George W. Bush versus the U.S. Constitution is the published version of the report prepared by the Democratic staff of the House Judiciary Committee. In his introduction, Rep. John Conyers - at the time the ranking member of the committee, now its chair - states that he asked his committee staff to prepare the report “in the wake of President Bush’s failure to respond to a letter submitted by 122 Members of Congress and more than 500,000 Americans in July of 2005,asking his whether the assertions set forth in the so-called ‘Downing Street Minutes’ were accurate, and in the aftermath of the disclosure by The New York Times in December, 2005, and USA Today in May, 2006, that the President had approved widespread warrantless domestic surveillance of innocent Americans.” He goes on to say, “It is unforgivable that Congress has been unwilling to examine these matters or take actions to prevent these circumstances from occurring again. Since the Majority Party is unwilling fulfill their oversight responsibilities, it is incumbent on individual Members of Congress, as well as the American public, to act to protect our constitutional form of government. It is with that purpose and in that spirit that I am releasing this Minority Report.”
Although not officially framed as such, this report is at its core a prima-fascia brief for the impeachment of the President. The subversion of intelligence in service of the drive to war with Iraq, the encouragement and defense of torture in Guantanimo and in Iraq, the extraordinary powers of surveillance arrogated unilaterally to the Executive and the numerous other violations detailed herein certainly rise to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” It is therefore bitterly ironic that between the production of this report and its publication the Democrats have won control of the House and the Senate - giving possibility to a true accounting of Presidential crimes - and the Democratic leadership, including Rep. Conyers, has peremptorily dismissed the possibility of impeachment proceedings.
Nevertheless this book remains a valuable resource. Although at times redundant, it represents the best available compendium of the abuses of power that have characterized the Bush administration. ( )