The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Barbara Olshansky (Author) "IT'S TIME..." (more)
Key Phrases: impeachable crime, spying program, impeachment clause, White House, Saddam Hussein, New Orleans (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The genius of this book is in its brevity. . . . This clear, crisp book might just help save this country.” —David Swanson, cofounder of AfterDowningStreet.org “Any American who wants to preserve what’s left of our precious Bill of Rights . . . should read this essential book—which should also be force-fed to every single member of Congress.” —Doug Ireland, L.A. Weekly
 
“One of the leaders of the national grassroots movement to impeach President Bush, Lindorff says, `The question isn’t should we impeach the president, but why haven’t we done it already.’” —Susan Smallheer, Rutland [Vt.] Herald

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description

The war in Iraq . . .
 
No bid contracts awarded to Halliburton . . .
 
Hurricane Katrina . . .
 
The CIA leak investigation . . .
 
The story gets worse and worse. The evidence is glaring. George W. Bush’s record as a president is abysmal.
      And it’s time to impeach him.
      The Case for Impeachment lays out the reasons why in a straightforward, letter-of-the-law manner. Mixing the cold, hard facts with the lies and deceptions of this administration, The Case for Impeachment is a serious consideration of Bush’s high crimes and misdemeanors while in office. This important and timely book will serve as a rallying cry for all those fed up with George W. Bush’s abuses of power.

 

It's time for the American people and Congress to act. With so much at stake, we have a president whose administration stands out in its criminality and disdain for the rule of law. The Case for Impeachment explains the legal history and grounds for impeaching George W. Bush and brings forth more than a half dozen articles of impeachment the likes of:

*Lying and inducing Congress and the American people into an unjust war.
*Allowing his friends and business cronies to profiteer off the war in Iraq.

*Authorizing torture and rendition of prisoners of war and suspected terrorists--a complete violation of the Geneva Conventions, a treaty the U.S. has signed and is therefore part of our law.
*Stripping American citizens of their Constitutional rights--holding people with no charge, wiretapping them illegally, offering them no trial, and never allowing them to face their accusers.
*Failing in almost every way possible to defend the homeland and our borders.

Hard hitting and persuasive in its argument, The Case for Impeachment will be one of the most talked-about political books for the pathetic remainder of the Bush Presidency.

 

As timely as today's headlines, this vital book explains why impeachment should be deployed against the serial Constitution-shredder George W. Bush. The third article of impeachment against Richard Nixon was illegal spying on Americans--a crime indisputably committed also by Bush and his cronies. But this book also makes a compelling case that Bush has arrogantly flouted his oath of office and the laws of the land by committing other impeachableoffenses--telling lies to Congress and the American people to take us into an illegal war, violating the War Powers act, abusing the power of his office, failing to protect the United States, and more. Dave Lindorff (a first-rate independent progressive journalist) and Barbara Olshansky (a dedicated civil liberties attorney), in The Case for Impeachment, have restored this vital tool to the arsenal of democracy. Any American who wants to preserve what's left of our precious Bill of Rights from further encroachments, and to repair the Constitutional separation of powers vitiated by George Bush, should read this essential book -- which should also be force-fed to every single member of Congress.
-- Doug Ireland, columnist for the LA Weekly

 

"In the United States, our best journalism is published in books now and talked about on the radio and the internet. If you get your news from a television or a newspaper, you live in another world. This no doubt contributes to how divided we are politically. Dave Lindorff's and Barbara Olshansky's book could help bridge this national divide. The genius of this book is in its brevity. Lindorff and Olshansky have boiled the list of Bush and Cheney's documented crimes down to an amazingly concise summary, one that however gives a real flavor of the goings on in this criminal administration. I work on these issues and still learned a great deal by reading this book. If each of us who knows some of this and is able to process it easily buys ten copies to give to people who get their news from TV, this clear crisp book might just help save this country."
-- David Swanson, co-founder AfterDowningStreet.org

 

The impeachment of George W. Bush today seems politically unlikely. But Lindorff and Olshansky insist that we not avert our eyes, that it is not OK to tolerate a president who "revokes the basic constitutional rights of American citizenship"--locking people up indefinitely without trial, claiming a right to ignore laws and court orders. President Bush justifies his violations of the Constitution by citing the emergency of a war which is in truth "a police action against stateless terrorists"--a crusade which can thus have "no beginning and no end," Lindorff and Olshansky forcefully argue. If Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about having sex, they ask, how much more dangerous is it to shrug off the corrosive impact of a president who knowingly lied the nation into a costly and counterproductive war in Iraq? The authors then proceed to meticulously document their case that many of the false grounds for war were, indeed, knowing lies. "If we fail to stand up for the Constitution now," they warn, "it may only be a piece of paper by the end of President Bush's second term."
--Vin Suprynowicz, Las Vegas Review Journal

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1st edition (May 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312360169
• ISBN-13: 978-0312360160
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #655,134 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For the Good Times As Well As the Bad, April 7, 2008

By	!Edwin C. Pauzer (New York City) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office (Paperback)

The first few pages did not grab my attention. In fact I was disappointed because it was talking about how it hoped the elections of November 2006 would turn out. My next mistake was comparing this book to others rather than on its own merit. Somewhere after the first several pages, the authors hit their stride or I did, and the book held my attention to the end.

Authors Lindorff and Olshansky first ask the question, "Why impeachment?" in which they lay out the deceit and deception perpetrated by Bush & Co. They give the history of impeachment and how it has evolved in American law. Here Lindorff and Olshansky introduce nuance of impeachment that I had not been aware of. "In 1974, the House Judiciary Committed examined the history of federal impeachment proceedings and issued a report describing three categories of impeachable offenses..." 1) "actions involving or exceeding or abusing the constitutional limits on the powers of the office at the expense of the powers of another branch of government" 2) "conduct fundamentally incomparable with the function and purpose of the office of the offender" and 3) are "actions that involved using the power and authority of the offenders' office for an improper purpose or for personal gain."

The authors start the next six chapters with an article of impeachment for George W. Bush. They make excellent arguments for impeachment under several of them e.g. When George Bush adds signing statement to bills stating what parts of the bill he will enforce or ignore, or claims that it does not apply to him, he is relegating the legislative branch to an advisory role rather than an equal branch of government. George Bush has taken the first step toward dictatorship by disavowing his vow to uphold the Constitution and laws of the United States. Bush claims this right as commander in chief even though the Constitution clearly states that the President is the C in C of the army and navy only.

But Herr Bush is not their only consideration for impeachment. They add Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice, and Alberto Gonzalez. Here the authors are kind enough to make an important distinction for the reader. The president is the only one who is protected from criminal indictment while in office. His impeachment means only removal from office. However, all the others described here can be impeached and indicted for criminal charges. The knowledgeable reader will be able to imagine with a fair degree of accuracy what those charges might entail.

The appendices here are kind of the grand prize. They include The Downing Street Memo, the Niger Forgeries, the Taguba Report, the International Committee of the Red Cross Report, the FBI Memo Regarding Torture at Guantanamo, the Gonzalez Memo on Torture, The Federal Indictment of I. Lewis Libby, and the Rumsfeld Memo on Torture. These all point to incompetence, deception of the American people, violation of our treaties and the Geneva Conventions. All of these come under the province of high crimes and misdemeanors.

In closing the authors remind us that, "The Constitution was not just conceived as a document for the good times, It was meant to guide the nation through times of conflict, trouble, and stress as well."

It's also bigger than any one man.





Also recommended:

Wolf, Naomi, "The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot."

Nichols, John, "The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders Cure for Royalism."

Greenwald, Glenn, "How Would a Patriot Act: Defending American Values From a President Run Amok."

Center for Constitutional Rights, "Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush.

Michael Isikoff and David Corn, "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War.

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Serious Book, July 25, 2006

By	J. Lorentzsen "Truth Seeker" (York, PA) - See all my reviews

As one who actually voted for Bush in 2000 and against in 2004, I feel that I gave him an honest and objective look over the last 6 years. I don't feel that all the counts laid out by the authors reach the level of impeachment but 2, at least in my mind do. Most importantly is mis-leading us into a war of agression regarding Iraq. The cost of this war on so many level will be with us for a very long time.

When I picked this up I thought it might be a left-wing screed. Far from it, a very serious and worthwhile read.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Thuderous Cry For Bush's Removal!, October 3, 2006

By	F. Ranelli - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Considering the Bush administration's assault on our civil rights, the Constitution itself, American principles as we know it and rampant republican cronyism, there is no shortage of books to read that outline the worst Presidency in American history. In fact, there is a literal litany of them to read and depress one's self over it all. The problem with such a plethora to pick from is you can't read them all and many of them are either too dry, histrionic or too full of legal blather to bother with.

Enter David Lindorff and Barbara Olshansky and their book, The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office. Mr. Lindorff is a thirty-year veteran of journalism and Ms. Olshansky, an attorney, is the Director Counsel for The Center for Constitutional Rights. Together they achieve what few other books can on this subject, mainly a lucid argument for removing the Bush cartel without boring the bookworm to death or burying them in lawyer lingo. Blending a mixture of just enough pragmatic history, clear-cut evidence and easy-to-understand legal language, the authors present a damaging case that clocks in under 275 pages, including the index and ample supporting documents.

Whether you need to wrap your mind around the cornucopia of criminality by Bush, or find a friend or family member still in denial and needs help grasping the grisly, grim truth about "Dubya", this book does the trick in just ten easy chapters. While the Internet, through grassroots efforts, has given rise to a thunderous cry for Bush's removal, The Case for Impeachment, gives a mainstream voice to a virulent presidency and a deep demand for the people-powered recall of a would-be dictator.

-Frank J. Ranelli
Progressive Author, Writer, & Researcher