[NEohioPAL]Open Letter to George Voinivich (Warning Politics!)

[Mike Baker]

Senator Voinivich,

In closed door Senate hearings in 1999 surrounding the impending impeachmen=
t of Bill Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice, you made the foll=
owing statement on record:

"By committing perjury and obstructing justice, the President is guilty of =
high Crimes and Misdemeanors. As constitutional scholar Charles Cooper said=
, "The crimes of perjury and obstruction of justice, like the crimes of tre=
ason and bribery, are quintessentially offenses against our system of gover=
nment, visiting injury immediately on society itself." 

He violated his oath of office and failed to fulfill his responsibility und=
er the Constitution, which provides that the President "shall take Care tha=
t the Laws be faithfully executed." Judge Griffin Bell has correctly noted,=
 "A president cannot faithfully execute the laws if he himself is breaking =
them." The President has undermined the fundamental principle that we are a=
 nation ruled by laws and not by men. There is no way in good conscience th=
at we as a nation can have a lawbreaker remain as President of the United S=
tates when his conduct in office has included the very same acts that have =
resulted in the impeachment of Federal judges and have sent hundreds of peo=
ple to prison. Ours is a nation of equal justice under the law. 
...I sincerely believe that this country can survive the removal of a popul=
ar president who has forfeited public trust. But, our country cannot surviv=
e the abandonment of trust itself. "

Lewis =93Scooter=94 Libby was convicted by a court of law for lying to the =
Grand Jury, perjury, and obstruction of justice. The facts surrounding the =
case strongly and undeniably point to a conspiracy by the Vice President=
=92s office to reveal the identity of a covert CIA operative in order to di=
scredit her husband=92s revelations that the administration was lying to Co=
ngress and the American people about Iraq=92s attempt to purchase uranium f=
rom Niger in order to bolster their decision to invade Iraq.

The crime of exposing a clandestine government resource is quite probably t=
reason, certainly well within the definition of =93high Crimes and Misdemea=
nors=94 of which you were previously so rightfully concerned. Scooter Libby=
 obstructed justice by lying to derail an investigation into this very seri=
ous crime. 

Justice was meted out in the prison sentence imposed. President Bush has ch=
osen to once again obstruct that justice in the commutation. Since the over=
lying crime, the treasonous exposure of a CIA operative, implicates the Whi=
te House and conceivably the President himself no reasonable person could n=
ot suspect that this commutation is an attempt to conceal the involvement o=
f the Executive branch by buying the silence of a material witness. If you =
add to that suspicion the enormous contempt for Congressional oversight exh=
ibited in the denial of subpoenaed documents and witnesses, we clearly have=
 a President who is violating =93his responsibility under the Constitution,=
 which provides that the President =91shall take Care that the Laws be fait=
hfully executed.=92=94

I reiterate the quote you used in 1999: "The crimes of perjury and obstruct=
ion of justice, like the crimes of treason and bribery, are quintessentiall=
y offenses against our system of government, visiting injury immediately on=
 society itself."

We have the crimes of perjury and obstruction of justice already adjudicate=
d by the court of law. We have the further crime of obstruction of justice =
by the improper use of the presidential power of pardon. We have the crime =
of treason in the exposing of the identity of a covert CIA operative. We ha=
ve the crime of bribery in the implication that Scooter Libby was given imm=
unity from the law in exchange for his perjury and obstruction of justice.

Again, I quote your own words: =93There is no way in good conscience that w=
e as a nation can have a lawbreaker remain as President of the United State=
s when his conduct in office has included the very same acts that have resu=
lted in the impeachment of Federal judges and have sent hundreds of people =
to prison.=94

As a citizen of the United States, as a constituent of Ohio, and as a patri=
otic American I demand that you immediately undertake articles of impeachme=
nt against George Bush and Dick Cheney for the high Crimes and Misdemeanors=
 listed above, or resign your office for dereliction of the duties of a Sen=
ator of the United States to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the la=
nd.

Mike Baker
mike_baker at clevelandyucks.com 




________________________________________________________________
Sent via the WebMail system at clevelandyucks.com