BDS And The Washington Post

A good barometer of  Bush Derangement Syndrome is the increasing frequency in which our elected Representatives and various media outlets call for radical changes in our "ways and means" of government in order to derail policies George Bush may be following or to oust him entirely.The radicalsim behind these measures is difficult to comprehend-with a bare year and a few months left to his Presidency, Bush's opponents would radically overhaul our form of government in order to short circuit his removal from the office.

The New York Times, (archived) for instance, recently published an op-ed ("Stacking the Court"  ) calling for an increase in the size of the Supreme Court in order to appoint liberals to the Court who would be able to override the judicial opinions of the current sitting justices-whose recent appointments were made by George Bush (and approved by the Senate).

Now, the Washington Post publishes an op-ed ("Ouster By the People") advocating other methods be employed to oust George Bush.

First up, a constitutional amendment allowing for the removal of a President through a recall mechanism:

Such an amendment would need to set a high bar for removal and include a process that would be the greatest possible expression of the popular will. This could best be achieved through a recall procedure beginning in the House and the Senate, where a 60 percent vote would be required in both chambers to initiate a national referendum that would be open to all citizens eligible to vote in state elections. The ballot would simply ask voters to say yes or no to removing the president and vice president from office immediately. Should a majority vote to recall both incumbents, the speaker of the House would succeed to the presidency and, under the provisions of the 25th Amendment, would choose a vice president, who would need to be confirmed by majorities in the House and the Senate.

Th author, Robert Dallek, recognizes the unlikelihood of this effort succeeding but he sees the expression of popular dissatisfaction with George Bush policies as being the type of pressure that would compel George Bush to change his policies. Dallek sees such an effort as worth pursuing because Bush's popularity ratings or so low. He neglects to mention that at various times in their Presidencies , all of our Presidents have had very low approval ratiings (including Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan-who went on to become one of our most popular and revered Presidents). Also, Dallek conveniently neglects (as an inconvenient fact) to mention, that Congress currently has a lower approval rating than President Bush.

How about a recall of the Congress?