“The Check is in the Mail” (the president knows you’re lying)

My friend Alex over at Inactivist has said that (I’m paraphrasing here) the worst thing about the Clinton impeachment is how it took one of the most serious penalties the Constitution has to offer and reduced it to just another partisan political ploy. Thus, no matter how bad this administration gets, anyone who suggests impeachment for Bush first has to discuss where they stood on the Clinton impeachment, and explain why this time it’s different, and say this has to do with concern for America rather than a partisan desire to discredit the Republican Party and . . . uh, what were we talking about, again?

So here’s another presidential misdeed that would have been worthy of impeachment back when impeachment was something more than a partisan smackdown: Bush has reserved for himself the right to open and read Americans’ mail without a warrant.

WASHINGTON - President Bush has quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans' mail without a judge's warrant, the Daily News has learned.

The President asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on Dec. 20. Bush then issued a "signing statement" that declared his right to open people's mail under emergency conditions.

That claim is contrary to existing law and contradicted the bill he had just signed, say experts who have reviewed it. . . . Experts said the new powers could be easily abused and used to vacuum up large amounts of mail.

"The [Bush] signing statement claims authority to open domestic mail without a warrant, and that would be new and quite alarming," said Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies in Washington. “The danger is they're reading Americans' mail," she said.

"You have to be concerned," agreed a career senior U.S. official who reviewed the legal underpinnings of Bush's claim. "It takes Executive Branch authority beyond anything we've ever known."

So can I say that I think Bush should be impeached without being accused of shilling for the Democratic Party? Probably not. After all, I’m on record as saying I opposed the Clinton impeachment, too.