A Widening Chasm Between House Democrats and the Voters on Impeachment

[marmar]

(Dave Lindorff at ThisCantBeHappening.net)


Monday, May 21, 2007

A Widening Chasm Between House Democrats and the Voters on Impeachment

The divide between Democratic leaders contemplating their re-election prospects in 2008 and rank-and-file Democrats is becoming a chasm--one so wide that Congressional Democrats may soon find it hard to straddle it.

The issue is impeachment.

So far, Democrats in Congress and at the top of the party hierarchy, out of touch with public sentiment and worried that impeachment could hurt them with "independents"--whom they mistakenly consider to stand somehow "in between" Democrats and Republicans--have been following House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's vow that for the 110th Congress, "impeachment is off the table." They've been doing more than that: they have been actively working to tamp down, and even to crush, impeachment campaigns in the states. For example, in the state of Washington, an effort to get the state to pass a joint legislative resolution which would have compelled the Congress to initiate impeachment proceedings was derailed after the Democratic leadership dispatched two of the state's leading federal elected officials, Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Jay Inslee, to press legislative leaders to block a floor vote. Similar pressure doomed efforts that might have passed in the legislatures of New Mexico and Vermont (The Vermont Senate did pass the resolution).

Meanwhile, down at the state and local level, Democratic Party committee after Democratic Party committee is voting out resolutions calling for impeachment. The latest Democratic Party organization to call for impeachment of both Bush and Cheney is the Massachusetts Democratic Party, which at its state convention on Saturday, May 19, voted out a strong measure calling on the state’s elected representatives in Washington to investigate Bush and Cheney for misleading the nation into war, for authorizing torture, and for warrantless wiretapping. The message concludes: "If the investigation supports the charges, vote to impeach both Bush and Cheney as provided in the Constitution."

Massachusetts Democrats thus join California's huge Democratic Party, which passed a similar resolution less than a month ago at its annual convention, in what was widely perceived as a slap at Pelosi, who represents a district in San Francisco.

...(snip)...

How can there not be impeachment proceedings!

None of Bush's and Cheney's grave crimes and abuses of power even require anything significant in the way of hearings. They could be submitted as bills of impeachment and voted on by the House Judiciary Committee and by the full Congress tomorrow, if there was the will to do so.

Instead, the Democratic leadership continues to dither, continues to permit the president to ignore subpoenas, continues to interfere with grassroots efforts to pass impeachment resolutions, and continues to ignore even the bill of impeachment against the vice president, House Resolution 333, submitted a month ago by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), even as it has now gained three co-sponsors. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/

[BOSSHOG]

1. I've always preferred

A war crimes trial with a potential ending, a slow walk to the gallows and a slow swing in the breeze. bush and cheney and every member of PNAC and everyone active in right wing hate radio.

[rinsd]

2. Of all the impeachment strategies, forget the hearings has to be the dumbest.

[MasonJar]

3. I just called Pelosi and my rep Yarmuth and told them that I vehemently

oppose sending a bill to Bush which lets him off the hook. I also said that I expect some movement on paper ballots. I also called Mitch, but that is like whistling in the wind. And Bunning is too senile to know what he is voting for. Call everyone you can; it is our responsibility to insist. If we do NOT, then we should not complain.

[babylonsister]

4. KKK + RRR! nt

[ninkasi]

5. If Bush and Cheney are not impeached

then no future president can be impeached. No other president has committed such egregious violations of the Constitution, and gotten away with it. By removing impeachment from the table, we are condoning future presidents to rule as absolute despots. We need to let every Democratic member of the Congress know that we voted them in because we wanted change.

If they will not heed the message we sent when making them the majority, then perhaps we can find candidates who will listen, and will carry out the wishes of We, the People. The grassroots worked like hell to get the current crop elected. We can also work like hell to elect people who will actually perform as we wish.