Andrew C. McCarthy:
You’re not going to like this.
Our commander-in-chief is recklessly releasing jihadists from Guantanamo Bay. The president’s Bush-deranged base is buoyed by the all-out effort to fulfill his vow to shut down the detention camp. But the vast majority of Americans remain opposed, and increasingly alarmed. The pace of releases has surged since November’s midterm elections, with over two-dozen detainees sprung — aiding the enemy even as the terror threat intensifies.
But if you want it stopped, the president has to be impeached.
Yes, yes, I know you don’t want to hear that. I have the scars to prove it. A few months back, Beltway Republicans got even more annoyed than Obama Democrats when my book, Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama’s Impeachment, was published. Contrary to what you’d infer from all the shrieking, I actually argued that it would be a big mistake to impeach President Obama absent strong public support for his removal. And as I conceded, that level of public support does not exist and never will exist unless a compelling political case for impeachment is made.
Republicans have less than no interest in making the case. Maybe that is as it should be, or maybe (as I fear) they are being shortsighted. But it is not cowardice. In fact, it probably tells us more about how the country has changed than about Republicans. The latter know that if they even mention the dread I-word, they will be demagogued as racists. They fear this will translate into being routed in elections.
That’s fair enough: Refraining from taking an unpopular position — calculating that one has no chance of swaying public opinion — is a perfectly rational, mature political decision. But what is neither rational nor mature is pretending that tough choices do not have serious downsides. They always do, even when the right choice is made. That is what makes them tough. As we’re seeing, the decision not to try building a political case for President Obama’s removal has extraordinarily serious downsides.
That’s why I wrote the book: Not so much to call for President Obama’s impeachment as to explain that, in the American constitutional system, impeachment is the only remedy for certain egregious abuses of power. If you foreswear impeachment under any circumstances, if you won’t even hold it out as a credible threat, then you are going to get egregious abuses of power. Indeed, the abuses are sure to become more egregious in the last two years of a radical administration: The president knows his time is short and he no longer has the incentive of elections — his own or those that determine his influence over Congress — to rein in his radicalism.
Presidents of the United States have enormous power, particularly over the conduct of war and foreign policy. These are areas where Congress’s competing power of the purse — the other major constitutional check on executive malfeasance — is often of limited value.
The Constitution makes the president commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Under longstanding American law, that makes the president supreme in the conduct of warfare, which very much includes the disposition of captured enemy combatants. Congress has the power to declare war and to fund, or cut off funding, for combat operations; but it has no authority to conduct the war — that’s the commander’s job. Congress is impotent to direct the president regarding what enemy combatants he may, or may not, release — just as it has no way of forcing the president to attack a particular target or apprehend a particular enemy operative.
Moreover, as chief executive, the president has near plenary authority over the conduct of foreign policy. Thomas Jefferson was as fearful of an imperial presidency as any of the Founders; yet he acknowledged, “The transaction of business with foreign nations is executive altogether; it belongs, then, to the head of that department, except as to such portions of it as are specially submitted to the senate. Exceptions are to be construed strictly.” John Marshall was a great rival of Jefferson’s, but on this point they were in sync: “The President is the sole organ of the nation in its external affairs, and its sole representative with foreign nations,” said Marshall. “The [executive] department is entrusted with the whole foreign intercourse of the nation.”
As was already pointed out, this is a load of rubbish. Where’s the outrage over the Bush administration’s release of far more prisoners who have been documented to have resumed active hostilities against the U.S. and it’s interests? There have been 171 such released by the Bush administration, while there are only 7 such former prisoners that were released on Obama’s watch.
Impeachment is b.s. Obama has done absolutely nothing that could result in a successful impeachment and Congressional republicans know it. If not, I suppose they had better get on with it.
@Greg:
7? as in 1 more than 6? you have a strange sense of humor.
You are correct. Well unless you count actively trying to destroy the country. Other than that………
What Andrew C. McCarthy really wants you to do is to buy a copy of his book, explaining in detail how this fantasy will be realized. He’s not a complete idiot. The people who are sending $17 a copy for his book are idiots.
What the hell is this guy babbling about? Presidents aren’t impeached based on “a compelling political case.” Compelling political cases have to do with how people vote in elections, not with the impeachment process.