More Noted Things

by Cliopatria

Bush Watch: Friday's issue of Rolling Stone will feature a cover article by Sean Wilentz:"The Worst President in History? One of America's Leading Historians Assesses George W. Bush." Of course, many historians were close to that conclusion two years ago. At VanityFair.com, Watergate veteran Carl Bernstein calls for"Senate Hearings on Bush, Now." Of course, impeachment proceedings begin in the House of Representatives, not the Senate, but holding impeachment proceedings in the second terms of two presidents in a row would set a terrible precedent for the future of the American presidency. Two recent presidents have set some bad precedents, themselves, however; and there seems to be no other remedy short of enduring another 2½ years of this.

War Watch: Following the lead of Mary Habeck, a military historian at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Jonathan Rauch,"A War on Jihadism, Not ‘Terror'," ReasononLine, 17 April argues that declaring the current struggle a ‘war on jihadism' clarifies what it is about. But Habeck, Rauch and others like them only demonstrate their tin ear for religious language of any kind. They know -- even acknowledge -- but ignore, the fact that jihad has a range of meaning and that, in its more inoffensive forms, it is obligatory on all faithful Muslims. It is the equivalent of declaring a ‘war on obedience' in Judaism or a ‘war on discipleship' or a ‘war on evangelism' in Christianity. To speak of a ‘war on terror' acknowledges, at least, that there is an ‘enemy within' in domestic terrorism. It would be strange, indeed, if a secular mentality pushed us increasingly us in the direction of Crusader-language. Thanks to Kevin Drum at Political Animal for the tip.

As Doug Lederman points out at Inside Higher Ed, the MLA's new interactive language map of the United States is quite extraordinary. Try it out! And, now, as promised, I'm outta here until Sunday.

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More Comments:

Ralph E. Luker - 4/23/2006

The problem of Jason's analogy to a parliamentary system's vote of no confidence is that it forces a regime change or a plebiscite that creates the basis for a new regime. Impeachment under our constitutional system (and the a-constitutional party system) doesn't produce a regime change. It merely removes the chief executive. All other elements of the regime -- including the chief executive's self-chosen successor --remain in place. Machiavelli's advice that if one shoots at the prince, one had best kill him is thus frustrated by our constitutional and party systems. Even an impeached and ousted president is only wounded (and as such perhaps more dangerous) -- his regime continues in place.

Jonathan Dresner - 4/19/2006

Voltaire said that the ideal government is a benevelont dictatorship with the ocassional assassination....

I think the infrequency of impeachment proceedings for over a century was a sort of scandal in its own right; but when Presidents cross lines of law and justice, then impeachment should be the Sword of Damocles, hovering in their minds.

Jason Kuznicki - 4/19/2006

"holding impeachment proceedings in the second terms of two presidents in a row would set a terrible precedent for the future of the American presidency."

I'm not convinced by this. First, we must ask just who has set the bad precedent -- was it Congress, for impeaching, or the President, for his actions, which arguably prompted the impeachment proceedings in the first place? (One need not reach the same conclusion, of course, about the Clinton impeachment as one would reach about a hypothetical Bush impeachment.)

Also, I'm not convinced that frequent impeachments would be such a bad thing for the republic. Parliamentary governments routinely endure votes of no confidence and are no worse for the wear. And while I thought the Clinton impeachment was mostly a worthless distraction (an opinion that events have since vindicated), impeachment is emphatically not a constitutional crisis. It's an ordinary part of our constitutional system.