Impeaching Cheney Is an Option (Rep. Jim McDermott)

For months I have believed that impeachment was a dire course of action.  Over these same months, I have seen the vice president repeatedly drive our nation into increasingly dire situations, in Iraq, in Iran, and within our own country as he tramples over the Constitution like it is a doormat.

For months, I have considered if America would best be served by bringing forth articles of impeachment against the vice president.  I kept asking myself: Is the vice president’s conduct that dire, because impeachment is the closest thing there is to internment on political death row.

The founders intended impeachment to be used when those running the government forgot they worked for the people.  And, the founders intended impeachment to be used when those running government acted as if they were above the law.

When you look at the record you have to conclude that the vice president has placed himself above the law.

He holds himself accountable only to special interests, who meet with him in secret, with no record kept of who was there, what was discussed or what promises the vice president made.

For the last four years, the vice president has refused to allow routine office inspections by a federal agency regarding the safe handling of America’s secrets.  The vice president defies the Information Security Oversight Agency claiming that he is not part of the executive branch of government.

When a sitting vice president claims that he is not part of the executive branch of government to which he was elected, it is time to remove him from office.

The vice president holds himself accountable to no one.  He ordered the Secret Service to destroy visitor logs.  As we have learned in the Washington Post, the vice president has circumvented every check and balance inside the White House to force through his own agenda: to spy on Americans through illegal wiretaps, creating the Gulag Guantanamo, and subverting civil liberties and free speech at every turn.

Since the president permits this flagrant disregard for the Constitution, it is up to the Congress to act and defend the American people.

With each new revelation, America has seen only glints of what has been happening in total secrecy.

For all that we don’t know, this much we do know:  the vice president holds himself above the law. And, it is time for the Congress to enforce the law. I believe the evidence is overwhelming and articles of impeachment against the vice president should be drawn up.

The vice president likes to say the military option is on the table.  Today it is time to say the impeachment option is on the table.