WTPFP: Impeachment-If Not Now, When?
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/34899By David Swanson
In response to public demand for impeachment hearings and pressure from
Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Congressman Robert Wexler, and others, as
well as electoral challenges by pro-impeachment candidates, House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi finally caved and proposed to allow Kucinich to
present impeachment in a Judiciary Committee hearing.
The hearing was then scheduled for a Friday (July 25) and scheduled to
last a full two-hours (10 a.m. to noon). Then the topic was altered.
Rather than being about impeachment, the hearing will be about
impeachment and other supposed remedies to a lawless presidency, with
the bulk of the time devoted to those other remedies. Most of those
other remedies will involve, believe it or not, legislative proposals.
Thus, the dererrence to future presidents who follow the Bush-Cheney
tradition of violating all laws and checks on power will be the
knowledge that during the administration following Bush-Cheney some
bills were passed criminalizing what had always been criminal activity.
Rumor has it there are two panels being planned for the hearing, one
consisting of Kucinich and four other members of Congress (Jane Harman,
Walter Jones, Brad Miller, and Maurice Hinchey), and the other
consisting of five non-Congress Members (Elizabeth Holtzman, Bruce Fein,
Frederick Schwartz, John Dean, and Bob Barr). Each of these speakers
will likely have 5 minutes for opening remarks. So, Kucinich's
presentation of the impeachable offenses of 7.5 years will be limited to
5 minutes. The hope of those planning this afair will be to bury
impeachment.
Here's why they'll fail. Holtzman and Fein -- and Kucinich -- are among
the most persuasive advocates for impeachment alive. At least those
three speakers, it is safe to assume, will be standing up for our
Constitution. Another you can add to that list is commmittee member
Robert Wexler. Others are committee members Shiela Jackson-Lee and Tammy
Baldwin. It is safe to assume that these members will direct their
questioning to the need for impeachment and the advocates of beginning
it. Plus Hinchey favors impeachment too.
Other supporters of impeachment on the committee are Keith Ellison,
Steve Cohen, Hank Johnson, and Maxine Waters, as well as Luis Gutierrez
and Anthony Weiner. Zoe Lofgren is also likely to speak up for
impeachment. And those in the room as audience will be overwhelmingly
defenders of our Constitution. But you can help defend it without coming
to Washington. Here's how:
Contact the members of the Judiciary Committee and insist that they be
there on Friday the 25th and that they speak up for impeachment:http://afterdowningstreet.org/judiciarycommittee