Is It Partisan to Call for Impeachment?

A message from Jim Babka, the President of DownsizeDC.org, Inc…

A call for the impeachment of any President causes his party to rally around him — at least, initially. It is considered by many to be an overt partisan act.

DownsizeDC.org is firmly anti-partisan. We have absolutely no axe to grind for Republicans or Democrats because we believe that both parties have statist intent and are to blame for the welfare and warfare state.

In calling for the impeachment of Barack Obama, there is no double-standard. Here is my evidence:

1. I had a radio show from April, 2005 to August, 2008. I did two broadcasts (2006, 2007) devoted entirely to whether or not George W. Bush should be impeached, and spoke of the issue several other times, particularly towards the end of my on-air run.
2. In September, 2007, I, personally, yet explicitly called for the impeachment of the President during my broadcast.
3. In July and August, 2008, I wrote columns, first to a now-defunct blog, and then on the DownsizeDC.org blog, regarding the Judiciary Committee hearings about impeachment.
4. When Vincent Bugliosi’s book, “The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder” came out, I was an enthusiastic advocate of the approach presented therein. Bugliosi presented a legal strategy, and argued that the President, as well as Vice President Cheney, Secretaries Rumsfeld and Rice, and perhaps others should be prosecuted once the President left office.
5. I was so enthusiastic about Bugliosi’s plan that I joined him in endorsing Charlotte Dennett for Attorney General in Vermont because she swore that she would carry out such a prosecution if elected. Ms. Dennett was the candidate of the Progressive Party, and I never would’ve imagined myself endorsing someone so pro-central planning, except that she was the only person in the entire country with courage enough to campaign openly on the Bugliosi plan.
6. The DownsizeDC.org impeachment campaign was originally launched on Election Day, 2008 before we knew the outcome of the Presidential campaign. After the Bush administration, we believed it was inevitable that either McCain or Obama would place themselves in an impeachable position, and that threatening impeachment was a powerful tool to induce better behavior. However…

We pulled the campaign down just under a year later in a site clean-up because we hadn’t used it, and by that point had changed our mind about impeachment. We presently hold the view that there is actually very little for which a President can be impeached — that it’s almost a useless tool — because most of the Congress are complicit in the Constitutional violations and war crimes of the President. Call it “Honor Amongst Thieves.”

But when the President orders the execution of an American citizen without due process of law, he stands alone. No member of Congress pushed that button, even if they agree with the decision. With enough pressure, the President could become very lonely, politically. 

Honestly, I wish I’d said more, sooner, during the Bush years. And our decision to launch an impeachment campaign on Election Day, 2008 is corroboration of that conviction.

And all of this evidence affirms that we’re not being partisan, or personal. We shall strive, to the best of our limited ability, to speak the truth about power, and to hold accountable, those who wield it, regardless of affiliation. 

See also: http://www.TruthAboutWar.org/ for an example of how my team spoke “truth to power” during the Bush years.    

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