In the pages of The Nation, the oldest continuously published weekly in the country and the self-described “flagship of the left,” a former member of the House of Representatives has called for the impeachment of the president over revelations of massive government surveillance of ordinary citizens.
Democrat Elizabeth Holtzman of New York, who sat on the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate era, powerfully yet dispassionately lays out the case for the immediate impeachment of the president.
“Nothing less is necessary to protect our constitutional system and preserve our democracy,” she declares.
The last straw for the retired Congresswoman was the revelation that the president “directed the wiretapping of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans” (a number that is likely conservative).
“As a matter of constitutional law, these and other misdeeds constitute grounds for the impeachment,” writes Holtzman in her bombshell treatise. “A President, any President, who maintains that he is above the law — and repeatedly violates the law — thereby commits high crimes and misdemeanors, the constitutional standard for impeachment and removal from office.”
The eloquent Harvard Law grad provides a devastating legal critique of the vast executive-branch scheme to log every phone call in the United States.
“It now appears that thousands of calls were monitored and that the information obtained may have been widely circulated among federal agencies,” Holtzman writes.
The skilled jurist also draws eerily ominous parallels between what’s happening right now and the actions of the corrupt Nixon administration.
“Among his other abuses of power, President Nixon ordered the FBI to conduct warrantless wiretaps of seventeen journalists and White House staffers,” Holtzman sagely explains. “In fact, the first illegal Nixon wiretap was of a reporter who, in 1969, revealed the secret bombing of Cambodia, a program that President Nixon wanted to hide from the American people and Congress.”
The president, Holtzman says, “has been guilty of such gross incompetence or reckless indifference to his obligation to execute the laws faithfully as to call into question whether he takes his oath seriously or is capable of doing so.”
Holtzman makes a remarkably unqualified argument against the president, leaving little doubt that The Nation is laying down strict principles, rather than engaging in some cheap situational attack that it would hypocritically abandon if, for example, the same abuses were being carried out by a president whose party and agenda the flagship left-wing magazine found more palatable.
To show just how serious she is about impeachment proceedings, the former House member concludes with expert guidance for Americans who want to see the president impeached.
“Drumming up public support means organizing rallies, spearheading letter-writing campaigns to newspapers, organizing petition drives, door-knocking in neighborhoods, handing out leaflets and deploying the full range of mobilizing tactics,” she writes.
“An energized public must in turn bear down on Congress. Constituents should request meetings with their Senators and Representatives to educate them on impeachment,” Holtzman concludes. They can also make their case through e-mail, letters and phone calls.”
At this juncture, The Daily Caller is not prepared to endorse the extreme measure Holtzman advises. Nevertheless, if you are, and if you would like to contact the Senators and Representatives who represent you to voice your views on impeachment, you can find their contact information here.
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