A daily email newsletter put out by Scott Horton, a "corporate" lawyer at an elite NY law firm and tireless human rights advocate, is one of the best information resources I know of outside of this blog.
The format is simple. Each edition reproduces topical articles culled from that day's press and offers short commentaries that, taken as a whole, provide a fitting narrative of the grave moral and political threat Bush and his cronies present to this nation and the world. Mr. Horton is well connected in the worlds of government and media and often leaks inside information that we end up reading about days or weeks later in the press.
Today's edition features an article from the Washington Times' Insight magazine of January 29 that states quite flatly that the White House believes Bush faces a serious threat of imminent impeachment. I reproduce Mr. Horton's commentary and the related article below.
Mr. Horton:
Impeachment in the Wings. Editors at both the Washington Post and New York Times have recently been quoted as saying that they have canned all stories about impeachment, and are declining to run polls they have showing a majority of the public favoring Bush's impeachment, because "it's not going to happen, period." This is the same media that gave us saturation coverage of the GOP push for Clinton's impeachment at a time when it had a roughly 30% public support level. Isn't it strange, therefore, that the unabashedly pro-Administration Washington Times concludes just the opposite? Their magazine section, Insight, which repeatedly has scooped inside-the-White House stories, today tells us that the White House expects that impeachment proceedings will be brought, potentially as early as next month, and expects, as things stand now, that Bush will fail in the all-important Judiciary Committee. They believe if they work flat out, they can block impeachment by pursuing a tie. What they write here is the same as I have heard from numerous Republicans in Washington - if Bush continues with his Divine Right presidency, and thumbs his nose at Congress by disobeying the FISA rules and the McCain Amendment, there are a number of Republican senators who are prepared to support his impeachment. It's a question of the Constitutional integrity of the Government, after all.
Excerpts from
Washington Times Insight, Jan. 29, 2006:
Impeachment hearings: The White House prepares for the worst
The Bush administration is bracing for impeachment hearings in Congress.
"A coalition in Congress is being formed to support impeachment," an administration source said.
...snip...
Administration sources said the charges are expected to include false reports to Congress as well as Mr. Bush's authorization of the National Security Agency to engage in electronic surveillance inside the United States without a court warrant. This included the monitoring of overseas telephone calls and e-mail traffic to and from people living in the United States without requisite permission from a secret court.
...snip...
On Jan. 16, former Vice President Al Gore set the tone for impeachment hearings against Mr. Bush by accusing the president of lying to the American people. Mr. Gore, who lost the 2000 election to Mr. Bush, accused the president of "indifference" to the Constitution and urged a serious congressional investigation. He said the administration decided to break the law after Congress refused to change the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
"A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government," Mr. Gore said.
"I call upon members of Congress in both parties to uphold your oath of office and defend the Constitution," he said. "Stop going along to get along. Start acting like the independent and co-equal branch of American government that you are supposed to be under the constitution of our country."
...snip...
"The argument [against impeachment] is that the American people will never forgive any public official who knowingly hurts national security," an administration source said. "We will tell the American people that while we have done everything we can to protect them, our policies are being endangered by a hypocritical Congress."