Gonzo Is Impeachable and Should Be Removed Immediately

I'm not in the habit of posting the full content of an op-ed piece but this one by Professor Frank Bowman at the University of Missouri deserves the attention of the readers of the Daily Kos. Impeaching Alberto Gonzales is an option that Congress should exercise if only to serve notice to Bush that what Congress giveth to the President, can also be taken away.

Read on the argument for impeaching Gonzales for yourself and you decide.

HE'S IMPEACHABLE, YOU KNOW

By FRANK BOWMAN Columbia, Mo

IF Alberto Gonzales will not resign, Congress should impeach him. Article II of the Constitution grants Congress the power to impeach "the president, the vice president and all civil officers of the United States." The phrase "civil officers" includes the members of the cabinet (one of whom, Secretary of War William Belknap, was impeached in 1876).

Impeachment is in bad odor in these post-Clinton days. It needn’t be. Though provoked by individual misconduct, the power to impeach is at bottom a tool granted Congress to defend the constitutional order. Mr. Gonzales’s behavior in the United States attorney affair is of a piece with his role as facilitator of this administration’s claims of unreviewable executive power.

Frank Bowman is a law professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Just to please the intellectual property nitpickers I have drastically cut Professor Bowman's article and most of his points are missed. I will call Professor Bowman today and secure his consent to reprint the entire editorial on my blog at http://www.sleepchamber.net for those who will miss the content of his editorial. I believe I'm fully within the fair use doctrine because my sole purpose is educating the public and full editorial pieces are routinely reprinted and distributed free of charge without violating the fair use doctrine. You're raising some pretty sinister First Amendment issues if you don't believe editorials can be posted and discussed without violating the fair use doctrine.

Sounds like a plan to me!