Perhaps never before in the history of our Constitution has there been a more dire need for Congress to utilize its power of impeachment of the Executive. The abuses of executive power employed and enjoyed by the Bush administration, thus far unchallenged and frequently approved by Congress, represent the worst fears of the Founders who wrote impeachment six times into the Constitution. Below is a modest list of the administration’s offenses, modified from the list created by www.Democrats.com:

• Violating the United Nations Charter by launching an illegal “War of Aggression” against Iraq without cause.
• Violating U.S. and international law by authorizing the torture of thousands of captives, resulting in dozens of deaths.
• Violating the Constitution by arbitrarily detaining Americans, legal residents, and non-Americans, without due process, without charge, and without access to counsel.
• Violating U.S. law and the Constitution through widespread wiretapping of the phone calls and emails of Americans without a warrant.
• Violating the Constitution by using “signing statements” to defy and undermine hundreds of laws passed by Congress.
• Violating the Constitution by politicizing government agencies for partisan gain, most notably and egregiously the Justice Department.
• Violating U.S. law and committing high treason by exposing the identity of a covert CIA operative working on sensitive WMD proliferation for political retribution.
• Subverting the Constitution by obstructing efforts by Congress and the Courts to review and restrict Presidential actions, and by promoting and signing legislation negating the Bill of Rights and the Writ of Habeas Corpus.
• Gross negligence or incompetence in failing to assist New Orleans residents after Hurricane Katrina, in ignoring urgent warnings of an Al Qaeda attack prior to Sept. 11, 2001, and in increasing air pollution causing global warming.