Why is the Democratic Congress so unpopular? It isn’t because the Democrats in Congress are taking strong stands that anger Republican voters. Rather, it is because most Democrats in Congress are failing to act on the majority, mainstream view in America: That George W. Bush and Dick Cheney must be impeached.
Dennis Kucinich has introduced a resolution to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney, but Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has tried to destroy that resolution even before Congress has the chance to debate the resolution’s merits.
The editors of the Battleboro Reformer, a Vermont newspaper, rightly identify Pelosi’s opposition to impeachment as “a perfect illustration of why Congress has a lower approval rating than President Bush.” They write,
“A Democratic majority was elected to Congress last year to end the war in Iraq and rein in the Bush administration. Neither thing has happened. On issue after issue, the Democrats have caved in to Bush. And impeachment remains off the table.
Under House rules, Kucinich or any other member could introduce a motion for impeachment every day that Congress is in session. We think that sounds like a good idea. The administration has committed many crimes that rise to the level of impeachment — chief among them lying about the need to invade Iraq and sending this country into war based upon those lies. But Congress will not carry out its constitutional duties.
Bush and Cheney must not be allowed to leave office without being held accountable for their behavior. History will not look at the current members of Congress kindly if they fail to do what is right and necessary to preserve our democracy.”
Yesterday, Dennis Kucinich brought a resolution to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney to the floor of the House of Representatives.
In what is certainly a disappointment, but is no longer surprising, the Democratic Party leadership tried to have the impeachment resolution eliminated even before it could be considered and debated in Congress. They tried to squelch the popular Democratic support for impeachment.
Some Democrats had enough integrity to break away from their leaders’ treachery against Democratic voters. 86 Democrats voted against eliminating the impeachment resolution. They succeeded. The resolution to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney remains alive, to go to John Conyers in the House Judiciary Committee.
Call Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers today, to tell him you want that impeachment resolution to be approved by his committee. His office’s number is (202) 225-5126.
The following are the 86 Democrats in the House of Representatives who voted to preserve the resolution to impeach Cheney. If your Representative is among them, give a call of thanks today.
Abercrombie
Allen
Baca
Baldwin
Braley (IA)
Capps
Capuano
Clarke
Clay
Cleaver
Cohen
Conyers
Crowley
Cummings
Davis (IL)
DeFazio
Dicks
Doggett
Doyle
Ellison
Farr
Filner
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hare
Hinchey
Hirono
Hodes
Holt
Honda
Hooley
Inslee
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Johnson (GA)
Jones (OH)
Kanjorski
Kaptur
Kilpatrick
Kucinich
Lee
Loebsack
Maloney (NY)
McDermott
Meeks (NY)
Michaud
Moore (WI)
Moran (VA)
Napolitano
Ortiz
Pallone
Pascrell
Perlmutter
Price (NC)
Rangel
Richardson
Roybal-Allard
Rush
Scott (VA)
Serrano
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Slaughter
Solis
Stark
Stupak
Sutton
Thompson (CA)
Towns
Velazquez
Waters
Watson
Watt
Weiner
Welch (VT)
Wexler
Woolsey
Wu
Wynn
If your Representative is not on this list, give a call today and ask them to change their position.
Thanksgiving will be a holiday of specific thanks this year for Americans who care about the rule of law. Dennis Kucinich has promised that he will take to the floor of the House of Representatives and make a motion to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney, and do it before Thanksgiving. Kucinich has already introduced an impeachment resolution to the House. Now, Kucinich will force a vote by formally moving impeachment to consideration through the power of of personal privilege.
It’s about time. Actually, it’s long past time.
Please call your member of Congress, and him or her to support Kucinich, and vote in favor of the impeachment of Cheney.
At the end of last week, the right wing played Nancy Pelosi like a marionette.
The right wing got outraged. Nancy Pelosi cowered. The right wing demanded action. Nancy Pelosi obeyed.
Why was the right wing so angry? A Democrat in Congress dared to call it like it is. Congressman Peter Stark criticized George W. Bush for keeping American troops in Iraq to “have their heads blown off for the President’s amusement”.
It sounds harsh, but is it not so? Is the Iraq War not an amusement for President Bush? Wasn’t the war unnecessary from the start, with President Bush’s knowledge that there was no real threat from Iraq to any other nation? Isn’t it equally unnecessary for the Iraq War to continue? Isn’t the Iraq War continuing so that George W. Bush can avoid feeling bad about himself, so that he can continue to feel amused by his power?
Maybe Congressman Stark’s exact words were undiplomatic, but so what? After all these years of profound failure from the Bush Republicans and the Pelosi Democrats, isn’t it about time that a member of Congress stood up spoke plainly, without the soft tones of diplomacy? Isn’t it time we stop pretending that reasonable people can disagree about the crimes of the Bush presidency?
Reasonable people cannot disagree any more on this subject. The facts are out there, and anyone who says that George W. Bush has not broken the law is in severe denial.
I might have more sympathy for Nancy Pelosi’s rebuke of Peter Stark if she had ever directed one fraction of the wrath she has shown to Congressman Stark to the person who really deserves it: George W. Bush.
How can Nancy Pelosi rebuke Peter Stark for saying something not nice when she has refused to even consider holding George W. Bush accountable for his high crimes against the Constitution and federal law?
How can Nancy Pelosi rebuke Pete Stark and not even support censure for George W. Bush?
Shame on you, Nancy Pelosi.
Instead of attacking those who would hold George W. Bush accountable to the law, Pelosi ought to aiming her fire at the White House.
The Washington Post reported this news this morning: “Senate Democrats and Republicans reached agreement with the Bush administration yesterday on the terms of new legislation to control the federal government’s domestic surveillance program, which includes a highly controversial grant of legal immunity to telecommunications companies that have assisted the program, according to congressional sources.”
What the HELL is wrong with the Senate Democrats? Why are they even negotiating with George W. Bush on the renewal of the Protect America Act?
Senate Democrats should just say NO. No renewal of the Protect America Act. Let it expire. In fact, kill it now. All of it.
Don’t these Democrats understand why George W. Bush wants retroactive legal immunity for telecommunications corporations for warrantless electronic spying against American citizens?
Congress has just learned from the former CEO of Qwest that George W. Bush had begun his illegal spying on Americans’ telephone calls - warrantless wiretapping - half a year before the attacks of September 11! There is absolutely no security justification for this espionage against American citizens. It was a crime, a high crime, an impeachable crime, pure and simple.
George W. Bush wants retroactive legal immunity for AT&T, Verizon and Bell South, corporations known to have helped Bush engage in his illegal spying against Americans, because George W. Bush himself has become a criminal suspect. George W. Bush is using the Protect America Act to protect himself from being impeached and going to prison. The Protect America Act ought to be renamed the Protect Bush’s Ass Act.
Shame on the Senate Democrats for going along with this charade. They ought to be coming together to impeach Bush, not give him immunity for crimes against the American people.
The latest from Nancy Pelosi: She is complaining that it’s just too darn hard for her to sit in her posh home and see Americans protesting outside. Oh, the poor, poor dear.
Memo to Pelosi - Get used to it. For as long as you continue to fail the American people, you will continue to see protesters on the sidewalk outside your breakfast window. The American people elected a Democratic majority to the House of Representatives in order to end the Iraq War, restore liberty to America, and impeach Bush. They have done none of this. Instead, they’ve helped make things worse, playing footsie with Bush and helping him to get the Protect America Act passed.
“I cannot speak for every Democrat, Independent, Green, or disenchanted Republican (and there are many) in America, but the consensus from my travels all over this country is that we put Democrats back in power in both Houses of Congress to be an opposition to the Bush Regime and to stop the annoying “bobble-headed, rubber-stamping” approval of all things criminal and murderous. We did not wish to keep heading in the same direction but desired to go another way, which would have required the Dems to finally step up and forcefully counter and stop the high crimes of BushCo. They have failed.
We are sick of excuses. We are tired of the blame being diffused on the Senate, the Blue Dog Dems, the Republicans, or even, incredibly, the people of Iraq. A true leader accepts responsibility in ways that are not even dreamed of by BushCo or Congress, Inc. A true leader would stand up and do what is intelligent and what is right and if he/she were a leader, then people would follow. A leader does not wait idly by for a crowd of sycophants to gather around her before she does her job with integrity and courage; a leader leads the way and the Democratic Congress with an approval rating even lower than George’s had better wake up to whom they need to follow: us!”
Cindy Sheehan is right. Nancy Pelosi is no leader. Pelosi betrayed the promise of 2006. She doesn’t even have enough backbone to stand up to a President with a 30 percent approval rating.
It’s time for Nancy Pelosi to go, and to be replaced with a real leader - Cindy Sheehan for Congress!
The United States House of Representatives just voted, 341-79, to pass a resolution condemning MoveOn. Why?
Because MoveOn placed an advertisement in a newspaper.
George W. Bush has lied to start a war that has killed thousands of Americans and ruined the lives of many more, has organized programs of torture and other war crimes, has revoked habeas corpus, and has developed massive programs to spy on the private activities of American citizens without any search warrant.
Congress has done nothing about that. Nancy Pelosi has taken impeachment off the table. Congress won’t even pass a censure resolution to protest Bush’s crimes.
Put an advertisement in a newspaper, and Congress will take action. Commit war crimes, and Congress will sit back and do nothing.
It didn’t take long for non-partisans to see that most of the the 2006 Democratic congressional candidates had no intention of acting strongly to confront the criminal behavior of George W. Bush. Many Democratic congressional candidates were just using anti-Bush, anti-war anger for their personal gain. Since the 2006 congressional election, we’ve seen the cost of the Democrats’ dedcation to self-interest above the good of the nation. Time and time again, the Democrats in Congress have caved in and given the Bush Republicans exactly what they wanted.
The Iraq War goes on and on. Our civil liberties are being hacked apart by laws like the Military Commissions Act, the Patriot Act and the Protect America Act. Alberto Gonzales remains in office, with more power than ever. Impeachment is off the table.
I found this video of Cindy Sheehan, talking in January, 2007, to be prescient. In the video, she predicts that the American people will need to push the Democrats to get anything done, and that the Democrats will begin to waffle and wimp out. It’s well worth a watch.
