House Dems Want to Impeach Judge for Torture Memos

House Democrats may start a constitutional confrontation over the fate of Judge Jay Bybee, and there’s nothing anybody—not even lukewarm President Obama—can do to stop them, reports Politico. As liberal think-tanker John Podesta argues, Bybee “authorized things that were illegal under US law” when he wrote memos endorsing waterboarding in his role as a Bush legal adviser.

Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to turn down a request from Democratic Congressmen John Conyers and Jerrold Nadler for a special prosecutor, but an expert on parliamentary procedure says that if the House votes to impeach Bybee from the 9th Circuit Appeals Court, the Senate would be forced into a trial. Meantime, Podesta adds, “He doesn't have the moral or legal authority to continue.” (More Jay Bybee stories.)