Should President Bush be Impeached?

Brian Leiter is a professor of law and philosophy at the University of Texas. He has regularly maintained a "blawg" (law-related blog) since September of '04. He suggests that Bush be impeached. His rival is Juan Non-Volokh, author of the "libertarian leaning"Volokh Conspiracy. Volokh apparently is a law professor, but he write anonymously. His blog is popular. For some reason, Leiter wants to publicly identify "Mr. Non-Volokh." In this post from a few days ago, he brings the dispute to a head. It's half way between wrestling and the McLaughlin Group. I love it!

Leiter looks like an interesting guy. He's written stuff on Nietzsche, so he must know a thing or two about The Genealogy of Morals, one of those books that tends to stick with you, and change the way you think about the world. He seems likely to have an interest in Critical Legal Studies, an area that I'm interested in, but struggling to piece together the full meaning of.

By the way, I do not necessarily support impeaching President Bush, although I would be willing to examine all of the evidence and make an independent assessment. It's possible that Bush didn't lie, because he didn't have the requisite mental state to lie. That is, he didn't intentionally state assertions he knew to be false. However, he may have had a negligent or reckless disregard for the truth. At some point there's a fine line between ignorance and lying. Perhaps his recklessness for the truth was so extreme as to be tantamount to lying.

A second requirement, by Leiter's own admission, needs to be met for it to be wise to impeach: there must be an imminent need to replace Bush. That is, simply because Bush could be impeached doesn't mean he should be. I'd have to be persuaded of that. I mean who is going to replace him? Cheney? He's worse than Bush. There'd be no point. And obviously it would be unprecedented for both Bush and Cheney to be impeached. So it all just seems like a fantasy. I don't see even a democrat coming in and doing anything different. I mean look at who voted for the war. All of the democrats. So where does impeachment get you anything different.