UPDATED:  MAY 9, 2007

                        SID WAXMAN
                        “EDWARDS FAN” 

I’m already a John Edwards fan because he is the only candidate to offer detailed progressive proposals on issues important to the majority of Americans. The “We the people” ad is not only compelling, as you correctly stated, but it is spot on. The majority of Democratic Party pols are so afraid of offending any voters and so committed to the GOP style of slogans without substance (do you hear that Barak and Hillary?) that they pussyfoot around the issues. 

Senator Edwards, Representative Barbara Lee and a handful of others have the courage to risk not being all things to all people and to stand by the results of their critical thinking. That is the quality of leaders. The rest of them are panderers at best.

            DAVID SOKAL
            “DEAR SENATOR DOLE” 

Suppose my wife & I were getting constant complaints from our neighbors that our 16 year old son was vandalizing the neighborhood, endangering other kids and pets with his reckless driving, and creating disturbances late at night—almost every night. We then respond by saying, “well, you know, he’ll be graduating in a year and a half and moving out—going to college out of town.”  I don’t think our neighbors would be very favorably receptive to that response.  Well, folks, that’s precisely what we’re telling the world if we allow Bush & Cheney to ‘hang around for graduation.'  

True conservatives and patriots like former Republican Congressman Bob Barr, former Republican Congressman Pete McCloskey, Mr. Richard Viguerie and others have left the Republican Party and joined the Democratic or Libertarian parties.  Barr, Viguerie and others have founded an organization for true conservatives, www.americanfreedomagenda.org, disavowing President Bush and VP Cheney's violations of our Constitution.   

The details of President Bush's constitutional violations and other impeachable offenses have been well documented.(1)  If Senator Dole were a true conservative, she would put aside partisan politics and would ask Speaker Pelosi to put impeachment back on the table.  She would work with other Republicans such as Senator Chuck Hagel to join with Democrats in the Senate to assure the removal of Vice President Cheney, the appointment of a new Vice President, and then the removal of President Bush.  

The potential benefits of the removal of VP Cheney and President Bush include: 

1.)     We could bring our troops home from Iraq much sooner, since:  

a.   President Bush has stated that the next President will have to deal with the Iraq War.  As long as President Bush is in power, their will be no effort to withdraw from Iraq.  He is in complete denial of the Vietnam-like quagmire that Iraq has become, and he has pursued a course which is the opposite of that recommended by the Iraq Study Group. 

b.    A new administration could begin serious regional negotiations in the Middle East including Iran and Syria.  None of Iraq's neighbors want a failed state on their borders.  

c.   The removal of President Bush will put the US back on the moral high ground, and undermine the recruitment of new terrorists by Al Queda.  Our actions will inspire other countries/societies to come to our aid in securing Iraq.  Restored world respect and regional negotiations should allow us to withdraw honorably from Iraq.   

2.)  Get the war on terror back on track by stopping the hemorrhaging of our military might and the waste of our resources on the Iraq War.   

3.)  We would be showing future Presidents that they must (a) respect the Constitution of our Republic and (b) not abuse their power by firing US attorneys for political reasons, and by using government resources, e.g. the General Services Administration, to try and usher in the type of permanent one-party rule desired by Karl Rove and President Bush.  

4.)  We could work on the restoration of our Constitution, i.e. our system of constitutional checks and balances and separation of church & state, instead of trying to impose Democracy by force elsewhere.  

5.)  Impeachment will very emphatically demonstrate the all important ‘self-corrective’ properties of our Constitution when things do go awry.  

6.)   We could take the ‘unwarranted’ out of unwarranted surveillance, and restore other individual rights that have been scoffed at by this administration, and demand the respect of our Constitution from our future leaders.  

7.)  We could begin to seriously address the threat of global warming and our serious dependence on imported oil.   

8.)  We could work to re-establish competent managers for government agencies instead of the current collection of corrupt and incompetent cronies that are "Loyal Bushies."  

_________

[1] See, for example: 

1)       Worse than Watergate, by John Dean, 2006.

2)       The Constitution in Crisis, also known as the Conyers Report, by the House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff, 2006.

3)       Articles of Impeachment, by the Center for Constitutional Rights, 2006. 

_______ 

David Sokal, dcsokal@gmail.com // organizer, Durham Impeach Bush Cheney Meetup http://impeachbush.meetup.com/349/, and member GrassRoots Impeachment Movement, www.impeachbushcheney.net