Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama's Impeachment

Description

We still imagine ourselves a nation of laws, not men. That is not merely an article of faith but a bedrock principle of the United States Constitution. In drafting our founding compact, the Framers confronted a wrenching paradox. For the fledgling nation to be survive ? for it to have the security the Articles of Confederation failed to provide ? awesome powers had to be concentrated in a chief executive, the president, empowered to act swiftly and decisively in times of peril. Yet, there was no greater threat to liberty ? the defining American imperative, the very reason for creating a central government ? than the concentration of unchecked power in a single government official. Consequently, the debates at the Philadelphia convention centered not on whether presidential power had to be effectively checked ? a premise on which there was unanimity ? but on how to do it: how to stop a rogue executive who abused his awesome powers, who imperiled liberty by becoming a law unto himself.The Framers thus vested Congress with two checks on executive excess: the power of the purse and the power of impeachment. They are potent remedies, but they are also the only remedies. There are no others.As Faithless Execution will demonstrate, it is a straightforward matter to plead articles of impeachment derived from these episodes ? to establish ?high crimes and misdemeanors," a term of art borrowed from English law, signifying maladministration and abuses of power by holders of high public trust. To focus on the individual episodes, though, is to miss the overarching offense: the president's willful violation of his solemn, constitutional oath to faithfully execute the laws. The modus operandi for the transformation he promised is to concentrate power into his own hands by flouting law ? the Constitution, statutes and judicial rulings ? and essentially daring the coordinate branches of government to stop him.

Andrew C. McCarthy was a top federal prosecutor involved in some of the most significant cases in recent history. Decorated with the Justice Department's highest honors, he retired from government in 2003, after helping launch the 9/11 investigation. He is one of America's most persuasive voices on national security issues and author of the bestsellers Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad and The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America. Currently, he is a policy fellow at the National Review Institute, a contributing editor at National Review, and a columnist for PJ Media.

Previous Praise for Andrew C. McCarthy: "His contentions deserve debate." -- The Wall Street Journal "His background distinguishes him from pundits on the left and the right." -- The New York Times Praise for Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad "It is arguably the most stirring, brilliantly written, and devastatingly honest book on terrorism that has ever been published." -- Steven Emerson, Executive director of Investigative Project on Terrorism "Andy McCarthy was there when the jihad began. Read this book and you'll understand why this war is a war, and why we have no choice but to fight it and win it." -- Rush Limbaugh Praise for The Grand Jihad: How Islam & The Left Sabotage America "When prosecution rather than war was our means of fighting terrorism, Andy McCarthy was the tip of the spear... Everything Andy writes is must-reading, and must-heeding." -- William J. Bennett "This is a clarion call from a fearless fighter for freedom." -- Mark R. Levin