Politics

A Campaign Promise You Rarely Hear.

MayorBob.

Posted to Politics on Mon Sep 22, 2008 at 03:21:55 PM EST (promoted by DEMachina). RSS.

Charlotte Dennett is running for Attorney General of Vermont.  She's the Independent Party candidate and that alone would seem to dictate her finding something to set her apart from the other candidates for the job.  Boy Howdy, did she come up with a doozy - if elected she will will try George W. Bush for murder.

How does she plan to do this?  Well, she says she would appoint a special prosecutor to do the deed.  She already has one picked out - Vincent Bugliosi, the former Los Angeles DA who brought members of the Manson Family to justice close to 40 years ago.  Bugliosi claims it's doable; any state attorney general or local prosecutor can bring the charges and he's written about just such a scenario in a recent book.  The murder charges would be based upon all the deaths of US citizens as a result of the war in Iraq.  Dennett says Vermont has borne the brunt of Iraq War deaths and 40 communities in the state have drawn up petitions for impeachment against Bush.  Dennett said:

"Lots of Vermonters feel very frustrated that the impeachment efforts did not go anywhere.  This is another avenue for us."
Bugliosi said the case for bringing murder charges is provided by the fact that Bush misled the American people into war.  He had gotten away with "thousands and thousands of murders" and "we ... cannot let him get away with this."  Bugliosi referred to Dennett as a "valiant and patriotic woman" for putting her reputation on the line.  Dennett and two others are challenging incumbent Attorney General William Sorrell in the November 4th election.  Sorrell is dismissive of Dennett's vow and he wants no part of it, "unless the crime takes place in Vermont ... I as the attorney general have not authority under Vermont law to be prosecuting the president."

Dennett is an author, lawyer, journalist and a definite long shot for a win in November.  In addition to co-authoring books outlining Middle East politics and the connection with oil and US political figures, she has spent some time trying to figure out the role of the CIA in the unexplained death of her father.  In spite of the large amount of support she will need to pick up to win the election, Dennett believes the prospect of prosecuting Bush will "strike a chord" in the electorate and she feels "I will have a groundswell of support."

Tags: written by MayorBob, edited by DEMachina, war, Iraq, murder trial, George W. Bush, Vermont, impeachment (all tags)

This story: 4 comments (2 from subqueue)
Post a Comment
1

Re: A Campaign Promise You Rarely Hear.

skeptic.

Mon Sep 22, 2008 at 04:00:28 PM EST

5.00 (astute)

I think that many legal questions can be raised about the Bush administration.  The most obvious crime of George W. Bush would be the falsification of the election results of both the 2000 and 2004 elections.  However, to go after him as Commander In Chief for having sent the American military to war will never work.  There are any number of questions that can legitimately be asked about the war, the conduct of the war, the reasons for going to war, the Congressional authorization for the war, and so forth, but nonetheless, Bush is still the Commander In Chief unless removed from office by Congress, which (as you may know) hasn't happened.

If the death of American soldiers in times of war constitutes murder by the President who sent them to war, then the ability of America to wage war is seriously hindered, and the entire military becomes in effect superfluous (if not supercallifragillistic).  

2

^ 1

Blanket immunity

joshv.

Mon Sep 22, 2008 at 05:25:48 PM EST

none

Honestly, the president ought to have blanket immunity for anything and everything he does in office - something like the immunity conferred on foreign diplomats.  Why?  It's just too easy (ask the Romans) to fall into a pattern where political acrimony is translated into criminal prosecutions, with the populace voting the bum out, and the new bum using the organs of power to prosecute the old.  With each cycle the prosecutions become ever more extreme in an escalating game of tit-for-tat.  Whether or not the original crimes were real, imagined or trumped up, matters little in this game.

Impeachment is fine.  If our elected representative are convinced that a sitting president can no longer serve - wonderful, remove him, but the day a sitting or former president sets foot into a court of law to stand trial for "war crimes" or murder charges will be the day recorded as the date democracy died in the US.  Future presidents would have to seize almost dictatorial powers to effectively rule and avoid criminal prosecution at the end of their term - or they would just avoid the question entirely by not ending their term.

3

^ 2

in other words

thefadd.

Mon Sep 22, 2008 at 05:54:33 PM EST

none

No rule of law here. Move along folks.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

4

^ 2

Re: Blanket immunity

wetkarma.

Tue Sep 23, 2008 at 06:13:30 AM EST

none


Honestly, the president ought to have blanket immunity for anything and everything he does in office - something like the immunity conferred on foreign diplomats.

So if the president takes a gun and shoots someone in the face killing him, we should just say 'try to be more careful next time'? Seriously?  

I assume that you'd at least want the killing to be somewhat connected to his role as president - i.e. if he whips out a pistol at an Americas summit meeting and shoots Hugo Chavez in the eye thats kosher, but killing someone walking along Pensylvania avenue is probably verboten?

In re: to the diplomatic immunity, for felonies contrary to Lethal Weapon II -- immunity is often waived by the diplomats country or the crime prosecuted in that country. A president is not a king, lets not go backwards in the theory of governance -- this way ends in axes and heads being separated from bodies.

Memory is a strange bell, jubilee and knell.

This story: 4 comments (2 from subqueue)
Post a Comment