23 Comments

1. Mgmax:

I have belatedly and painfully concluded that the only honorable course for me

After the 1972 presidential election, I stood clear of calls to impeach President Richard M. Nixon

I thought that my joining the impeachment effort would be seen as an expression of personal vengeance toward the president who had defeated me.

Today I have made a different choice.

Yeah, I’d call that a plea for attention.

Jan 6, 2008 - 11:33 am 2. David Thomson:

When has George McGovern ever been rational? He has almost always advocated policies that hurt America. Furthermore, McGovern’s name should be mentioned far more often. He captured the hearts and minds of the Democratic Party “elites” and they are now dishonest pacifists and self-hating Americans. The number one reason that his name is rarely in the news is because it would hurt the Democrats. This harsh fact is not supposed to be widely known. Please note the term I employ: dishonest pacifism. The Democrats most assuredly do not want the middle of the road voters to learn the truth.

“Bush hatred”, I should add, is also a dishonest way of blaming the United States for the evils of the world. It is a subtle attempt to hate America while pretending to limit one’s rage at a Republican president.

Jan 6, 2008 - 11:47 am 3. d_in_washington:

Equally pathetic is that the Post chose this for their above-the-fold feature on the front page of Sunday’s Opinion section. I was dumbfounded. “George McGovern?” I thought. Since when do we care what he thinks about current politics. And it’s not exactly a shocker for an old lefty like him to be calling for Bush’s impeachment.

Jan 6, 2008 - 2:20 pm 4. Anthony (Los Angeles):

McGovern may be an idiot, but he’s a consistent idiot. :/

Jan 6, 2008 - 2:22 pm 5. Barbara Skolaut:

McGovern is still alive? Who knew?

And the answer to your question, Roger, is I don’t know about his medical condition, but he’s always been a IDIOT.

Jan 6, 2008 - 3:42 pm 6. Barbara Skolaut:

Sorry, Anthony – see ya’ beat me to it. ;-p

Jan 6, 2008 - 3:43 pm 7. Barry Dauphin:

Is an impeachment process the only way the Dems think they can win the White House? Gee, their problems might be worse than we thought. Maybe Charlie Gibson can ask the Dems to respond to McGovern’s idea in the next debate.

Jan 6, 2008 - 4:40 pm 8. Anthony (Los Angeles):

That’s ok, Barbara. We’re just very perceptive.

Jan 6, 2008 - 5:40 pm 9. Steven E. Ehrbar:

Levying war with a Congressional authorization, but which doesn’t specifically say “Declaration of War”? John Adams did it, as did Thomas Jefferson, “Father of the Constitution” James Madison, and Abraham Lincoln. Apparently they should all have been impeached and removed from office, too.

If you want a war that violated the Constitution, the Korean War, which never received a Congressional authorization, is the clearest case; Truman deserved impeachment if levying war without a declaration is a “high crime or misdemeanor”.

The normal construction of international law holds that any treaty term that is persistently unenforced is void. Aggressive war has been undertaken dozens of times since the UN Charter came into force, and only twice has the UN acted against it. And, if anything, since the Gulf War was authorized by the UN, was ended by a ceasefire, and the ceasefire was repeatedly broken by Iraq, the Iraq War is possibly the most legal war of the last fifteen years.

Habeas corpus? Again, impeach Lincoln. FDR didn’t just hold Germans in detention in the US without habeas corpus, he did the same to US citizens who committed no offense but being born Japanese. Oh, and Truman again — the Nuremburg and associated trials were held without habeas corpus protections in non-US territory under U.S. military control, just like Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

And so on. McGovern wants the President impeached, not for actual crimes ó not even an minor case of perjury ó but merely for policy reasons. Which makes him a self-declared enemy of the American system of government, as put forth in the Constitution.

Jan 6, 2008 - 7:19 pm 10. Charlie (Colorado):

Is George McGovern Senile?

No, he was an idiot thirty years ago too.

Jan 6, 2008 - 8:12 pm 11. jedrury:

Of course, the old fossil is senile. Senile in then, dithering now. That the Washpo runs such meaningless commentary tells alot about the media and its need for attention grabbing headlines and its shrinking advertising base.

Jan 7, 2008 - 4:37 am 12. Stace:

Pathetic, indeed. McGovern’s screed is crammed with falsehoods, starting with his citing the bogus Johns Hopkins study.

The impeachment crowd led by Congressmen Kucinich and Wexler wants to put the US through two trials, not just one. Cheney first, then Bush.

As Steven said above, the charges are based on policy disagreements, not crimes. Any president in US history would have been deserving of impeachment by this standard.

Jan 7, 2008 - 6:03 am 13. Ripper:

McGovernism has done more to take Democrats and turn them into Republicans then anything I can think of. even though the reedy voiced Marxist loser and Henry Wallace supporter was clobbered in 1972 – he and his acolytes have taken over the Democratic Party.

Jan 7, 2008 - 6:22 am 14. Lem:

For some time now it’s been understood by constitutional scholars that presidential powers and prerogatives are at their zenith during war time. The exigencies of a war, requires it to be just so.

While our enemies plot to kill us, key provisions of the patriot act languish on committee; McGovern would have a virtual government shutdown to have congress conduct an admittedly (stayed out of calls for Nixon’s) political show-trial.

Our enemies perceive us to be weak, an impeachment trial would hand them a victory.

Jan 7, 2008 - 6:46 am 15. scott:

Ripper said it well…1972 was the demise of liberal anticommunism,personified by HHH and Scoop Jackson.That proud tradition was trampled underfoot by Jesse Jackson,Tom Hayden,Bella Abzug,Shirley Maclaine,et al..a political freak show topped off by “Come home,America…”
Does anybody else remember watching that fiasco?I was 14!

Jan 7, 2008 - 7:00 am 16. LarryD:

IANAL, but here’s a quick Con Law 101 (Impeachment):

Impeachment is a political process, not a criminal one, so technically Congress can Impeach (and convict) any officer of the US Government for any reason whatsoever. As long as both houses can agree to it. In practice, they take their constituents wishes in to account. A lot. Since Impeachment is political, that is as it should be.

Since only a small but noisy faction of the Democrats want Bush Impeached, this is really a headache for the Democrats. Especially since this is campaign season.

And the Democrats really don’t want the electorate to fully understand Impeachment, lest the electorate realize that Impeachment could be used to, say, remove the remaining Kelo Justices from SCOTUS.

Jan 7, 2008 - 7:10 am 17. Rhod:

During McGovern’s run for the nomination, I read an interview with him in Esquire, or Time, when both mags were credible. It struck me that he devoted a lot of talk to an encounter he had with an elderly woman on an airplane, whereby she told him he was a horrible man and he countered with some insult I’ve forgotten. He then was published as saying (recalled, maybe not completely accurate)…”I loved it; it was such a good clean shot.” McGovern was a pilot in WWII, and his idea of victory was still to better an old woman. The man is worthless.

Jan 7, 2008 - 8:05 am 18. Webutante:

At the risk of sounding like a lunatic, let me say, George McGovern probably is senile because he eats too much sugar and carbs and helped start the public trend that’s led to exponential increases in obesity, heart disease and dementia in this country….no really.

He headed the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs back in 1973 when the competing paradigms of nutrition and its effect on obesity, disease and even senility came to a head. At his hearings, the old paradigm that carbs were bad and dietary fat was fine was supplanted by the new paradigm of eat more carbs and fiber, and avoid all dietary fat like the plague. So he must be the vctim of his own dogma which was without data schtick.

If you can bear to hear more, I’ll have something for you all soon.

Jan 7, 2008 - 8:06 am 19. Rhod:

I agree, Web. He should have kept his cake hole shut permanently.

Jan 7, 2008 - 8:11 am 20. Ripper:

Scott I was 19 years old in 1972. I remember it well. I remember hearing about Watergate and I recall the isolationist convention of 1972. I also recall that Nixon won 49 states and never mentioned McGovern’s name.

Jan 7, 2008 - 9:57 am 21. MarkD:

I pray that these fools would impeach. There won’t be a conviction, and the Democrats would face another twenty years of antipathy for such blatant stupidity.

I still think Clinton should have been removed from office for perjury, but the Senate failed to convict him and the Republicans paid a big price. The majority of Americans obviously disagreed with me.

Having seen that outcome, it is difficult to believe that anyone is going to seriously pursue impeachment against a president who won re-election despite the difficulties in the war. It would be seen, rightly, as a blatant attempt to nullify an election.

We couldn’t possibly be that lucky.

Jan 9, 2008 - 8:05 am 22. pst314:

Rhod 8:05 AM wrote: “his idea of victory was still to better an old woman.”

Here’s that story, or at least Time Magazine’s take on it, in their July 19, 1972 issue:

“Well, early in the campaign a commercial flight was held for me about ten minutes. When I boarded, I went down one side and up the other apologizing to the passengers for detaining them. The last person was this old biddy. When I stopped by her, she said, ‘Get out of here.’ And I said, ‘Well, I just wanted to tell you I was sorry that I delayed the plane.’ She said, ‘Well, you’re a terrible person.’ And I leaned over and said very quietly, ‘Well, you’re the biggest horse’s ass I’ve met in the campaign.’ I had a great feeling of elation. It was such a good, clean shot.”

Jan 12, 2008 - 7:28 pm 23. Brown Line:

McGovern was a pilot during WWII. He flew a B-24 over Europe – a brave man doing a hell of a tough job.

I believe that discussion of George McGovern should stop with that fact. His descent into foam-flecked-lips radicalism is a disgrace and a pity. Given that McGovern’s published opinions will have exactly zero effect on the course of governance in our nation, it’s best that those opinions be passed over in silence.

Jan 13, 2008 - 11:25 am

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