Bush impeachment news hearten activists
Kucinich move welcomed despite timing
By Bill Lascher 06/12/2008
Local activists celebrated the June 9 introduction of articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush even though the measure will likely have little impact on the waning days of his administration.
“Citizens for Impeachment wants accountability, we want this precedent that will be put in place to not go ahead for the next presidency,” said Cindy Piester, the chair and founder of Citizens for Impeachment, Ventura County.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Congressman and Democrat who was thwarted earlier this year in his second straight bid for his party’s presidential nomination, introduced 35 articles of impeachment into the congressional record. It took Kucinich four hours to read each of the articles, which are available online at chun.afterdowningstreet.org/amomentoftruth.pdf.
Piester said the introduction of the articles of impeachment open the possibility for investigations into various questionable moves taken by Bush and his administration since 2001. Each is an example of the president overstepping his constitutional authority, she says, a move problematic not just because of its current impact but the possibility that future presidents — from any party — may see congressional inaction as a green light for future abuses of power.
The articles of impeachment focus on four areas the president may have abused his power, Piester said. The categories include the use of signing statements to gut or alter laws Bush disagrees with while avoiding using his presidential veto, illegal surveillance on American citizens, the use of torture to secure confessions in terrorism investigations, and misleading the public in the march to war in Iraq.
“We have to look at what all he’s done here,” Piester said. “We have all the lies in the lead up to war which are thoroughly documented. Now we have all these people who have died, our own soldiers, and who continue to die and have these terrible injuries. The country is going to be paying for this for generations.”
Piester said she isn’t concerned that an impeachment could be made irrelevant by Bush’s departure from office in January 2009.
“Once the investigations begin in the house judiciary committee the information will be so compelling, if they just began the impeachment proceedings we feel like the floodgates for the truth will be opened,” she said. Indeed, Piester added, her allies want to also begin impeachment proceedings against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco Democrat who took her leadership position after her party won control of the house in 2006 congressional elections. Piester claims the speaker’s decision in early 2007 to take impeachment “off the table” stymied justice for the American public.
Congresswoman Lois Capps, A Democrat representing portions of Ventura and Oxnard in the House of Representatives did not comment on the measure by deadline Wednesday. When Kucinich brought a measure to the House in 2007 aimed at Vice President Dick Cheney, Capps did not vote for it, but she voted against procedural maneuvers to kill the resolution before Kucinich could introduce it.
Piester doesn’t think Capps has done enough.
“Lois Capps has not been helping us at all,” Piester said. “She’s been sensitive to the issue of war in Iraq, which is wonderful and we all commend her for that, but she’s not supporting the impeachment. She’s falling along with Pelosi’s desires.”
Instead of working on behalf of the American people, Piester said she believes most Democrats’ reluctance to pursue impeachment is an election-year tactic.
“The American people want [impeachment],” she said. “The majority of Democrats who are already their base want it. The majority of independents want it. The republicans are jumping ship. So what’s to lose?”
Elton Gallegly, a Republican and Congressman representing the rest of Ventura County, was not able to comment for this story by press time. In 1998 Gallegly supported articles of impeachment brought against then-President Bill Clinton in only the second impeachment in United States history.
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