Читать книгу Faithless Execution - Andrew C McCarthy - Страница 5
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Lawlessness in the use of raw power, or “direct action,” is central to the training and practices of community organizers
The dictatorial potential inherent in the power to enforce or not enforce the law makes impeachment a crucial check on presidential power
Unmoored from the president’s constitutional duty to execute the laws faithfully, law is a weapon in an ideological crusade; the president becomes a ruler, not a public servant
President Obama’s policies are deeply unpopular and his imperialism is alarming
A summary of the president’s extensive violations of law and derelictions of duty
There is a worthy case for impeaching the president due not to political or philosophical disagreements but to his violations of law, which threaten our constitutional framework
As a practical matter, impeachment is the only plausible congressional remedy to stop systematic presidential lawlessness
The courts are impotent to stop systematic presidential lawlessness
Impeachment is a political remedy, not a legal one; it is a question of the public’s will to remove the president, not a matter of whether impeachable offenses can be proved
The Framers sought to ensure that the presidency’s enormous powers would be checked and that presidents would be held accountable for abusing them
The Framers saw impeachment as an indispensable protection against executive lawlessness
The constitutional standard of “high crimes and misdemeanors”—in addition to treason and bribery—was adapted from British law to address profound executive maladministration
High crimes and misdemeanors are not necessarily statutory crimes; they are offenses political in nature that involve “the misconduct of public men” and subversion of the Constitution
The president is fully responsible for the misdeeds of his subordinates (or “coadjutors”)
Impeachment is one of three ways the Constitution reins in executive lawlessness; the others—elections and the power of the purse—no longer perform this function as originally envisioned
The modern left’s drive to centralize power confirms the Framers’ fear that factions would endanger the Constitution’s framework of divided, competing powers
The aggressive passivity of Republicans also frustrates the Framers’ constitutional design
The failed Clinton impeachment did not involve willful, systematic subversion of our constitutional framework and is thus not a precedent against impeaching President Obama
True lesson of Clinton impeachment: A principled political case for impeachment should be made, but the House of Representatives should not file articles of impeachment unless there is a reasonable chance of conviction in the Senate
Impeachment is innately political, not a legal process; it has more to do with the public’s investment in preserving our system of government than with proving impeachable offenses
The House’s power to impeach does not create a duty to file articles of impeachment if there is no realistic prospect that the Senate will vote to remove the president
Drawing an analogy to the work of a police officer or a grand jury does not support the argument for an immediate impeachment by the House, in part because police do not make an arrest and grand juries do not indict every time a crime is committed
The requirement of a two-thirds Senate supermajority ensures that a president will not be removed in the absence of broad, bipartisan public support for the action
The Senate acquittal of a president who has been impeached before there is public support for his removal would encourage more presidential lawlessness, just as the contempt citation of Attorney General Holder, showing a lack of resolve to remove him, encouraged more executive malfeasance
CHAPTER FIVE
Politics, Not Law
Impeachment is a political procedure for stripping political power; portraying it as a legal process is insidious because legal gamesmanship vitiates political will and accountability
There are salient differences between criminal justice proceedings, which are essentially legal, and impeachment, which is essentially political
The legal grounds—provable high crimes and misdemeanors—are vital to building a political case for impeachment, but the fundamental question is whether the president’s conduct is so egregious that the public will support his removal
The movement left, though a minority, is united in vigorous support for President Obama’s anticonstitutionalism in pursuit of its objectives; whether the remaining vast majority of the public is committed to preserving our constitutional framework is open to question
CHAPTER SIX
The “Prosecutorial Discretion” Canard
Under the camouflage of “prosecutorial discretion,” President Obama has claimed the power to dictate law
A president may decline to execute laws he believes are unconstitutional, but Obama refuses to execute incontestably constitutional laws on policy grounds, and he extorts states to observe his policies rather than federal law
Prosecutorial discretion is a commonsense resource-allocation doctrine related to criminal law enforcement, not a generalized license to ignore congressional statutes
Under the guise of “prosecutorial discretion,” President Obama delegitimizes and effectively reverses laws he opposes on philosophical grounds
Rebuking the Obama administration’s obstruction of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project, a federal appeals court explains why prosecutorial discretion is not a rationale for violating the president’s duty to execute the laws faithfully
President Obama’s illegal waivers and edicts do not relieve citizens of the duty to comply with congressional statutes; they place citizens in the intolerable dilemma of incurring executive wrath or behaving illegally
PART II
PREFACE
Making the Case
To build the political case for impeachment, it is essential to illustrate that high crimes and misdemeanors—the legal predicate for impeachment—can be proved
The legal case that President Obama is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors is overwhelming; it illuminates the systematic threat to our constitutional framework; and it solidly supports the political case for removal
THE ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT
ARTICLE I
The President’s Willful Refusal to Execute the Laws Faithfully and Usurpation of the Legislative Authority of Congress
The president’s unilateral amendments of Obamacare legislation (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act)
The president’s unilateral amendment, on the eve of the 2012 election, of federal law mandating notification of impending layoffs
The president’s unilateral amendment of the federal law requiring welfare recipients to work
The president’s unilateral amendments of federal immigration law, including decrees of amnesty for various categories of illegal immigrants
The president’s unilateral amendment and maladministration of the Clean Air Act in destructively regulating carbon dioxide
The president’s defiance of congressional law and court orders in obstructing the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project
The president’s defiance of federal law requiring the president to address the impending insolvency of Medicare
ARTICLE II
Usurping the Constitutional Authority and Prerogatives of Congress
The president’s usurpation of Congress’s constitutional war powers in instigating an undeclared, unauthorized, unprovoked, and ultimately disastrous war in Libya
The president’s making of “recess appointments” when the Senate was not in recess
The president’s undermining of, and contempt for, Congress’s constitutional duty to conduct oversight of executive agencies created and funded by the American people’s representatives in Congress
ARTICLE III
Dereliction of Duty as President and Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces
The president’s imposition of unconscionable combat rules of engagement that recklessly endanger and cost the lives of American troops
The Benghazi massacre: The president’s reckless stationing of American government personnel and provision of grossly inadequate security for them in Benghazi, Libya, resulted in a foreseeable terrorist attack in which the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were murdered, and numerous other Americans were wounded
ARTICLE IV
Fraud on the American People
The president waged the Libya war under false pretenses and denied that bombardment of a foreign nation’s government forces, resulting in thousands of deaths and the killing of that nation’s head of state, constituted “hostilities” under federal law
The Benghazi fraud: The president’s fraudulent claim that the Benghazi massacre was caused by an anti-Islamic film, including the willful misleading of the American people, the provision of false information to Congress, and the scapegoat prosecution of the film producer
The Obamacare fraud: The president’s willful misrepresentations that Americans would be able to keep their health insurance and their doctors, and that they would save rather than lose thousands of dollars, in order to secure political support for Obamacare’s enactment and conceal damaging information that would have threatened his reelection bid
The president’s enabling of Iran’s nuclear program while publicly vowing to prevent Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons
The president’s fraudulent claims about enforcement efforts against illegal immigration
The Solyndra fraud: The president’s provision of subsidies to a failing solar energy company backed by a prominent donor, his deceptive claims about its financial condition when it was preparing to sell stock to the public, and his imposition on taxpayers of millions of dollars in company losses in violation of federal law
ARTICLE V
Failure to Execute the Immigration Laws Faithfully
The president’s unlawful grant of amnesty to categories of illegal immigrants by executive edict
The president’s unlawful conferral of amnesty on categories of illegal immigrants by executive order, administrative regulations, and the invocation of prosecutorial discretion
The president’s extortionate pressure—by expensive litigation and the withholding of federal resources—on states attempting to enforce laws against illegal immigration
The president’s rewards—refraining from litigation and continuing the flow of federal resources—to states that decline to enforce laws against illegal immigration
ARTICLE VI
Failure to Execute the Laws Faithfully: The Department of Justice
The reckless Fast and Furious operation intentionally armed criminals, foreseeably resulted in violent crimes that include the murder of at least one U.S. Border Patrol agent, and has been covered up by the attorney general’s contemptuous obstruction of a congressional investigation and the president’s specious invocation of executive privilege
The willful denial to Americans of equal protection under the law by the Justice Department’s racially discriminatory enforcement of federal civil rights law
The systematic politicization of hiring at the Department of Justice
The politicization of investigation and prosecution by the Department of Justice in order to coerce compliance with administration policy, to punish critics, and to appease political supporters
The sweeping investigation of journalists in contravention of Justice Department guidelines, and the attorney general’s misleading testimony to Congress regarding the investigation of a journalist as to whom the Justice Department had obtained a search warrant
Coercing state compliance with Obama administration policy by politicizing enforcement actions and encouraging state attorneys general to abdicate their duty to defend valid state law
The systematic stonewalling of Congress
ARTICLE VII
Willfully Undermining the Constitutional Rights of the American People That He Is Sworn to Preserve, Protect and Defend
The president’s selective targeting of political opponents for harassment and abuse by the Internal Revenue Service, and obstruction and corruption of the resulting investigations
The president’s abridgement of First Amendment free-speech rights in order to appease Islamic supremacists by adopting repressive sharia blasphemy standards
The president’s suppression of information about Islamic terrorism, including its occurrence in the Fort Hood massacre
The president’s abridgement of First Amendment free-speech rights by selectively and vindictively prosecuting a high-profile critic
The president’s denial of First Amendment religious liberty under Obamacare by gratuitously imposing an abortifacient and birth-control mandate on conscientious objectors
The president’s infringement of Second Amendment firearms rights through an international treaty he joined despite widespread congressional opposition
Endnotes
Index
