What is an impeachable offense, as defined by the Constitution as “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors”?

Congress agreed that when Richard Nixon lied to the public to cover up the Watergate bur-glary, he should be impeached. (Nixon then resigned to avoid impeachment.) The House of Representatives agreed that when Bill Clinton slept with a White House intern, that was not enough for him to be impeached.

Now there are serious charges, including the Downing Street Memo, that George W. Bush knowingly made false statements in order to justify a U.S. military invasion of Iraq. We know now those statements were false, but did he know they were false?

Surely, if Bush lied to us just as Nixon did, and knew he was lying for something as important as beginning a war, he should be investigated for possible impeachment.

Similarly, there are charges of illegal secret prisons and torture of prisoners. Is George W. Bush knowingly hiding information about illegal activities? What about recent charges that he authorized surveillance that he knew was illegal?

Past Bangor Daily News editorials have not addressed an investigation, as has been proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives as House Resolution 635. It is time a daily newspaper in Maine asked the crucial question: “Why isn’t Congress investigating these charges to see if the president did knowingly lie to or commit illegal acts against the American people?”

There is nothing worse for our country than for a president to intentionally lie to the people and to commit illegal acts against our own citizens and for no one to question it.

Larry Dansinger

Monroe