Impeachment proceedings have begun.

Perhaps the Democrats aren't as spineless as I have taken them to be... Barefoot Bum are reporting:

The first article of impeachment against President George W. Bush was passed by the House Judiciary Committee in an emergency special session late Saturday. The article appears to have been prompted by new evidence that the FBI had abused its power under the direction of the president, who had blocked further investigations into the matter. Each of the thirty nine members of the committee seemingly voted along party lines on the measure, which passed by a vote of 22-17.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) has issued a statement on the allegations being brought forth; though a full disclosure on the charges of "high crimes and misdemeanours" against the president will be made available to the public during a Monday press conference scheduled at 11AM EST.

We'll have to wait until Monday to find out exactly what the grounds for impeachment are, but the implication is that Bush will be impeached on the charge that he obstructed justice when he blocked a Congressional investigation into illegal spying on US citizens.

The charges have come about because it has been found that the FBI has regularly abused its power in efforts to gather information on US citizens.

Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine is said to have found 48 incidences where the FBI violated the law to acquire telephone, e-mail and financial records of Americans and foreigners without a judge's approval.

By obstructing a Justice Department investigation into this, Bush was clearly preventing the department from pursuing what many of us regarded at the time as clear acts of illegality.

There is a certain irony that Bush should be brought down over something like this as opposed to Guantanamo Bay or Abu Ghraib or, indeed, the illegality of the entire Iraq war; but I suppose it's like Blair coming under the axe for Cash for Honours or Capone being done for tax evasion.

They have entered into so many acts of illegality that you have to take them out with whatever charges will stick.

A quote attributed to Committee Chairman Conyers in the press statement reads, "For 32 years the OPR had conducted highly sensitive investigations involving Executive Branch programs, and had not once been denied access to information classified at the highest levels of government." Chairman Conyers continued, "Recent testimony from FBI officials have led this committee to believe that illegal acts were in fact taking place for over two years as President Bush abused his power to obstruct an investigation into those very acts."

Here's hoping that the Democrats have the courage to see this through. Of course, there will be the usual cat calls from the usual circles that Bush is somehow being nailed on a technicality, but coming from the people who impeached Clinton for a blow job I don't think they'll find themselves on the strongest moral ground.

The simple fact is that he blocked investigations into criminal acts, and he probably blocked the investigations based on the fact that, despite what he was saying publicly at the time, that he knew exactly how illegal those actions were.

Nor do Democrats think the buck should stop at Bush:

Criticizing the administration's use of executive privilege and describing the failure to uphold accountability as an abuse of power, Democrats speaking on condition of anonymity predict that an additional article may be put forth by the committee to warrant that Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice be removed from office. Following articles will be voted on by the House Judiciary Committee before they are debated on the House floor. The first article is expected to win a majority vote in the House, which would bring the charges against the president to the Senate.

One thought occurs to me. Bad news for Libby's prospects of a pardon, eh? God, it's a win win..

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Tags: Bush, impeachment, proceedings, Glenn Fine, FBI, illegal wiretapping, FISA, Committee Chairman Conyers