No to Special Prosecutor - Yes to Impeachment

James Comey's testimony pushed Glenn Greenwald ever-so-close to impeachment:

James Comey's testimony amounts to a statement that -- even according to the administration's own loyal DOJ officials -- the President ordered still-unknown spying on Americans, and engaged in that spying for a full two-and-a-half-years, that was so blatantly and shockingly illegal that they were all ready to resign over it. And the President's Attorney General then lied to ensure that this episode remain concealed. Mere one-day calls for a Congressional investigation are woefully inadequate here.

There is clear and definitive evidence of deliberate lawbreaking. In addition to Congressional investigations, there is simply no excuse for anything other than the immediate commencement of a criminal investigation by a Special Prosecutor. And the administration ought to be pressured every day to account for what it did here. This is not a one-day or one-week fleeting scandal. These revelations amount to the most transparent and deliberate crimes -- felonies -- by our top government officials, not with regard to private and personal matters but with regard to how our government spies on us.

The obvious problem with appointing a Special Prosecutor is that chances are good we'd end up with a "loyal Bushie" like Ken Starr. But assuming we got a Patrick Fitzgerald instead, there are still two major problems problem.

First, the work of the Special Prosecutor would come into conflict with the ongoing Congressional investigations - that's what sabotaged the Iran-Contra investigation. 

Second, for the duration of the Special Prosecutor's work, the American people would be kept entirely in the dark about the progress of his/her investigation.

Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed Special Prosecutor on December 30, 2003 to determine who outed Valeria Plame. Even under threat of perjury, Scooter Libby refused to tell the truth. So after 23 months of investigation (10/28/05), Fitzgerald persuaded a grand jury to issue 5 indictments for Libby. Until that moment, the American people had no idea what his investigation had found; and when that moment arrived, the American people learned only that Libby's perjury prevented Fitzgerald from getting to the truth. After 16 more months, Libby was convicted (3/6/07), but we still don't know whether Dick Cheney and/or George Bush knowingly ordered or condoned the illegal outing of Plame, and we may never know because Libby decided he'd rather go to jail than squeal.

This is definitely not the way to hold Bush accountable for his illegal wiretapping program(s). We shouldn't have a secret investigation that sinks into the bottomless pit of criminal procedure - we should have an open investigation, under oath, and in front of TV cameras

And we cannot allow the White House to pursue the Gonzales strategy of "gumming it to death." We must make the consequences of lying, evading, and stonewalling clear to the White House, Congress, the Corporate Media, and the American people. And the way to do that is to put the very survival of the administration on the line by calling the investigation Impeachment.

Thanks to Comey's testimony, the weight of public opinion has shifted towards impeachment. GWU constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley spoke for pretty much all non-Bushies in America:

"The problem comes down to the failure of Congress to deal with what is a very ugly and unfortunate fact. This would be a clear impeachable offense. I don't know of a more potential charge of impeachment within the modern presidency."

It's time for progressive bloggers like Glenn Greenwald to join people like John Dean and Jonathan Turley by putting impeachment on the table.

Update 1: Scarecrow calls for the impeachment of Alberto Gonzales

As though signing off on torture, politicizing the DoJ and misleading Congress on just about everything were not enough, Gonzales’ thuggish role in the “Wednesday Night Ambush” should be enough for Congress and the media to demand his resignation. A vote of no confidence is certainly warranted. If he does not resign — and with appointees as dishonorable as those in this Administration, and Gonzales’ role as firewall for WH complicity, he may not — then Congress should move to impeach Alberto Gonzales.

then (s)he echoes Greenwald's call for a Special Prosecutor

As much as any time in its history, the nation desperately needs an independent, honest, and effective Justice Department. An immediate need is to replace the current Attorney General with someone who can clean house and begin to restore public confidence in the administration of justice. A special independent counsel should be appointed to investigate all of the abuses of and by DoJ. And Congress and the media need to continue to expose the lawlessness of the Bush/Cheney regime, to purge the Executive Branch of the pervasive lawlessness that was allowed to fester for years. Gonzales’ resignation is important and necessary, but it is hardly sufficient.

No it is not sufficient, but neither as an Independent Counsel, because there is no way to "purge the Executive Branch of [its] pervasive lawlessness" through criminal procedures that take several years for each official. By now it should be obvious that George Bush and Dick Cheney appointed "loyal Bushies" to every appointed position and encouraged them to deliberately corrupt every single agency in the executive branch.

The only solution is to impeach Dick Cheney first, replace him with a Gerald Ford-like caretaker acceptable to Democrats, and then impeach George Bush.

Update 2: Big Tent Democrat smacks down the no-confidence vote nicely:

WH Spokesman Tony Fratto said:

As for no-confidence votes, maybe senators need a refresher course on American civics. . . . What I mean is I think you find no-confidence votes in parliamentary systems, not the American system of government.

Very true. Our system of government provides for a different mechanism:

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Speaking only for me, I agree with the White House that impeachment of Alberto Gonzales is the proper course.

So do I.