# The McClatchy Report: What Is To Be Done? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 19, 2008, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mcclatchy-report-what-is-to-be-done/453491 "2008-06-19T17:21:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2008, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mcclatchy-report-what-is-to-be-done/453491/21 "2008-06-22T01:57:06Z")
[QUOTE=ElvisL1ves] It’s not even that grand a calculation. Preventing Congress from getting anything else done, considering what has been accomplished instead in this term, can’t really have been the point. Not letting the GOP and its partisans dismiss impeachment as simple retribution for their use of it against Clinton, not letting it appear to be (or be spun as) simply vindictive and petty instead of statesmanlike and responsible, just matters more. Consider that Bush became a lame duck in 2006, with far less power to damage the nation and therefore making his removal far less urgent, and there you have it. [/QUOTE] The problem is, letting Bush off the hook will simply cause more damage. Letting Nixon off the hook helped create the present situation, where Bush knows he can do anything, **anything at all** with no fear of punishment. The next would-be imperial President we get may be better at it than Bush; handing someone like that yet more proof that he’s simply above the law is a bad idea. Which won’t stop us from doing so. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2008, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mcclatchy-report-what-is-to-be-done/453491/22 "2008-06-22T01:58:27Z")
How was Nixon “let off the hook”? He had the choice of resigning or being removed, and took the former, that’s all. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2008, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mcclatchy-report-what-is-to-be-done/453491/23 "2008-06-22T03:16:42Z")
[QUOTE=ElvisL1ves] How was Nixon “let off the hook”? He had the choice of resigning or being removed, and took the former, that’s all. [/QUOTE] President Ford pardoning him? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2008, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mcclatchy-report-what-is-to-be-done/453491/24 "2008-06-22T03:20:03Z")
Is the president immune from prosecution for anything he did as president? If the president is impeached (assuming he is immune in the above question) does that then open him to prosecution? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2008, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mcclatchy-report-what-is-to-be-done/453491/25 "2008-06-22T03:27:01Z")
[QUOTE=Whack-a-Mole] President Ford pardoning him? [/QUOTE] The criminal charges, even if he’d been the indicted kind of conspirator, were almost incidental. Being removed from power \*was \* the most severe punishment possible to him, not to mention necessary for the nation. But impeachment could still be taken seriously then. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2008, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mcclatchy-report-what-is-to-be-done/453491/26 "2008-06-22T03:28:49Z")
[QUOTE=Whack-a-Mole] Is the president immune from prosecution for anything he did as president? [/quote] He has some protection for acts performed in an official capacity, but it isn’t blanket immunity. > [@](#): > > If the president is impeached (assuming he is immune in the above question) does that then open him to prosecution? Impeachment has jack shit to do with the legal system. It’s a tool of statecraft, not criminal law. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2008, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mcclatchy-report-what-is-to-be-done/453491/27 "2008-06-22T04:31:19Z")
[QUOTE=elucidator] The intended substance of this debate is centered on response: what, if anything, can we do? Who do we hold responsible for this desecration of our “reputation”? Are legal sanctions appropriate, and to what level? We have brutally abused and, arguably, murdered innocent people. What is to be done? [/QUOTE] Send them to the Hague, immediately upon request; the lot of them, from the lowliest guard to the Commander in Chief. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2008, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mcclatchy-report-what-is-to-be-done/453491/28 "2008-06-22T05:35:01Z")
[QUOTE=Whack-a-Mole] President Ford pardoning him? [/QUOTE] Exactly. I’m sure Bush is well aware that no matter what he does, he’ll be pardoned for it, even if he doesn’t pardon himself. We’ve made it quite clear that Republican Presidents are simply above the law; above all forms of restraint, in fact. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2008, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mcclatchy-report-what-is-to-be-done/453491/29 "2008-06-22T05:49:37Z")
No, I just want the record straight, and all the facts out in the open. Bush himself isn’t all that important, its what he represents. And what can you do to him, that would equal justice? Even if I approved of hanging, you can only do it once. Send him to one of the Club Feds for rich white guys who get caught buggering their spreadsheets? Why bother. First started a thread about impeachment when he first lied about the nukes, before he started lying about the WMD. Got pretty well pounded on, as I recall. Good ideas are seldom popular early on, and by the time they’re popular, they’re no longer good ideas. Shit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mcclatchy-report-what-is-to-be-done/453491.md?page=1)