Reason for Impeachment?
A Possible Crime 'Made in Bush Administration'

By: Bruce S. Ticker

Someone in the Bush administration probably should be prosecuted.

If the possible crime in question reaches all the way to the President and Vice President, then impeachment proceedings must be initiated.

The potentially impeachable offense was presented by Al Kamen in his In the Loop column in Wednesday's (Jan. 29) Washington Post. He did not mention impeachment in his column, which usually appears at the bottom of a far inside page.

The week before, George W. Bush hailed small businesss and merchandise made in America while standing behind some boxes that had tape over the words "Made in China" during an appearance in St. Louis.

This clears up my confusion over whether merchandise is still even made in America any longer. But I digress. The White House blamed this on an unnamed "overzealous volunteer". Who could it be? Did Bush or Cheney volunteer? That "overzealous volunteer" might be a common criminal. Kamen wrote that covering up the "Made In" labels violates Title 19, Chapter 4, Subtitle II, Part 1, Sec. 134.11, which "requires that every article of foreign origin (or its container) imported into the United States shall be marked in a conspicuous place as legibly, indelibly, and permanently" as possible, "in such manner as to indicate to an ultimate purchaser... [the] name of the country of origin of the article. Any person who, with intent to conceal the information... defaces, destroys, removes, alters, covers, obscures, or obliterates any mark required under the provisions of this chapter shall-(1) upon a conviction for the first violation... be fined not more than $100,000 or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both."

Customs enforces this law, and the agency is now under the Department of Homeland Security headed by Tom Ridge, a longtime friend of Bush.

The interpretation of this legal layperson is that someone associated with the Bush administration, on behalf of the Bush administration, committed a federal crime. In fact, the crime was committed specifically for the very reason that the law was created: The offender was trying to conceal the origin of the material inside the boxes.

Laws were made to be enforced, not to tolerate crimes. (My advance apologies for attempted logic and rationality). These guys are tough law and order types. They need to get cracking.

All very seriously, a law was broken. A special prosecutor must be appointed to investigate the incident. If Bush and Cheney are involved in some way, even to obstruct an investigation, they too should be charged. If there is evidence that either or both participated, then the House of Representatives should initiate impeachment proceedings. Such an offense might have been too trivial for impeachment five years ago, but the bar for impeachment was set even lower when President Clinton was subjected to this treatment for lying about his sex life.

What goes around comes around. Not that Congress will lower itself to the occasion once again.