hearing, Texas Republican Louie Gohmert said, with rather more flourish than has come to be expected from a member of this Congress, "I'm not defending any Jefferson except for Thomas Jefferson." The fact is that Thomas Jefferson would have approved Issa's talk of impeachment, the constitutional remedy that the founders intended to be used to maintain the integrity of the federal government, especially at times when the executive branch began to mirror the regal excesses of the monarchy that had so recently been discarded. To be sure, it was a bit absurd for Issa and other Republicans to be calling the administration to account on this particular abuse when there are so many others worthy of impeachment. As Maryland Democrat Chris Van Hollen reminded the committee on Tuesday, it is possible to point to a "number of examples of overreaching by the executive branch where there's been a total lack of oversight by this Congress: the torture memorandum, detainees, enemy combatants, signing statements, domestic surveillance, data-mining operations." Fein, the former Reagan Justice Department official, echoed Van Hollen, suggesting to the committee that the raid on Jefferson's office was merely "an additional instrument of the Bush administration to cow Congress" in keeping with what he described as the administration's regularly expressed "claim of inherent presidential authority to flout any statute that (the chief executive) thinks impedes his ability to gather foreign intelligence, whether opening mail, conducting electronic surveillance, breaking and entering, or committing torture." Add to that bill of particulars clear evidence that the president, the vice president and administration aides employed deceit and chicanery to organize the invasion and occupation of two foreign countries without a declaration of war or a plan and the outline for articles of impeachment begins to take shape. But let us not get ahead of ourselves here. Most members of Congress are only beginning to recognize their oversight responsibilities and the awesome powers that go with them. As Gohmert of Texas told the committee: "I've been so much more concerned about the judiciary overreaching in power, and I really had not looked at the executive." Only since it was recently revealed that the president has ordered a massive program to monitor and review the phone calls made by Americans on American soil what the congressman referred to as the "phone logs and things" has he "become more concerned." Yes, of course, that's an embarrassing admission for a member of the Judiciary Committee to make. But at least Gohmert and other Republicans are expressing concern. And, at long last, a Republican member of Congress has dared to suggest that a member of a lawless Republican administration might rightly be the subject of impeachment. That is a small measure of progress. But it is progress that the founders would have celebrated and encouraged. Indeed, as George Mason reminded the Constitutional Convention 219 years ago this summer: "No point is of more importance than that the right of impeachment should be continued." John Nichols is the associate editor of The Capital Times. E-mail: jnichols@madison.com Published: June 1, 2006

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[SJackson]

I have to go with the progressives here. If a Dem Congressman can't secret incriminating evidence in his office, this nation is near it's end.

[hsalaw]

Congress should start reading the polls - there was one posted here which said something like 85% of Americans polled believed the FBI had the authority, with a warrant, to search a Congressman's office for evidence of a crime. Well, duh!

[Luke21]

No wonder the Republicans are often called the "stupid party." Prety bad when we have to defend Gonzalez, but right is right. These jokes in Congress can't stand being subject to the same police powers we are.

[NeoCaveman]

While I still don't want him for SCOTUS, I've developed an appreciation for the attorney general over the last few weeks.

[popdonnelly]

There's nothing in the Constitution that prevents the criminal investigation of a member of Congress.

[Paladin2]

AG AG needs to enforce the immigration laws or be impeached.

[sinkspur]

Darrell Issa: Traitor, or useful idiot?

By Debbie Schlussel | Bio
debbie@politicalusa.com

I thought there was no one worse in Congress than Cynthia McKinney, aka Jihad Cindy, D-Ga.

But I was wrong. She's met her match on the other side of the aisle, in the form of Arab-American Congressman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., – Jihad Darrell. He makes McKinney – who wrote an egregious apology letter to Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal in which she attacked the U.S. and New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani for returning the prince's $10 million after he justified the attacks – look like a patriot extraordinaire.

During a just-concluded trip to the Middle East, Jihad Darrell announced that terrorist group Hezbollah is legitimate and has never been involved with terrorist activities, according to the Teheran Times, IRNA (the official Iranian news agency), and the Beirut Daily Star.

Oh really? I guess he forgot about that insignificant event in the early '80s, in which Hezbollah blew at least 241 U.S. Marines to bits in Beirut – not to mention several other Americans the group murdered between 1975 and 1990, for a total of at least 261 dead Americans. This charming organization committed the torture, murder and hanging display of the body of U.S. military attaché Col. Richard Higgins' body. These are the monsters who kidnapped CIA Chief William Buckley in the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, transferred him to Iran, and tortured and bludgeoned him to death.

They are all turning over in their bloody graves, thanks to congressional useful idiot, Darrell Issa. Talk about aid and comfort to the enemy.

Then there's that stubborn little fact that Hezbollah, Arabic for "Warriors for Allah," or "Party of Allah" (hint: it's not a birthday party), is one of the three major components of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network, according to the Wall Street Journal and countless other sources.

Jihad Darrell's new Hezbollah buddies officially support "the use of hostages" and "suicide in jihad operations." When the State Department released this year's terrorist list, Hezbollah was on it – yet again. Hezbollah's response: "We regard the hostile [act] of the American administration as proof that we are following the right path." Hezbollah declares that, "it is the duty of all Muslims to engage in Islamic jihad if it ensures the ultimate goal, which consists in inflicting losses on the enemy." That enemy is the West, particularly America. Maybe these were the "humanitarian" actions of Hezbollah that Jihad Darrell was quoted as praising.

"I have a great deal of sympathy for the work that Hezbollah tries to do," he told the Beirut Daily Star. Hmmm. To which work is Jihad Darrell referring? Is it 1986 Hezbollah's torturing to death of Ibrahim Benesti, aged 54, of Beirut, and his elderly relatives, Yehudah and Yosef, whose only crime was being Jewish? Benesti, whose family – like many Lebanese Jews – had been in Lebanon since 2,000 B.C. (before the birth of Mohammed), was a charitable and kindly candy store owner who gave free candy to children of all religions. Or maybe Jihad Darrell was referring to the "humanitarian" 1985 Hezbollah torture-murder of Isaac Tarab, 63, and Chaim Halala Cohen, 39, also guilty of being Jewish.

This man, Darrell Issa, is digusting.

More disgusting is that Issa was representing the House International Relations Committee on which he serves, leading a congressional delegation including Arab-American Congressman Nick Joe Rahall, D-Va.

And he hangs out with disgusting people. Issa partied with terrorist-in-chief Yasser Arafat, gushing over him as "a charismatic individual, despite being a very small man and very old. He gives you food off his plate if you sit next to him."

Sickening.

Political consultant and columnist, Michael Andreen, an Issa constituent, is outraged, saying it's time for apologist Issa to go. But he still has "a good laugh at Arafat using the naïve junior congressman as his own personal food taster."

Issa also hung out in Syria, the country which sanctions Hezbollah and other terrorist groups, and which allowed Hezbollah to get its explosives through security checkpoints to kill the 241 U.S. Marines.

Issa buddy Arafat provided much of the explosive weaponry and was involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, mining the perimeter of the U.S. embassy in Iran during the hostage crisis, the torture-murders of U.S. Ambassador to Sudan Cleo Noel and Charge D'Affaires George Curtis Moore (the highest ranking black in the U.S. Foreign Service at the time) – beaten so badly authorities couldn't tell which was black and which was white.

If he sounds familiar, Jihad Darrell is the same congressman who threw a temper tantrum, screaming about profiling, when he showed up an hour late for an Air France flight, with a suspicious one-way ticket to Saudi Arabia, and was refused entry to the already boarded plane. Issa didn't fool security, but he managed to charm others with his phoniness. Columnist Debra Saunders wrote a whole column, "Ahsan Baig's Molehill," lauding Issa for denouncing racial profiling lawsuits and advocating that Arabs "adjust" and make "sacrifices in wartime." Problem is, at the same time, he was telling every other press source about his plans for new, anti-profiling legislation against airlines, to line Arabs' and their trial lawyers' pockets and risk our security.

Many advocate that America emulate Israel in its dealings with terrorism. That's a great idea, with regard to Issa. Recently, Israel stripped Arab Member of the Israeli Knesset, Azmi Bashara, of his immunity from prosecution for urging the Palestinians to attack Israel and copy Hezbollah, its murders and suicide bombings. Israel is prosecuting Bashara, and we should do the same with the treasonous Issa.

Ironically, Jihad Darrell's last name, Issa, means "Jesus" in Arabic. But, instead of turning the other cheek in 2002, voters in his 48th district should eagerly mark the ballot for his opponent.

Source.

[Wiseghy]

Please spare me this sanctimonious nonsense. This guy was hiding documents during the search and was a dirty as the day is long.

The FBI did stings in Sacramento years ago and cleaned up a very messy situation with explicit vote buying there (this included price lists). I can only hope that we can allow law enforcement to pursue egregious corruption when it sees it. In fact, had they not acted, I'm certain Justice would be blamed for not acting aggressively.

[Publius6961]

If a Dem Congressman can't secret incriminating evidence in his office, this nation is near it's end.

Well, D'OH!

If a congressman can't hide evidence of his crime in his inviolate office, where can he hide it?

[Right_in_Virginia]

The raid was, as well, unconstitutional, according to former Reagan Justice Department aide Bruce Fein

Mr. Fein, IMHO, is wrong. Dead wrong.

I sure hope Mr. Fein is not resting on the memory of his former boss; because I sincerely doubt Ronald Reagan would sanction Congress critters using their offices to hide evidence of a federal crime.

[freedumb2003]

California Congressman Darrell Issa is one of the most conservative Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee.

Buahahahaha! When an article starts out with as an untruth as string as this, there is no point in continuing reading.

[clintonh8r]

The fact is that Thomas Jefferson would have approved Issa's talk of impeachment

Really? So this guy can channel Thomas Jefferson?

[org.whodat]

I see you don't know sarcasm when you read it?

[LK44-40]

While I still don't want him for SCOTUS, I've developed an appreciation for the attorney general over the last few weeks.

I have been feeling ~exactly~ what you said there!

[AmeriBrit]

I just pulled this same report up on Google and couldn't believe what I was reading. How in he!! did this individual get to be in the position he's in? What on earth are the voters in his district thinking? No wonder our government is so screwed up.

[mrsmith]

This is just as bad as the thousands of articles slamming Hastert or Bush for defending the Constitution's Speech or Debate Clause. It ignores all the substance of the dispute to give a "provocative" presentation.

The Justice Department obviously tried to do the search constitutionally though they failed. Reasonable rules for the unprecedented procedure will come out of the House. Those rules won't help Jefferson.

(And it's SOP to start negotiations from one's strongest position but the House should have realized they'd sound arrogant- silly even- talking impeachment and budget cuts right off the bat.)

[Waco]

The separation of power thingy is a head-fake I think. Something VERY illegal is going on in Congress, apparently involving BOTH parties. The "raid" scared the sh-t out of them so much that they over-reacted.

[Reagan Man]

Good post. Debbie Schlussel is one of the best writers in America today and a personal favorite. OTOH. Darrel Issa is a loser of the first order.

Issa is the same idiot who backed the liberal Arnold Schwarzy, after he financed the recall campaign. Well, best we not go there.

[Wiseghy]

Actually, I tend to agree with post #17.

[CyberAnt]

Issa is in an adjoining district from me .. it appears like I have to make a local phone call and inform this guy he's barking up the wrong tree.

I think rush said it best today .. "Does anybody really believe that the Founding Fathers intended for members of Congress, under separation of powers, to be able to hide evidence of felonies in their offices?"

I think I'll ask Issa that question and see what the answer is!