Russ Feingold appeared on MTP this weekend, offering a coherent case for censuring the president, the vice president, and the attorney general of the United States. His case would be even stronger, in my opinion, if he were calling for the impeachment of all three -- since, as I've said before, I think that step is necessary in order to restore the Constitutional balance of power in this country, and in order to restore the proper meaning of impeachment, after the idiotic impeachment of President Clinton for failing to call oral sex "intercourse." That said, at least Feingold is trying. Here's the audio:
So what does the Senate leader have to say about that? Not much, unfortunately:
REID: I’m sure Russ Feingold will try to find a way to offer that amendment. The Republicans won’t let us vote on it. They’ll block it.
SCHIEFFER: So would you go along with it if they let you vote on it?
REID: Bob, frankly, we have so many other things to do. The president already has the mark of the American people that he’s the worst president we’ve ever had, and I don’t think we need a censure resolution in the Senate to prove that. We have to do…
SCHIEFFER: So you’re not going along with it?
REID: Well, at this stage, Russ is going to have to make his case as to why we should do that rather than do our appropriation bills, finish the defense authorization bill, Homeland Security appropriation bill.
SCHIEFFER: OK.
REID: We have a lot of work to do.
What's that, Harry? Bush has been punished enough by the polls? The polls??? Is that how you measure the balance of the power of the Senate versus the power of the president? A president is diminished by the polls, whether or not he is held accountable by the only body capable of doing so ... the Congress? Impeachment, censure, etc. are tools in the arsenal of Congress in order to rebalance power. Taking them off the table, as Reid and Pelosi have done, has the effect of emasculating Congress, and handing the president the ultimate victory: allowing his interpretation of his power under the Constitution, not to mention his affronts against that Constitution and against a co-equal branch of government, to stand, unchallenged. Mr. Reid's comments are not intellectually serious. The American people are demanding, not that their opinions be heard by Congress, but that they be acted upon. By outright refusing to do so, the Senate majority leader is flouting the will of the American people, subordinating himself to the president, and defying his employers, namely, us. Maybe it's time to censure him, and Mother Pelosi, too...
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done = "No"
%>
Tell a friend
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Else
if request.form("done") = "Yes" then
'sets variables
dim email, sendmail
email = request.form("email")
Set sendmail = Server.CreateObject("CDONTS.NewMail")
'put the webmaster address here
sendmail.From = "webmaster@aspbasics.com"
'The mail is sent to the address entered in the previous page.
sendmail.To = email
'Enter the subject of your mail here
sendmail.Subject = "Check out this website"
'send a specific page or send a site url
dim url
'url = Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
url = "http://www.aspbasics.net"
'This is the content of the message.
sendmail.Body = "Site recommendation from a friend!" & _
vbCrlf & vbCrlf & "A friend has sent you this email and thought you would should check out this site." & _
vbCrlf & url & vbCrlf
'this sets mail priority.... 0=low 1=normal 2=high
sendmail.Importance = 1
sendmail.Send 'Send the email!
response.redirect Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
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End if
End if
%>
"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
