Another Day in the Empire

Friday November 10th 2006, 6:13 pm

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John Conyers, Ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, didn’t mean it.

“The incoming speaker has said that impeachment is off the table. I am in total agreement with her on this issue: Impeachment is off the table,” Conyers declared after the Democrats stormed the House and Senate.

But wait a minute.

Didn’t Conyers seek to create a select committee to investigate Bush crimes and make recommendations regarding grounds for impeachment?

Last December, Conyers, along with Senator Barbara Boxer and Congressmen John Lewis, said Bush committed impeachable offenses by illegally ordering the National Security Agency to eavesdrop inside the country without a court warrant. Conyers introduced measures to censure Bush and Cheney, not for the NSA snoop case but for telling lies and fabricating scary campfire stories resulting in the invasion and occupation of Iraq. He released The Constitution in Crisis: The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution and Cover-ups in the Iraq War.

While such “charges clearly rise to the level of impeachable misconduct, because the Bush Administration and the Republican-controlled Congress have blocked the ability of Members to obtain information directly from the Administration concerning these matters, more investigatory authority is needed before recommendations can be made regarding specific Articles of Impeachment. As a result, we recommend that Congress establish a select committee with subpoena authority to investigate the misconduct of the Bush Administration with regard to the Iraq war detailed in this Report and report to the Committee on the Judiciary on possible impeachable offenses.”

It looked like Conyers, as a long-term congress critter, actually had the cojones to go up against the neocon criminals.

Now?

“In this campaign, there was an orchestrated right-wing effort to distort my position on impeachment,” Conyers declared. “To be sure, I have substantial concerns about the way this administration has abused its authority, but impeachment would not be good for the American people. The country does not want or need any more paralyzed partisan government—it wants a check and balance and real progress on the issues that matter to their lives.”

Regrettably, it now appears Conyers’ mock Judiciary Committee hearing last June was little more than theater. If anything came out of the meeting, it was the indictment delivered by Ray McGovern. But then McGovern is not an elected representative, not part of the Judiciary Committee, mock or otherwise, and the corporate media dismissed him as a raving anti-Semite, that is to say McGovern didn’t have nice things to say about the neocons and Israel, all of it naturally true.

In short, if you think Bush and crew will be brought to justice, you may as well wish for a chartreuse pony.

If you thought Conyers was a principled man, think again—he is looking at the chairmanship of the House Judiciary Committee, after all, and he certainly does not want to jeopardize this by doing the right thing.

Go along to get along and the truth be damned.

“Clearly, Pelosi, representing the Democratic National Committee (DNC), has made a deal with the criminals on Pennsylvania Ave., and intends to keep tight control of the new Democratic House majority. If she succeeds, Bush and Cheney will not be held accountable for their high crimes and misdemeanors,” Carol Wolman wrote a few scant days ago. “Under John Conyers’ leadership, we have a fair chance of impeaching Bush and Cheney, who are doing their best to destroy our democracy, and of starting to repair the damage.”

Wolman, and the rest of us, were sold down the river.

I feared as much, not trusting Democrats far as I can throw them, although I reluctantly backed down from my assertion prior to the election that a vote for any of these people would be a vote for treason. I declared my support for Democrats who said they would pursue impeachment. Now the numero uno Democrat supposedly behind impeachment has betrayed those of us who actually put credence in his promise, or what appeared to be a promise.

I should have known better. I should have stuck to my guns.

None of these traitors will impeach the September criminals, also the March criminals, as in March 20, 2003, when the neocons invaded Iraq under massive false pretenses.

Call me cynical. I can only say that we cannot trust anybody in Congress to do the right thing. I’ve said this nigh onto nearly thirty years.

Unfortunately, not even Ron Paul, the best Congress has to offer, has gone on the books and declared nine eleven an inside job. As the midterm elections now fade into history, we are even less likely to impeach Bush and Cheney and justice in regard to nine eleven is even more remote than it was two years ago.

Pelosi and Conyers stand with Bush and the neocons.

Few should actually be surprised.