Menendez Backs Censure?

What is censure anyway? (0.00 / 0)

Why should I care if Bush gets censured or not?  Censure seems to me like a slap on the wrist that carries no other weight than an official scolding.  BFD. 

I was watching the Daily Show last night, and Jon Stewart said something like "because nothing packs a punch quite like a strongly worded letter."

Senate Dems are acting as silly as the GOP did back in 1997.

---

by: thecontrarian @ Thu Mar 16, 2006 at 08:32:42 AM CST

Only Once Before (3.00 / 2)

Only one President in the history of America has been censured by Congress.  It's a big deal.

---

by: huntsu @ Thu Mar 16, 2006 at 09:19:56 AM CST

[ Parent ]

it's what they can do short of criminal charges (0.00 / 0)

They can't try him while he's in office - if the House impeaches, the Senate can remove him from office, and then he is subject to the criminal courts.  Aside from the political implications, it sends a message to the criminal justice system that the Senate thinks he's broken the law.

At this point, a slap on the wrist, ANYTHING, to try to beat back the power grab that the administration is making.  The Congress should be standing up for their own authority.  Their legislation means nothing if a two-bit lawyer can advise the president in secret to ignore it.

I've heard people talk about the comfort they take in the fact that there's no statute of limitations on war crimes.  They are convinced that some of these characters are going to end up like Pinochet, running away from the international courts.

Clinton was NOT censured by the Senate.  They dismissed the charges of the House, being as they like to say of the senate, a more 'deliberative' body.

---

by: kwilkinson @ Thu Mar 16, 2006 at 11:21:20 AM CST

[ Parent ]

So? (0.00 / 0)

Please expound on your definition of "big deal."  If your logic can be carried out across Presidential history, is having one President has named "Woodrow" a big deal? 

Again, other than a formal "tsk tsk," this censure theatre seems like a big waste of time and resources by the Dems and will get all of the Faux News pundits into a blather denouncing Feingold and anyone who sides with him as traitors.

---

by: thecontrarian @ Thu Mar 16, 2006 at 09:57:51 AM CST

What? (0.00 / 0)

That's some pretty specious logic.  The Senate doesn't name Presidents, so the Woodrow thing is just a straw man argument.

But they do have the Constitutional power to censure a President for improper actions, something that they have only chosen to do once in 220 plus years. 

---

by: huntsu @ Sat Mar 18, 2006 at 06:05:21 AM CST

[ Parent ]

it's about legacy (3.50 / 2)

Bill Clinton's Impreachment was a strongly worded letter as well, really.
And it remains a bit of a wart on his legacy.
right?

activist for hire.

---

by: Jay Lassiter @ Thu Mar 16, 2006 at 10:47:40 AM CST

Clinton left office with a 70+% approval rating (0.00 / 0)

Actually, you sort of prove my point that Senate Dems in 2006 are acting like the GOP-controlled Congress did in 1997.

---

by: thecontrarian @ Thu Mar 16, 2006 at 11:07:22 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Except ... (0.00 / 0)

Except that Clinton got a sexual favor outside marriage and lied about it, and Bush violated United States law and then bragged about it.

Using the power of Congress to force the President the obey the law and not misuse the power of his office is not the same as using the power of Congress to try to remove a sitting president for trying to keep his wife from finding out he was cheating on her.

---

by: huntsu @ Sat Mar 18, 2006 at 06:07:09 AM CST

[ Parent ]

It was a little more than... (0.00 / 0)

just lying to his wife. He lied under oath in a sexual harassment suit in response to questioning that was trying to show a pattern of philandering with his subordinates. But that's another debate entirely.

"Where ever you go, there you are." - Buckaroo Bonzai

---

by: William Weber (WjcW) @ Sat Mar 18, 2006 at 13:42:59 PM CST

[ Parent ]

a suitable screenname (0.00 / 0)

That may have been your point, but *these* are your words....

Why should I care if Bush gets censured or not?  Censure seems to me like a slap on the wrist that carries no other weight than an official scolding."

You suggest that a censure is no big deal.
I suggest that you're wrong.
Anyway, glad i helped you make your point.
Salty
(i mean Jay)

activist for hire.

---

by: Jay Lassiter @ Thu Mar 16, 2006 at 11:36:28 AM CST

I sound like a broken record (0.00 / 0)

Again, saying that censure is a big deal because I say so and not giving any specific reason WHY is so...so...Rovian...

---

by: thecontrarian @ Thu Mar 16, 2006 at 15:13:54 PM CST

[ Parent ]