Quote of the Day: On Impeachment

From Jonathan Turley, a professor at the George Washington University School of Law, who testified to Congress in favor of Bill Clinton's impeachment, regarding George W. Bush's flaunting of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act:

Looking at this controversy objectively, you inevitably end up with a question of impeachment.

The fact is, the federal law is perfectly clear. At the heart of this operation was a federal crime. The president has already conceded that he personally ordered that crime and renewed that order at least 30 times. This would clearly satisfy the standard of high crimes and misdemeanors for the purpose of an impeachment.

Many of my Republican friends joined in [President Clinton's impeachment] hearing and insisted that this was a matter of defending the rule of law, and had nothing to do with political antagonism. I'm surprised that many of those same voices are silent. The crime in this case was a knowing and premeditated act. This operation violated not just the federal statute but the United States Constitution. For Republicans to suggest that this is not a legitimate question of federal crimes makes a mockery of their position during the Clinton period. For Republicans, this is the ultimate test of principle.