A Step Too Far.

It seems the worm is finally turning.

Lets briefly recap what we now know about the Iraq War.

It has now been established that Bush and Blair approached the UN, not for the purposes of seeking a peaceful resolution to possible conflict, but in order to find an excuse to invade Iraq. They hoped that if the inspections they demanded were too intrusive then Saddam might refuse to take part in the process and that this refusal would give them the green light to invade that they were seeking.

Evidence of this is clear from the way the US requested weapons inspections and then, the instant the inspections were granted, they dismissed the very idea of inspections as "useless" and , almost immediately, resumed their case for war. They attacked the very inspectors they had requested, smearing Hans Blix as "too weak to stand up to Saddam".

The UN itself was treated as if Bush was approaching it, not as an obligation under international law, but as a mere courtesy. Indeed, Bush made this point abundantly clear by declaring that "The US doesn't need a permission slip to defend herself."

With that statement Bush ripped up article 51 of the UN Charter and undermined an organisation that was set up to ensure that the planet never again suffered the horrors of a world at war.

I would argue that this action alone is impeachable. The clause of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution declares that all laws and treaties made by the federal government shall be the "supreme law of the land." Bush does not make the law, Congress does. And Article 51 was an obligation Bush had to respect.

If that alone wasn't enough, we know from the Downing Street Memos that Bush and Blair had already decided that Saddam must go (whilst pretending that no decision to attack had been made) and that the "facts and intelligence" were to be "fitted around the policy" (of regime change). Proof that the evidence was to be cherrypicked.

With over two thousand American soldiers dead, one would think that the sheer scale of Bush's lies to ensure this war would alone demand his impeachment.

But the Americans, a uniquely patriotic bunch, seemed to buy the particularly shaky version of events that Bush was selling them. "Everyone thought Saddam had them", he claimed. Ignoring the obvious questions of, if that was the case, why didn't the world back the US at the UN?

But then the New York Times revealed that, not only was Bush ripping up international law, he was also ripping up United States domestic law. This, it would seem, for most Americans is a step too far.

FISA, set up in 1978, after Nixon was found to be wiretapping American citizens (Martin Luther King and others) outlawed this practice - unless it was authorised by FISA which was the "exclusive" means by which such authority could be obtained.

Senator Fiengold has recently moved a motion to censure Bush for illegally wiretapping American citizens through the Senate, a move that the Democratic Party has resisted.

A new poll reveals that Fiendgold is much nearer to the gut reaction of the public than the Democrats are.

The poll finds that a plurality of Americans favor plans to censure President George W. Bush, while a surprising 42% favor moves to actually impeach the President.

A poll taken March 15, 2006 by American Research Group found that among all adults, 46% favor Senator Russ Feingold's (D-WI) plan to censure President George W. Bush, while just 44% are opposed. Approval of the plan grows slightly when the sample is narrowed to voters, up to 48% in favor of the Senate censuring the sitting president.

Even more shocking is that just 57% of Republicans are opposed to the move, with 14% still undecided and 29% actually in favor. Fully 70% of Democrats want to see Bush censured.

More surprising still: The poll found fully 43% of voters in favor of actually impeaching the President, with just 50% of voters opposed. While only 18% of Republicans surveyed wanted to see Bush impeached, 61% of Democrats and 47% of Independents reported they wanted to see the House move ahead with the Conyers (D-MI) resolution.

It's time for the Democrats to stop playing politics, stop worrying about "floating voters" and start to go with their gut reaction about what is right and what is wrong. That's where the public are coming from. And, on this occassion, they are way in front of them.

Americans know what is right and what is wrong. Bush is in the wrong.

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