The dialogue continues

Senator Obama,

Thank you for replying to my recent questions about President Bush and his surveillance program. In your response, you stated "While Congress needs to conduct more oversight of the administration's work, I do not think that options such as calling for impeachment of the President serve our ultimate objective, which is getting the country back on the right track."

I agree that our collective goal should be to make this country and world a better place, and I believe that it doesn't matter who's in charge in the government, if our goals can be achieved anyway. And I don't think that disagreement with policy or dissatisfaction with performance are grounds for impeachment - that doesn't rise to the standards of "high crimes or misdemeanors", no matter what the Congress tried to do during the previous Presidential administration.

However, I am gravely concerned about a President and Vice-President that appear to have violated a law, and not just any law, but one which is deeply connected with our civil rights, as enumerated by the Constitution. That they show not only no remorse, but actively defend their actions, demonstrates to me the depth of their disregard for the law and of the freedoms which are so vital to our nation.

I sincerely hope that you and your colleagues in Congress will conduct a full investigation of the President's behavior, and then, if necessary, require him, and any that were complicit in the breaking of the law, to pay the appropriate penalty, as would be expected of any citizen in our country of laws. Whether that penalty rises to the level of impeachment is a judgement that can only be made once all the facts are in, but I urge you to keep all options open until then.

Thank you for your hard work in representing the residents of Illinois and the citizens of the Unites States over the past year, and I wish you even more success in 2006.

Sincerely,

Dr. Eric C. Martell
Assistant Professor and Chair
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Millikin University