PAT BUCHANAN News & Opinion For the GOP would gain nothing and risk everything if the people began to take seriously their threats to do to Barack Obama what Newt Gingrich’s House did to Bill Clinton. The charges for which a president can be impeached and removed from office, are “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” With Bill Clinton, the impeachers had a solid case of perjury. With Richard Nixon, they had a preponderance of evidence that, at least for a time, he had sought to obstruct justice in the investigation of the Watergate break-in. Article II of the impeachment of Richard Nixon was for misuse of the IRS in what turned out to be futile and failed attempts to have the agency harass political enemies by having them audited. As yet there is no evidence Obama knew of the IRS plot to delay and deny tax exemptions to Tea Party groups, which would be an abuse of power and a trampling upon the constitutional rights of Tea Partiers, who were denied the equal protection of the laws. The GOP response to the lost emails of Lois Lerner and crashed computers that went missing should be a drumbeat of demands for the appointment of an independent counsel, not an impeachment committee in the House. Obama claims he did not learn of the IRS abuse until years after it began, and weeks after his White House staff learned of it. In the absence of those emails, the claim cannot be refuted. In the Benghazi scandal, the president’s defense is the same. He had no idea what was going on. And cluelessness appears here to be a credible defense. Two weeks after the Benghazi atrocity, Obama was at the U.N. still parroting the Susan Rice line about an anti-Muslim video having been the cause of it all. Has the president unilaterally rewritten the Obamacare law, while ignoring the Congress that wrote it? Indeed, he has. But would a Republican Party that failed and folded when it tried to use its legitimate power of the purse to defund Obamacare really stand firm in an Antietam battle to impeach a president of the United States? Or is this just “beer talk”? Impeachment is in the last analysis a political act. The impeachment of Nixon was a coup d’etat by liberal enemies who, though repudiated and routed by the electorate in 1972, still retained the institutional power to break him and destroy his presidency. And, undeniably, he gave them the tools. In the case of Nixon, political enemies controlled both houses of the Congress. Washington was a hostile city. Though he had swept 49 states, TIMES, THURSDAY, JULY 10, 2014 • 4 COPYRIGHT 2013 RIDGEWOOD TIMES PRINTING & PUBLISHING CO., INC. Since 1908 Published Every Thursday By RIDGEWOOD TIMES PRINTING & PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC. 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Classified Manager TIMES NEWSWEEKLY Is Listed With The Standard Rate & Data And Is A Member Of The New York Press Association Reaching The Queens Homes Of Ridgewood, Glendale, Liberty Park, Maspeth, Middle Village, So. Elmhurst, Woodside, Sunnyside, Astoria, Long Island City, Ozone Park, South Ozone Park, Howard Beach, Richmond Hill, Rego Park, Forest Hills, Woodhaven, Elmhurst, And Kew Gardens. Reaching The Brooklyn Homes Of Ridgewood, Bushwick, Cypress Hills, East Williamsburg And Williamsburg. COMPOSITION RESPONSIBILITY: Accuracy in receiving ads over the telephone cannot be guaranteed. This newspaper is responsible for only one incorrect insertion and only for that portion of the ad in which the error appears. It is the responsibility of the advertiser to make sure copy does not contravene the Consumer Protection Law or any other requirement. Impeachment: A Bridge Too Far Increasingly, across Washington, the “I” word is being heard. Impeachment is being brought up by Republicans outraged over Barack Obama’s usurpations of power and unilateral rewriting of laws. And Obama is taunting John Boehner and the GOP: “So sue me.” Democrats are talking impeachment to rally a lethargic base to come out and vote this fall to prevent Republicans from taking control of the Senate, and with it the power to convict an impeached president. Still, Republicans should drop the talk of impeachment. -SEE BUCHANAN ON PG. 24- EDITORIAL If any more New York State elected officials get thrown in jail, federal prisons will be required to air their daily lunch time proceedings on C-SPAN. Two more Albany politicians who allegedly behaved badly were locked up in recent weeks. State Sen. Thomas Libous, known as a Republican power broker, was busted for allegedly lying to prosecutors about using his influence to help his son secure a job at a major law firm. Former Assemblywoman Gabriela Rosa, a Democrat, recently lost her seat after pleading guilty to committing marriage fraud. She reportedly entered into a sham marriage with a U.S. citizen in order to standardize her immigration status. That’s a new one, even by Albany’s low standards. Libous and Rosa now find themselves members of the Party of Shame, a who’s who of more than 30 Albany bigwigs since 2000 caught betraying the public trust in one form or another. Some of Queens’ representatives are part of that dubious list, including State Sen. Malcolm Smith, who allegedly tried to buy his way to the Republican mayoral nomination and is awaiting retrial; former State Sen. Shirley Huntley, who embezzled state funds through a nonprofit organization; the late Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio, who used a consulting firm he formed to accept kickbacks; and former Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin, who reportedly ratted out a bunch of other corrupt cronies after getting caught stealing $2 million in state and labor funds. That list doesn’t even include former Assemblyman Vito Lopez, who—according to an ethics commission report— sexually harassed female staffers, but apparently bent the law just enough to avoid breaking it. Why has New York State’s legislature become rife with corruption? Why do so many corrupt lawmakers think they can break the law and get away with it? We believe much of this has to do with the way lawmakers are elected and re-elected. Members of the Assembly and State Senate are classified as “part-time” employees. Their sessions only run from January through June each year and only meet thereafter under emergency circumstances. Lawmakers are also allowed to hold private sector jobs to supplement their govenrment income, which averages at about $80,000 annually. (By contrast, a New York City Council member makes $112,500 a year for what is also described as a part-time gig). Moreover, Albany lawmakers each serve two-year terms—so they are forced into a perpetual campaign and constantly raise funds for their re-election. Those desperate for a competitive edge will promise anything to anyone to get the cash they desire. Though voters tend to cry “Vote the bums out!” when something bad happens in Albany, they almost never do. Assembly and State Senate incumbents are re-elected at a ridiculously high rate every two years; some lawmakers don’t even face a challenger on Election Day. What do we do to fix this broken system? Crazy as it might sound, lawmakers’ terms should be extended from two to four years—but with term limits to end permanent incumbency. Annual pay should be increased to at least $100,000—but lawmakers should be barred from holding private sector jobs while serving in the legislature. These measures may not root out all the corruption, but it will keep most of the good lawmakers from breaking bad. News From The Woodhaven Residents’ Restoring Queens Library’s Reputation To Match Its Work by Alexander Blenkinsopp The Queens Borough Public Library has been in the news a lot recently, and not for positive reasons. Scandal has enveloped its president and CEO, Thomas W. Galante. I will not recount the details of Galante’s enormous salaries, outlandish perks, lack of accountability, exorbitant office renovations, or lucrative side jobs. Nor will I rehash the details of the Queens Library’s refusal to make its accounts transparent or how its board of trustees attempted to shield Galante from any responsibility. This should tell you what you need to know: legislation to reform the Queens Library’s governance was passed by the Assembly unanimously, and was approved by the State Senate 59-1, before Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed it into law. The scandals around the Queens Library were so galling that Albany united to respond swiftly. State Sen. Michael Gianaris, who represents a portion of Woodhaven, should be commended for sponsoring the bill in his chamber. In contrast, State Sen. Greg Ball, who cast the sole dissenting vote, should be ashamed of himself. Galante and his supporters on the board of trustees have damaged the Queens Library’s reputation. But with reform in the offing, I want to take this opportunity to share a personal story of mine that I hope will cast light on why the Queens Library, a very important institution, should not be tainted permanently by Galante and his allies. What the library has meant to me Early in life, I realized that I wasn’t going to end up a professional baseball player. I worked hard at the sport. I was lucky to have excellent coaches as a member of the Rich-Haven Hill Little Block Association League and the Ridgewood- Glendale-Middle Village-Maspeth Little League. I went to more practices than I can count at The Pit (now Strack Pond), Victory Field, Seither Stadium, and Juniper Park. I loved baseball deeply. But no matter how hard I worked at it, there were countless kids better than I was. I understood that I simply was not going to become the next Bernie Williams or Howard Johnson. Fortunately, I also realized early that I excelled in the classroom in a way I never did on the sports field. My path in life was going to involve a whole lot of reading and writing. The Woodhaven branch of the Queens Library was utterly crucial to that realization. Growing up in Woodhaven, the first two libraries I ever knew were the school library at St. Thomas the Apostle, where I was a student for nine years, and the Woodhaven branch of the Queens Public Library. I regularly checked out piles of books from the St. Thomas library. Its collection introduced me to many subjects, from Aesop’s Fables to the immune system. Often, though, when I wanted to know more about something, I needed to look beyond my school library’s walls. That’s how the Woodhaven branch became part of my life. If I asked to go to the Queens Library on Forest Parkway, Mom or Dad would take me there whenever they could. With its larger stock of books, it often scratched whatever scholastic itch I happened to have. I usually found more than I could actually read on a particular subject. It helped me appreciate just how much there was -SEE WRBA ON PG. 24-
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