"Ralph Nader criticizes 'spineless, gutless' Democrats for not impeaching Bush" (with video)

RAW STORY. with video (10:41):

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who mounted failed bids for the White House in 2000 and 2004, excoriated the Bush administration for its post-9/11 policies that critics say trample on civil liberties and for its pursuit of war in Iraq, which he said distracts from fighting Osama bin Laden.

The onetime Green Party candidate appeared at an anti-war rally in Washington Saturday, where he chastised "spineless, gutless" Democrats in Congress for failing to boot Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney from office.

"The impeachable offenses of Bush outnumber any other list of impeachable offenses of any US president," Nader said. "Not only did he and Cheney violate their oath of office to uphold the constitution and the laws of the land, but they proceeded to impose a practice of torture, to arrest thousands of Americans without charges and throw them in prisons without lawyers.... They spied on millions of Americans randomly without judicial approval. How many more impeachable offenses do those spineless, gutless, hapless Democrats need in the Congress."

Nader, who encouraged attendees to visit the anti-war Web site DemocracyRising.us, said the presidential elections in 2000 and 2004 were "stolen" from Democrats, but he did not mention his own candidacy in either of those races.

Because Democrats control Congress -- after a power shift following the 2006 midterm elections -- they can cut off funding for the war, hold hearings on Bush administration policies and begin impeachment proceedings. Beyond failing to do any of that, though, there have not been vocal calls for Bush's resignation, Nader said, which makes Democrats now weaker than those in Congress when former-President Richard Nixon was forced to resign in the wake of Watergate.

Speaking about the Iraq war, Nader mentioned Gen. David Petraeus's testimony on Capitol Hill last week, during which he was asked whether the war in Iraq was making America safer. "I don't know," was the US troop commander's reply, and that was unacceptable, Nader said.

"It's making the oil companies richer," he said. "It's making the corporations more profiteering. It's making our domination of the Middle East more likely to boomerang against our national security, isn't it?"

Howie P.S.: My past disagreements with Mr. Nader are public knowledge. My "Bush-Nader 2004" bumper sticker said it all. I gave Howard Dean one that he held up and the photograph appeared in the Tacoma News Tribune.