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Efforts to impeach George W. Bush

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President George W. Bush has seen calls for his impeachment.

The phrase "Movement to impeach George W. Bush" is used in a number of ways. It can describe actions or events by individuals and groups within the public and private spheres intended to support or bring about the impeachment of US President George W. Bush. Or the phrase can be used in a more broad sense to imply the existence of a social movement, related to wishes of some members of the general public as a whole (for example two public opinion polls, including both Democrats and Republicans, indicate there is some public support for the impeachment of the president).

Reasons given for impeachment by various public and private individuals and groups include: the Plame affair, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the global war on terror, the Downing Street documents, the yellowcake forgery, the 2001 terrorist incidents known as "9/11" for September 11, 2001 and the mishandling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Although these reasons have predominantly been championed by activists on the political left and groups affiliated or supportive of anti-war causes, some conservatives have called for Bush's ouster on many of the same grounds.

There is no offical governmental investigation into George Bush personally at this time, however, after a rare closed session, the Senate has established a timeline to complete "Phase II" of an investigation into the handling of intelligence into Iraq, and bi-partisan commission to oversee this investigation. This is phase of the investigation is to look into the actions of the administration generally, including the President, but it is not targetted at George Bush personally.

Background

There have been nine formal attempts to impeach a sitting President. Four of these resulted in articles being referred to the floor: John Tyler, Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. In addition there have been numerous impeachment movements of various sizes directed at visible members of the government, most notably the movement to Impeach Earl Warren.

In the case of George Bush, recent events have indicated that there is a body of public opinion which is considering or supporting impeachment beyond the usual political opposition, and that there are elected members of Congress who are at least willing to take symbolic actions to further this body of opinion. These include support in public opinion polls, resolutions introduced in the House of Representatives, and the investigation into Valerie Plame by a federal prosecutor that has already led to the indictment of one top member of the Bush Administration.

Supporters of Bush generally dispute the allegations made in their entirety, or they deny that the actions of the Bush administration officials currently under investigation constitute anything more than normal handling of politics and national security matters, or are, at worst, "legal technicalities." (See Fitzmas)

Congressional Activities

Rep. Barbara Lee has introduced a Resolution of Inquiry, H.Res 375, that demands records related to the decision to go to war and to the Downing Street Memo. It has 84 sponsors/cosponsors including one Republican and one independent. This resolution is considered to be a first step in opening an impeachment investigation. The International Relations committee voted 22-21 on September 14, 2005 to report the resolution adversely to the full house.

Rep. John Conyers, the ranking Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee, convened a Democratic hearing on June 16, 2005 to hear evidence related to the Downing Street Memo and to consider grounds for impeachment. Dozens of Members of Congress attended. Witnesses included Ambassador Wilson, constitutional attorney John Bonifaz, and CIA analyst Ray McGovern.

Two Congressmen, Conyers and Barney Frank have floated trial balloons on the possible impeachment of Karl Rove, and the opening of an independent investigation of the handling of the Valerie Plame affair which in their own words, could lead to impeachment. Citation from Newsmax.

Rep. Maxine Waters founded the Out of Iraq Caucus in the House of Representatives. It has 66 members (as of August 31, 2005). An Out of Iraq event hosted by Rep. Waters in Inglewood, California attracted 1200 supporters who loudly chanted "Im-peach Bush" in response to a speaker explaining high crimes and misdemeanors.

Public Opinion

In October of 2005, AfterDowningStreet comissioned a poll by the independent Ipsos Public Affairs Research that found that by a margin of 50% to 44% Americans say that President Bush should be impeached if he lied about the war in Iraq. Sentiment was strong. 39% strongly agreed and 30% strongly disagreed with the statement, "If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable by impeaching him." 72% of Democrats favored impeachment, compared to 56% of Independents and 20% of Republicans.

This suggests a general increase in pro-impeachment sentiment from the last such poll, a June of 2005 Zogby International poll which showed that 42% of all Americans, and even 25% of Republicans, would agree that Congress should "hold him accountable through impeachment" if it were found that Bush "did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq". This is a greater level of support than had ever been seen in the case of Bill Clinton.

A march in Washington, DC on 24 September 2005 attracted over 100,000 people. The march included calls for impeachment and for investigations leading to impeachment.

On November 2 2005, The World Can't Wait mobilized marches across the country that called for the ouster of Bush. News reports cited thousands of protesters in each of New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco and 500 in each of Washington, DC, Chicago , Atlanta and Seattle.

The VoteToImpeach.org website claims to have collected half a million signatures on a petition to impeach Bush.

The rally held in Crawford, Texas by Cindy Sheehan featured frequent calls for impeachment.

Numerous groups have been created to support impeachment. None are known to have been created to oppose it (as MoveOn had been created to oppose the impeachment of Clinton).

See also http://www.pledgebank.com/ImpeachPresBush

Notable Figures and Organizations

John Conyers has advocated for the impeachment of Karl Rove and has been contacted by Americans desiring an impeachment of George W. Bush.
  • Congressman Frank advocates investigation, but feels that calls for impeachment are premature.
  • John Dean, former White House Counsel to President Richard Nixon and an early advocate of a Bush impeachment, believes that President Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction in order to get the United States into a war with Iraq. Dean believes this is an impeachable crime.
  • Ralph Nader's 2004 presidential campaign also promoted the cause of a Bush impeachment by raising public awareness of the numerous alleged crimes of the Bush Administration.
  • Robert Scheer, columnist and contributing editor at the Los Angeles Times and The Nation, has repeatedly called for impeachment.
  • At the most recent state convention, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin cited the Downing Street Memo in calling for the Impeachment of both George Bush and Richard Cheney.
  • Dennis Morrisseau, a Republican candidate for the Vermont House of Representatives seat has said he will campaign for impeachment against George W. Bush.
  • AfterDowningStreet, an organization begun by liberal activists Bob Fertik and David Swanson and constitutional attorney John Bonifaz, advocates a congressional Resolution of Inquiry into evidence related to what has become known as the Downing Street memo, involving the Bush administration's military operations in Iraq. Such a resolution would be the first step toward a possible impeachment.
  • Impeach Central is dedicated to the impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney for violating the laws of the United States. While the group says the Bush administration has violated the Constitution on numerous occasions, the group is focusing on what it sees as the lies they told the American people and Congress which led the country into the Iraq War.
  • Paul Craig Roberts, former assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration stated "The Bush administration is insane. If the American people do not decapitate it by demanding Bush’s impeachment, the Bush administration will bring about Armageddon."
  • Patrick Buchanan called for a bill of impeachment 'charging George W. Bush with a conscious refusal to uphold his oath and defend the states of the Union against "invasion"' in regards to issues with illegal immigration.

Charges

An explanation of the grounds for impeachment was given in a recent memo to Rep. Conyers from attorney Bonifaz.

Among the preliminary formal charges made against the Bush administration as proposed by Clark include the following allegations that:

Many activists charge that Bush committed obstruction of Congress, a felony under 18 U.S.C. 1001, by withholding information and by supplying information Bush should have known to be incorrect in his States of the Union speeches. This law is comparable to perjury, but it does not require that the statements be made under oath. Martha Stewart recently went to prison for violating this law by making false statements to investigators. Caspar Weinberger was indicted under this law in relation to his involvement in the Iran-Contra affair, but he escaped prosecution by being pardoned by Bush's father.

A number of legislators, journalists, bloggers and citizen activist groups see the heretofore secret Downing Street memo as proof that Bush was willingly and knowingly untruthful about Iraq's possession of WMDs, and had lied in the year (2002) leading up to the Iraqi Invasion of 2003, and that the president intentionally planned to invade Iraq regardless of the whether or not Iraq has any such weapons. Congressional democrats sponsored both a request for documents and a resolution of inquiry. The minority party does not have subpoenas power, and therefore cannot force the production of documents.

Patrick Fitzgerald, the Special prosecutor investigating the Plame affair has subpoenaed phone records made from Air Force One, and the court filings in support of these subpoena's have alleged "serious breaches of security." The closeness of Karl Rove and Lewis "Scooter" Libby to the president and vice-president respectively has led Frank Rich to draw comparisons to Watergate in recent columns.

Official Democratic Party organizations, including the DCCC and the DSCC have used phrases such as "worse than Watergate" and accusing Bush and the Republicans of "abuse of power". The latter phrase is significant because "abuse of power" was the meaning attached to the phrase "high crimes and misdemeanors" in the Constitution's impeachment standard by the Congress in the Impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon. To date, neither organization has endorsed impeachment explicitly.

See also

External links

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