When did the rules change ?
By what measure is the conduct of President Bush deemed acceptable ?
President Nixon was pressured to resign from office for his complicity
in a burglary and subsequent cover-up. Impeachment proceedings were
instituted against President Clinton for lying concerning his sex life
in a deposition in a civil case.

We now have overwhelming and uncontroversial evidence that President
Bush and his administration conspired to and did act in concert to
induce the Congress of the United States to authorize him to institute
a war based on false and misleading evidence. In short, he lied to
the Congress and the people of the United States, willfully and
repeatedly, in order to secure authorization to invade Iraq. In law,
such conduct constitutes a fraud and is clearly within the definition
of those activities described as "...high crimes and misdemeanors,"
within the meaning of the Constitution.

Yet the public and Congress remain strangely silent with respect to
this issue. The implicit reason for this is the perception that it
would be improper to impeach the President in wartime, despite the
fact that the war which is now perceived as the reason for insulating
him from accountability is the very result of his criminality.

Is this paradox sufficient reason to excuse this act of presidential
criminality or have we reached such a level of cravenness that we are
fearful that our constitution is less important than the removal of a
flawed, duplicitous leader? Are we fearful that our Vice President is
equally guilty ? Add his name to the charges. Our constitution makes
adequent provision for such a contingency. The 2008 elections are not
too far away. Surely the republic would survive such a step, in fact,
our respect for law and morality would be reinforced.

To buy in to the argument that regardless of how we entered the war,
we are in it now and therefore cannot rectify those acts which
improperly brought us to war is rank doublethink.

If it was proper to impeach a president for acting deceitfully with
respect to his sex life, how can it be improper to impeach a president
for fraudulently bringing us into a war which has resulted in
thousands of deaths and the ruin of the economy of our county? Let's
stop pretending that nothing happened. This country was born out of
courage, out of a refusal to accept the abuses of a king named George.
We sent him a declaration, a bill of particulars cataloging the abuses
of which we were aggrieved. It is time that a similar declaration be
drafted, one by the Congress.

It is time to remind the Congress that their responsibility requires
nothing less than a Bill of Impeachment to bring the circumstances of
how we came to invade Iraq to public view and appropriate action.

Randy Ludacer is a retired Attorney. He previously served as Legal
Advisor to the U.S. Mission in Vietnam and as County Attorney for
Monore County Florida.