Bush's "A" List of High Crimes and Misdemeanors

President Bush at a Press Conference

The terms "High Crimes and Misdemeanors" was originally used for impeachments by the British back in the early 1600's. At the time, the most common reasons for the impeachment of a subject of the British Crown were for either "high treason" or charges of "high crimes and misdemeanors". A misdemeanor in the case of a "political definition" is very different from its normal definition. Per the ratifiers of the US Constitution, a politician can only be removed from public office for high crimes and misdemeanors when they have been tried by a proper "body designated by the people and when they are proven to have behaved amiss, or to have betrayed the public trust." "No man, however great, is exempt from impeachment and trial." As Thomas Jefferson once said; "When once a Republic is corrupted there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles." I am not one of those that is screaming at my House Representative to impeach the President and his administration. I am however, asking that the investigations be performed and then let the appropriate actions occur. Whether the current administration can avoid impeachment or not, if they have broken the law, they should pay for their crimes.

President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney, have gone beyond the pale in their abuse of political power and in the betrayal of the public trust. I was recently challenged to define those specific "high crimes and misdemeanors" as were "allegedly committed" by the current President and his administration. In order to not have to divide this article into a multiple series of long articles (as I could easily have done) I will list the major crimes and misdemeanors in brief, bullet fashion. This will by no means be a complete list as I'm sure that after this administration leaves office, many lesser or other betrayals of the public trust will float to the surface.

Please feel free to use the Internet to dig deeper into any of the items below or for looking into other issues as have been mishandled by the current administration.

Geneva Convention: Even the current conservative US Supreme Court has "branded George W. Bush as a war criminal for violating the Geneva Convention regarding the torture of prisoners."

War Crimes: In the case of Hamdan vs Rumsfeld, it was proven that numerous war crimes have been committed by the Bush Administration in the war against Iraq, including the preemptive invasion itself. This does not include the unaccounted-for millions of dollars lost in Iraq or the unlawful management by the US State Department regarding the US Contractors operating in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. Holding and torturing prisoners being held without due process at Guantanamo Bay and the Abu Ghraib prison scandal are also serious war crimes.

Outing of a CIA Agent: The outing of Valerie Plame-Wilson by the Bush Administration, admitted by the CIA as being a covert agent, has led directly to Dick Cheney and possibly directly to the President.

Spying on Americans: President Bush has admitted to his program of warrentless spying against millions of Americans in violation of the Forth Amendment and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

800 "Signing Statements": President Bush has signed more than 800 Signing Statements that circumvent over 1000 provisions of US laws. There is no constitutional clause that gives the President the right to ignore the law just "because he says so".

Missing e-mails: Two federal statutes require presidential communications, including White House e-mails, to be preserved for the nation's historical records. From 2001 to October 2003, the White House records system over-wrote all their e-mail files, and up to 2005, some e-mails still were not fully preserved. CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) and the National Security Archives allege that millions of e-mails are missing from White House servers. (It is interesting that the timing of these lost e-mails is when most of the major illegal Bush activities were occurring.)

Mis-use of e-mail systems: Both the Republican National Committee e-mail system and the White House system were used within the White House to perform partisan political activities. As the White House is public property, it is against the law to do partisan political business while on public White House property.

Unlawful FBI Activities: The ACLU has released documents showing that the Bush Administration directed the FBI to expand the definition of "domestic terrorism" to include citizens engaged in nonviolent protest and civil disobedience. This is totally unconstitutional.

Firing of US Attorneys: This was a successful attempt by the President to use his US Attorney General and the US Justice Department for partisan political gains.

Response to Hurricane Katrina: This was a demonstration of gross negligence by the Bush Administration. A major, obvious betrayal of public trust.

"Scooter" Libby: The President betrayed the public trust when he commuted the prison sentence of "Scooter" Libby.

Removal of Habeas Corpus: It is unconstitutional to remove the process of Habeas Corpus, which has been a freedom that first became British law in 1612.

It is ironic that with this "A" list of crimes and misdemeanors, President George W. Bush is still in office. Richard M. Nixon had to resign as President or he would have been impeached for just one crime of warrentless wiretaps and illegal surveillance. As has been reported in one political Washington publication, "Given the palpable total outrage among Republicans as well as Democrats at the President's total contempt for basic Constitutional law, is it possible to imagine illegal wiretaps leading to the final undoing of the Bush Presidency? Unfortunately, this currently looks doubtful." If serious investigations are not soon started and followed through in a timely manner, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney may just get away with making total fools of a once great nation. Hopefully, this will not be the eventual legacy to the world of America and its democracy.