Monday, June 13, 2005

Good reason to impeach Clinton

What if Clinton had lied to Congress to win approval for intervening militarily in the Rwandan genocide? He'd have acted morally. He'd also deserve impeachment. Doing the right thing sometimes carries a cost, and it may be quite right that it does. The U.S. Constitution says the country wages war only with consent of the people's representatives in Congress. A U.S. president who misrepresents the case for war in order to secure this consent commits a high crime--in fact, a higher one is hard to imagine. By their lack of concern with the way Bush made his case for war, the current president's supporters suggest they see themselves worthy to inhabit the shoes of that God that so many of them believe in. They would reward Bush the forgiveness they see as his heavenly due, for scorning the artificial laws of man and listening instead to his own conscience. Well, we're still on Earth, folks, and even if this were a jury trial--which it isn't--on Earth we enforce the law. Those who see Bush as a prisoner of conscience or a martyr should just let the man be martyred. He only stands to lose his job. That's a small price to pay, don't you think, for the sake of enforcing our constitutionally prescribed rules of democratic self-government. If George W. Bush cared about his inaugural oath, he'd think so too.

1 comment:

Clayton Littlejohn said...

In writing, "He'd have acted morally. He'd also deserve impeachment. Doing the right thing sometimes carries a cost, and it may be quite right that it does" you have written the best thing I might have read this month.