The Impeachment of George W. Bush: A Handbook for Concerned Citizens

The authors have performed a valuable service for all United States citizens especially for all members of Congress who seem to fear the word, "impeachment", a word that should be considered the holiest word in the Constitution of the United States. The authors list in detail the high crimes and misdemeanors committed by President George H. Bush and Vice President Cheney. This is a solid guide book for the House of Reprentatives that can save months of unnecessary research for a "smoking gun" and hopefully save thousands of lives in Iraq.

Probably one of the most well laid out books on the topic you'll find. Definitely a must-read, if only for the cogent rap-sheet presented on a paranoid president. It also does a fine job outlining the impeachment process based on Holtzman's experience with Nixon. Where the book falls short is in the following two areas: 1) We're thankfully down to the last two years of the Bush administration. Is that enough time to develop a groundswell of action? The Democrats only recently won over a majority in the House and they only barely have a lead in the Senate. Can they organize that quickly? Bush will be out of office before there is another election. That's not to say we shouldn't try, but I'm worried. 2) Is impeachment enough? 2-a. There is no punishment associated with impeachment save being forced to step down. Some would say that is sufficient given that stepping down from the Oval Office is quite a long step. I say, ask the three thousand men and women who died under false pretenses in Iraq. Those people are dead, and that's a lot worse than a little public humiliation. 2-b. There is insufficient preventive measure associated with mere impeachment. If Nixon had been impeached and then, say, hanged, perhaps Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld might have thought twice about invading a country under false pretenses. But he resigned before he could be impeached and after that his Veep pardoned him, denying us justice for all time. And because of that, Bush et al. felt they had carte blanche to trample on the lives of 3,000 men and women with their military hobby horse. 2-c. I feel it is time to think about rewriting the portion of the Constitution that defines the office of the president. We've had quite a run of deceit coming from that office since the Eisenhower Years, especially as it results the waging of war. Consider Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs. Consider Kennedy and Vietnam. Consider Johnson and the Tonkin Gulf. Nixon's malfeasance is already well-documented in Holtzman's book. But then we get Ford and the Mayaguez Incident and Reagan and the Iran Contra affair. And now we have Bush and Iraq and his ficticious WMDs. 58,000 American men and women died in Vietnam and countless Vietnamese soldiers and civilians. We just crossed the 3,000 KIA threshhold in Iraq and the body count among Iraqi promises to greatly exceed that number. Oval Office deceit is tantamount to mass murder. We need a way to reign in cowboyism in the White House. A revision of the Constitution that puts real-time checks and balances on the president is the only way. Show me how you'd put your fine constitutional law skills to that task, Ms. Holtzman. I'm giving her book a five-star rating because it was so well done, and impeachment is certainly a necessary first-step. Besides it's the only tool we have at present. But Ms. Holtzman, your work is not done. --Ejner Fulsang, author of "A Knavish Piece of Work," Aarhus Publishing, 2006

George W. Bush has turned his presidency into one continuous scandal. If it were not for his six year tenure with a Republican controlled Congress he would already have been impeached. This is an excellent and well researched book--one that should be read by anyone who considers him or herself to be a true patriotic American. It would also serve one well to balance the severity of the actions that George W. Bush and his administration have had on America vs. the actions of Bill Clinton and the Clinton Administration. Hopefully the United States can begin to enjoy a breath of fresh air now that Congress is controlled by the Democratic Party. My congratulations to Elizabeth Holtzman for a wonderfully informative and worthwhile literary contribution.

Bringing the credibility of her many years of public service, most notably her work as a Congresswoman during the Watergate Committee and as a prosecutor, Elizabeth Holtzman, with Cynthia Cooper, has produced an important work that is, at the same time, both lawyerly and accessible. They provide the reader with the background - both historical and legal - of the important role of impeachment in the maintenance of our democratic system and then proceed to seamlessly lay out the evidence that overwhelmingly supports their conclusion. While I may not have been the hardest person to sell on their conclusion, the argument is so well-drawn that it is hard to imagine that anyone approaching the book with an open-mind wouldn't come away thinking that impeachment is a necessity or, at least, an option that needs to be explored more in the public discourse. The most amazing (and, unfortunately, troubling) point made so well by this book is how close the parallel is between the behavior and attitude toward our democratic principles of the current White House and that of Nixon Administration. All the elements that moved the impeachment process after Watergate exist now: dishonesty in proceeding with military action, illegal electronic surveillance of American citizens, the retaliation against persons who challenge the Administration's actions, and the contempt of Congress and the democratic process. Add to those the additional factor that President Bush has demonstrated a total disregard for human life in his irresponsible execution of an unwinnable war and his failure to respond effectively to the devestation created by Hurricane Katrina and it is clear, as was the case over thirty years ago, that action needs to be taken. As Ms. Holtzman and Ms. Cooper point out, the necessity to act comes not only from the need to remove the President from office, but, also, the need to send the message to all future Presidents (one that should have been clear from the Watergate years) that the disregard of our Constitution and laws will never be tolerated. It is for that reason alone that every person needs to read this book.

Elizabeth Holtzman and Cynthia Cooper have produced an illuminating and vitally important book about the impeachment process, explaining clearly the case for impeaching President Bush. The book is very readable and, in describing the history and standards for impeachment, shows why impeachment is especially needed now. I was very impressed by the chapters explaining Bush's personal responsibility in the torture scandals; his reckless indifference to human life in Katrina during which, according to the book, he -- and he alone -- could have mobilized all of the federal resources, but did not; and, his astonishing deceptions leading to the war in Iraq. The book shows how democracy itself will be damaged unless President Bush is held accountable. Holtzman's experience in Congress during Watergate and the impeachment of Nixon, and Cynthia Cooper's contribution as an author, lawyer and journalist make this an extremely valuable book. Definitely recommend it.