Eugene weekly., June 23, 2005, Page 8, Image 8

Jim Weaver, former 4th District Congressman, and Frank Stahl,
UO science professor emeritus, spoke at the UO June 17 calling
for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice-President
Cheney. Below is a condensed text of their talks:
JIM WEAVER
J i m W ea ve r : Impeachment of a president is
one of the most serious steps our representa-
tive democracy can take. Another is going to
war. Both should be approached with utmost
care, and on clearly stated grounds. It is true
the Republican-dominated 105th Congress, in
impeaching President Clinton, lowered the bar
on impeachment into the basement. We should
not stoop so low today as did the right wing re-
ligious Republicans. Only two presidents have
been impeached, and their impeachment was
on essentially political grounds. We should not
base a call for impeachment of President Bush
8 JUNE 23, 2005
FRANK STAHL
on political grounds.
President Bush made a distinct promise in
the 2000 election to unite the American peo-
ple. After assuming the presidency — with less
than a majority of the vote — he proceeded to
disunite us. The Bush administration moved so
far to the right it doomed the center, and pro-
voked the extreme polarization that dominates
our politics today. That promise to unite us was
only the first of the extravagant lies of
President Bush, but his arrogance in defying
the majority will is not an impeachable offense.
Such political manipulations should be reme-
died by elections.
That he and his cohorts villify and trash
anyone who dares speak against them and
their policies is a blot on our democracy. But it
is not an impeachable offense.
His tax cuts for the wealthy, threatening to
convert our middle class society into a banana
republic where a few families and corporations
dominate a benighted lower class, are not im-
peachable.
Threatening the judiciary and packing the
courts with right wing fanatics, dangerous and
destructive as this may be, is not impeachable.
Our Social Security system is under attack
by President Bush. Is this impeachable? No. Is
this the politics of class and greed? Yes. It may
finally arouse our citizenry to vote to throw out
the perpetrators. Borrowing to pay for his tax
cuts and his war in Iraq — leaving us with a
grievous national debt — is a profound and se-
vere economic and fiscal error. His allowing
desecration of our environment and his denial
of global warming — ignorant and arrogant as
these policies are — are not impeachable.
What is impeachable? The Constitution
states the grounds are treason, bribery and
other high crimes and misdemeanors. James
Madison, a principle author of the Constitution,
in defining high crimes said perfidy — violation
of the public trust — was impeachable. The evi-
dence, both in clearly demonstrated fact and in
such documents as the Downing Street Memo,
is compelling. It shows Bush lied and lied again
about reasons that drove us into the war in
Iraq. That is a violation of the public trust in-
volving the most important action a nation can
take: war. It rises to the very highest level of im-
peachable grounds.
Going to war on false pretenses is an im-
peachable offense. Therefore, I urge the Pacifica
Forum and all citizens of Oregon to make an ur-
gent call for the impeachment of President
Bush. Vice-President Cheney should be added
to that call. He participated in the same lies, the
same violation of the public trust.
I suggest you make this call in a letter to
Congressman Peter DeFazio, asking him to in-
troduce articles of impeachment in the House
of Representatives. If we can invigorate the
American public with this indictment, it can be-
come the paramount issue in the midterm elec-
tions of 2006. It would make that election a
referendum on the Bush administration and its
acolytes in Congress.
Fr a n k S ta h l: Action is urgent — a failure to
impeach Bush would endorse his abuse of
power. This endorsement would exacerbate the
ongoing losses of the constitutionally man-
dated separation of powers and of respect for
the rule of law.
Impeaching Bush can be compared with
treating the life-threatening consequences of
an advanced disease. Such treatment must be
provided to stabilize the patient. However, it
does not solve the underlying medical problem.
This problem, which threatens the sustainabil-
ity of life on our planet, is the domination of
the U.S. economy by the collusion between in-
dustrial America and the Pentagon. President
Eisenhower warned us against the growing
power of this collusion and referred to it as the
“military-industrial complex.”
My post-retirement research has led me, re-
luctantly, to accept the view that a more accu-
rate moniker for the collusion would be “mili-
tary-industrial-university complex.” And, sadly, I
now recognize that the UO is acting as a mem-
ber of that complex. The UO’s actions that dis-
may me include lobbying Congress for an in-
crease in Pentagon funding for “tomorrow’s
warfighters” and conducting research that
promises to create soldiers unencumbered by
normal human emotions.
I ask you to think deeply about the conse-
quences of an economy driven and ruled by the
Pentagon to both our country and our univer-
sity, whose administration has endorsed that
system. The main consequence is the creation
of a small but powerful elite whose continuing
wealth and power depend on the production
and testing of weapons and technology which,
in turn, depend on perpetual warfare.
When the University Senate is back in ses-
sion, it must decide whether the university
should continue to endorse an expanding mili-
tary budget. However, the House of
Representatives is in session NOW, and we
must act NOW by insisting on the introduction
of a bill of impeachment against George W.
Bush.