This past Sunday, I watched in mild amazement as the pundits on various shows tried to parse the issue of perjury. It seems that the Supreme Court has ruled that truth is an absolute defense against charges of perjury, even in cases where the truth was stated in a manner calculated to be misleading. This has caused people to wonder if Alberto Gonzales, the Attorney General of the United States, has been cleverly parsing his words so as to be entirely misleading while also technically truthful.
Frankly, I doubt he’s that clever. But in the end, the question of his technical truthfulness is a matter of concern only in any eventual criminal proceeding. When it comes to the matter of impeachment, I think we can safely say that having a civil officer of the United States give so much thought and effort to misleading Congress should at least be considered a grave breech of his oath of office. After all, he swore to uphold and defend the Constitution and by attempting to circumvent the oversight role of Congress in such a venal fashion he has surely failed in that most basic duty.
This administration has shown nothing but contempt for any action of Congress that doesn’t exactly conform to the demands of Bush & Co. Perhaps they believe that in this post-9/11 world, we can’t afford to be a democracy anymore. Unfortunately for them, the founders didn’t provide for a means for the Constitution to be suspended. Nor did the founders provide for the conversion of a presidency into a dictatorship – even in a national emergency.
Please, contact your federal Representative and tell him or her that Congress must act to preserve its institutional integrity. We cannot have a justice department lead by a man who believes that it is acceptable to either lie or mislead when under oath. We cannot have a chief law enforcement officer who so publicly flouts the law. We cannot continue to have Alberto Gonzales. Impeachment is the right solution for what has become a national embarrassment.
To find out who your federal representative is and to e-mail her or him, visit Project Vote Smart.
Posted by adistius 
