I'm Sorry, But an Election is Not Enough

The crimes and misdemeanors of the Bush administration are simply too many to mention here. And as the last week has shown, we haven't even scratched the surface yet. There are so many, in fact, that we've become almost desensitized to them. The accumulative effect is that our country, a nation of laws, has been defined down.

Even the most egregious have lost their bite when we speak of them. "Bush lied to take us to war" has become a hollow cry - I have to rephrase it just to restore its impact: Bush actually manufactured false evidence to trick the American people into supporting his illegal invasion of Iraq. That kind of works.

Bush violated the Fourth Amendment of the constitution and lied to the American people while he was doing it. Oh well, that's George.

One of my favorites that has largely gone unnoticed: The Bush administration manufactured terrorist threats to scare the public for political objectives. Keith Olbermann is the only  journalist I know of who has remotely addressed this one. All in a days work, right Dick?

Then we have torture-gate, EPA-gate, Halliburton-gate, War profiteering-gate, USA-gate 1-9, and on and on and on...

I fear for my country if these crimes go unpunished.

Congress has had over a year to investigate the Bush administration. With the exception of the investigation of the Justice Department and the firings of US attorneys, they have refrained. Even the USAGate investigation was a wash in that they failed to go after the clearest violation of law--obstruction of justice--in the firing of Carol Lam. Lam was investigating the number three guy at the CIA. Better not go there.

The reasoning behind this lack of enthusiasm on the part of the Democratic congress is we have an election coming up. Or at least that's the excuse we are given. Does anyone really believe that the remedy for the criminal operation known as the Bush presidency is merely an election? This is probably the first time I'll use this phrase where I'm not joking, but what are we going to tell the children?

Seriously. The precedent set by this outlaw administration is a threat to our very posterity. If we are not a nation of laws, and those who abuse their power are allowed to go unpunished, then everything this country is supposed to stand for, the very fabric that holds us together is rendered meaningless. If there is no recourse to a sitting president violating the constitution, then the constitution itself becomes meaningless. People fought, died, and yes, killed for that constitution. And the corrupt Washington establishment wants to move on, forget the last seven years ever happened.

In the morally vacuous cesspool that is the Washington establishment, Condoleeza Rice is actually being floated as a viable VP candidate. She's young, she's black, she's happening. No, she's a liar, a criminal, and a traitor to her country. Her next job assignment needs to be laundry duty at a federal correctional facility.

The Bush administration has done far more damage to our country than just wrecking our economy, embroiling us in a disastrous war, sabotaging our standing in the world, and bungling everything they've touched. No, they have threatened the very foundation on which our republic stands.

And the only remedy, the only way we restore that foundation for future generations, is to hold Bush criminals accountable to law. And no, I'm not talking about impeachment. I'm talking about criminal prosecution. The next attorney general simply must prosecute the crimes of this president. We cannot sweep them under the rug.

This is the most dangerous time in our country's history since the civil war. And as Abraham Lincoln said, "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."