Schéma de crise

Il faut noter combien, depuis l’inauguration du nouveau Congrès (à majorité démocrate), jeudi dernier, la possibilité d’une crise institutionnelle majeure s’est imposée dans les commentaires à Washington. Il faut signaler ici un très intéressant article de Jeremy Brecher et Brendan Smith (historien et spécialiste de droit), sur CommonDreams.org, du 6 janvier. On y trouve une analyse à la fois technique et circonstanciée sur ce que pourrait être cette crise.

Les deux auteurs ne cachent pas la potentialité explosive de l’événement. Ils citent le jugement de Tom Engelhardt : «the mother of all Constitutional crises». L’impression qu’ils laissent est celle d’une veillée d’armes avant un affrontement qui pourrait avoir de très importantes conséquences en matière de politique intérieure. «The consequence will be a power struggle which could — if Democrats so choose — be the defining moment in the effort to establish legal and constitutional accountability for the Bush administration — and thereby force it to end the war.»

La bataille semble devoir se concentrer autour des demandes du Congrès d’accès à des documents classifiés de l’administration, et autour de l’audition au même Congrès de fonctionnaires au cours des myriades d’enquêtes (treize sont annoncées sur la seule guerre en Irak) qui vont être lancées par les commissions des deux chambres.

«Constitutionalists and progressives need to start planning proactively to prepare the public to respond appropriately and effectively to this impending confrontation.

»First, that requires an on-going interpretation to people of what is happening and what it means.

»Second, it involves defining venues for action in which large numbers of people can participate. Rep. John Conyers' mobilization of popular support for demanding information about the Downing Street memos represents on a small scale what will need to be done on a larger scale.

»Third, it requires creating some kind of infrastructure or rapid-response network with the capacity to support such a mobilization.

»Fourth, it calls for a broad coalition that reaches far beyond progressives to include conservatives committed to the rule of law and a broad public concerned about the abuse of presidential power and the preservation of democracy. Such a coalition already exists in nascent form, for example in the Constitution Project, which has brought together such improbably allies as Al Gore and Bob Barr to articulate concern about Bush administration abuse of presidential power.

»The power and willingness of Congress to affect Bush's Iraq policies depends on utilizing the vulnerability of the Administration and its Republican supporters to severe loss of effective power, criminal investigation, and/or impeachment. That vulnerability is likely to be greatest, in turn, where the Administration can be shown to engage in Nixonian abuse of government power to suppress information in its own interest.

»A defeat of the Bush administration on the right of Congress and the public to know what the government is doing can be the starting point of a broader effort to establish institutional and cultural vehicles for controlling executive power — in short, for a transition to democracy.»

Mis en ligne le 7 janvier 2007 à 14H57