Warning to Bush: Bomb Iran and face impeachment

Biden’s warning to Bush: Bomb Iran and face impeachment

David Edwards and Nick Juliano

Sen. Joe Biden, the loquacious long-shot Democratic presidential candidate, warned President Bush Thursday that he would move for impeachment if the president unilaterally authorized a military strike against Iran.

“The President has no authority to unilaterally attack Iran and … if he does, as foreign relations committee chairman and former chairman of judiciary, I will move to impeach him,” Biden told a crowd of about 100 potential voters at a campaign stop in New Hampshire.

Biden said he is meeting with constitutional law experts and plans to send Bush a legal memo formally outlining his warning, according to Seacoast Online, which reported his comments.

The senior Delaware senator told the crowd that calls for Bush’s immediate impeachment were valid but may not have enough constitutional support to make them viable. He added that Bush wasn’t the only White House figure who deserves to be booted.

“If you’re going to impeach George Bush, you better impeach Cheney first,” Biden said, garnering applause from the crowd.

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe Friday, host Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, criticized Biden’s proposal.

“It is so unfortunate, that this is how we campaign now, talking about impeachment,” Scarborough said, “when you have [Iranian president Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad talking about obliterating Israel, talking about obliterating the United States, talking about building nuclear weapons, how we can’t stop him. Saying just absolutely horrendous crazy things, sending Iranian forces into Iraq to kill American troops.

“And Joe Biden, who I like and respect, talking on the campaign trail about impeaching a commander in chief because of a decision that he may make against a madman,” he continued. “And everybody knows that Ahmadinejad is a madman, and that Iran is one of the most dangerous planets on Earth.”

One assumes Scarborough meant to say “most dangerous countries on Earth.”
This video is from MSNBC Morning Joe, broadcast on November 30, 2007.

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