NEW CANAAN ADVERTISER, NEW CANAAN, CONN., THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2008
Eco Man
By Richard M. Stowe
Orchestrated Deception
The Center for Public Integrity recently released Iraq – The War Card: Orchestrated Deception on the Path to War, a project (publicintegrity.org/WarCard/Default.aspx?src=home&context=overview&id=945), which documents 935 false statements made by President Bush, Vice-President Cheney and six other top administration officials in an easily accessible database.
A crescendo of false statements commenced circa August 26, 2002 when Vice-President Cheney falsely declared: “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.”
Elizabeth de la Vega referenced that false statement in her book United States v. George W. Bush, et al. She asserts that those false statements conjointly constitute a “conspiracy to defraud” Congress and Americans. She argues that committing fraud is a crime and President Bush has committed fraud. Article II Section 4 of the United States Constitution states that “The President, Vice President” and administration officials are subject to “Impeachment” when they commit “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Florida Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler’s online petition (wexlerwantshearings.com) calls for commencing impeachment hearings for Vice President Cheney. On that site Congressman Wexler joins fellow House Judiciary Committee members Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) and Luis Gutierrez (D-Illinois) as co-authors of an opinion piece outlining reasons for holding impeachment hearings.
Joining the call for impeachment hearings is 60-year old college professor John Nirenberg (marchinmyname.org/) who recently completed a six-week 485-mile walk from Faneuil Hall in Boston, Mass. to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office in the Capitol.
I learned of those impeachment efforts when I attended a theatric performance entitled “A Question of Impeachment: Trial by Theater – They Took It Off the Table So We Put It on the Stage” (a cheeky reference to Speaker Pelosi’s 2006 election year proclamation) at the Culture Project in So Ho. The highlights of the multi-part performance, which took place from November 18th to December 16th, are on the Culture Project’s website (cultureproject.org/). Ed. Note: currently accessed through this link: (http://cultureproject.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62)
The performance included many accomplished individuals representing a broad spectrum of American cultural and political interests.
New Canaan’s own Lewis H. Lapham, a great-grandson of the founder of Texaco, participated in the political theater. I spoke with Mr. Lapham during intermission. The Yale University graduate, author and editor of Harper’s magazine from 1976 to 2006, drew me out to Mercer Street where he lit up a cigarette while reminiscing about living at Waveny, then known as the Lapham estate.
Participants also included former New York State District 16 Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman, who at the age of 31 became the youngest woman to serve in the House of Representatives. She served on the House Judiciary Committee and participated in the impeachment hearings of Richard Nixon during the summer of 1974.
“A Question of Impeachment” concluded with a performance by Jackson Browne, a gifted folk-rock-singer-songwriter (his songs have been performed by the Byrds, the Eagles, Joan Baez, Linda Ronstadt and others).
I was drawn into “A Question of Impeachment” by the opportunity to see Bruce Fein, a noted constitutional lawyer and 1972 graduate of Harvard Law School. A resident scholar at the Heritage Foundation, an adjunct professor at George Washington University, a columnist for The Washington Times and a former associate deputy attorney general under President Ronald Reagan, Mr. Fein asserts, among other charges, that Vice President Cheney “summoned the privilege to refuse to disclose his consulting of business executives in conjunction with his Energy Task Force.”
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the chief prosecuting attorney for Riverkeeper, President of Waterkeeper Alliance, senior attorney for Natural Resources Defense Council and a renowned environmental advocate, details Cheney’s role and actions in the Energy Task Force in Chapter 6: “Blueprint for Plunder” of his 2004 book “Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush & His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country & Hijacking Our Democracy.”
Mr. Fein penned a commentary entitled “Impeach Cheney: the Vice President has run amok and must be stopped” (slate.com/id/2169292/) on Slate on June 27, 2007. It may have been this opinion (plus his testimony about presidential signing statements in front of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, also on June 27) that likely led to a July 13, 2007 “Bill Moyers Journal” interview on PBS television. That show in turn became the inspiration for “A Question of Impeachment.”
In the Slate commentary, Mr. Fein opines that Vice President Cheney has overtly and willingly exercised an unconstitutional taking of power from the President. He contrasts the duties accorded the Office of Vice President by the 12th Amendment and the powers Vice President Cheney has taken beyond what is allowed by Section 3 of the 25th Amendment. Mr. Fein refers the reader to a four part series in The Washington Post titled “Angler: the Cheney Vice Presidency” (blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/). Of notable interest is the final installment “Leaving No Tracks” (http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/leaving_no_tracks/index.html), which focuses on Vice President Cheney’s influence on environmental policy.
Keep it green.
Mr. Stowe is president of the New Canaan Environmental Group.
