I have to dissent on this point. I think that censure will be shrugged off (correctly) as purely symbolic. Look at what happened to the Vote of No Confidence for Gonzo. If that had been a bill of impeachment he would have either been convicted of the dissenters would have had to go on the record saying his actions were OK.

The only meaningful action is impeachment.

I’m very disappointed in Henry.

Then those who voted for censure against Clinton (and others) should explain why they supported “symbolism” THEN? In fact, they shoukld be compelled to ask why “censure” is a part of the Constitutional tools of Congress AT ALL?

Then ask them if they support something non-symbolic…like IMPEACHMENT!

Because if they don’t they APPROVE of the actions.

If obstruction of justice in an investigation of outing a covert spy is not an impeachable offense, what is? Deciding policy based on how you think the “60%ers” will react is the same rationale the Dems used when voting for the Iraq war.

Thanks Steve for the 18USC 2441 could not find it . I’m not verygood at law school searches.

It’s making me long for another discussion about term limits. What we’re stuck with is a bunch of careerists who, (perhaps vaguely understandly) are incapable of putting representation of the American people and upholding the Constitution (which, ironically, is their job) ahead of personal and professional concern.

Impeach. Period.

Now let’s vote to change the federal sentencing guidelines so we can censure some murderers! Or would that be too harsh?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/

What I think is needed, and Representative Waxman is the perfect candidate to lead this operation, is to create a virtual “shadow” government of investigative committees, each with a full staff of competent
investigators and expert cross-examiners.

Every executive agency which has a Bush-appointed industry lobbyist or former industrial official at its head, would have its own full time investigative committee assigned to scrutinize every suspect action that agency has ever taken.

Every investigative report issued would potentially be the subject of another censure motion.

These committees would serve not only to expose the corruption in each agency, but would keep each agency head and his/her cohorts busy answering inquiries, testifying and writing briefs to support their (likely)refusals to cooperate. They would thus have much less time to carry out more nefarious acts.

I’d also recommend that the investigation start, not at the top of the agency, but with every secretary to every key decision maker in the agency.

Secretaries frequently know much more than their bosses about who is doing (or not doing) what; they tend to be less practiced at artfully dodging questions and less likely to lie about the facts.

Parliamentary systems of governments routinely have “shadow governments”. We need to systematically build “sunlight” counter-parts to every critical agency so we can stop the Bush-Cheney cabal from doing even more damage between now and January, 2009.

Frank33 @ 199

Rivkin on Softball says Plame sent Joe to Niger, and it was “nepotism”. But how about Liz Cheney? Rifkin (has a strange accent) says Valerie was not covert.

Talking points from the echo chamber. But I think they should mention Brewster Jennings was (covertly) looking for weapons in Iran also.

Doesn’t the entire Cheney extended family have policy-making positions in the administration???

Rivkin is a liar plain and simple.

Now, who could I be describing? Oh, right, the utterly corrupt Bush administration and all the crooked neo-con Republicans who support and enable the Bush administration’s lying, cheating and thieving.

For instance, we not only learned that Bush commuted Libby’s 2 1/2 year jail sentence in a quid pro quo arrangement, but we also learned through a USA Today article that the Republican-controlled Pentagon had blown off an Urgent Request from 2 1/2 years ago from our Marines serving over in Iraq, an urgent request for safer vehicles (MRAPs) that potentially could have saved over 700 lives (and countless severely injured troops) in the 2 1/2 years it took for the Republican-controlled Pentagon to finally place an order for these vehicles.

In anyone’s book, that’s criminal negligence. And for any Republican, especially any Republican supporter of the Bush crime family, to claim that they are “support the troops,” patriotic citizens, I would have to disagree. As I’m certain the family members of these thousands of our troops injured or killed might also disagree, since they are still suffering the consequences of this “criminally negligent” 2 1/2 year delay by the Bush crime family in doing something about this Urgent Request from our troops in Iraq.

During this same 2 1/2 year period, though, the Bush crime family has been throwing billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars at their crony pals in the defense industry, but for some criminally-insane reason they only got around last week to answering this February 2005 Urgent Request from our troops over in Iraq.

As an Air Force veteran, I am outraged at this despicable disregard for our troops by the Bush crime family. Just as (having been a member of the NSA while in the military), I am outraged at Scooter Libby completely skating following his criminal involvement in the outing of a covert CIA agent.

Censure. Impeach. Jail time. And then get all the criminals, and their associates, in the Bush crime family to reimburse American taxpayers for all the billions of dollars they’ve stolen.