Posted on 06/28/2005 9:28:18 AM PDT by areafiftyone
Left-wing Democrats in the House are working on a plan to compel the House Judiciary Committee to launch an impeachment inquiry into what they say are "high crimes and misdemeanors" committed by President Bush in the run-up to the Iraq war.
"If you read the record of the writing of the Constitution, ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ had a very particular meaning at the time of the drafting of the Constitution," Rep. Zoe Lofgren said at a forum held by Rep. John Conyers earlier this month.
"It certainly didn’t mean lying about sex," she complained, in quotes picked up by the Hill newspaper. "But it might well mean lying to the Congress about a large public purpose such as Iraq." Driving the push for an impeachment inquiry is the so-called Downing Street memo, which Democrats say shows Bush lied about pre-war intelligence.
"We would like to see a member of Congress look into whether or not the president committed impeachable offenses," said John Bonifaz, a constitutional lawyer who co-founded the group AfterDowningStreet.org. "We’ve been having that discussion with a number of [congressional] offices," he explained.
Bonifaz has a receptive ear in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who talked about "the case" against Bush last week and praised the Downing Street Memo as "very important" new evidence.
"The case is that going into the war was a grotesque mistake," she told the left wing web site Raw Story. "It was predicated on a lie . . . the intelligence did not support the claim, the threat that they said."
Persuading the House to investigate allegedly impeachable crimes by the president may be a tall order, however, since the GOP-controlled Congress isn't likely to be convinced by arguments from partisan Bush-haters.
Still, Democrats like Rep. Barbara Lee are searching for a way to get the impeachment ball rolling.
A co-chairwoman of the Out of Iraq Caucus and a member of the International Affairs Committee, Lee is circulating a letter calling for a resolution of inquiry. Such a resolution, the Hill explained, would be referred to the committee of jurisdiction, which would then have to vote it down in a set number of days or it would proceed to a floor vote.
Rep. Conyers himself has so far been cautious, at least in public. "My inclination at this time is not to do something like [impeachment]," Conyers told The Hill - explaining instead that he wants to investigate further.
Besides, someone needs to tell them the Constitution no longer applies.
Professional Black Caucus=Congressional Black Caucus - Sorry about that - These people are NOT professionals!
Maybe this will make it to the Supreme Court, as they pay no attention to the Constitution it will be thrown out!!
The Clinton payback machine.
clinton, the only president to serve two terms, never having received a majority of the popular vote.
And hillary thinks we want more of the same.
Here we are in a time of war and all these lunatics can think of is impeaching the commander and chief. They prove they're subversive traitors once again.
They are an inept disgusting lot of sore losers! We have to win in 2006 to make sure they don't try to actually push this stupidity!!
LOL!
Let me get this straight, telling a lie under oath is not a crime but passing along flawed intelligence info that you believe is correct is a crime.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!
OHHHHH PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
When are these dip-sh****ts going to give up? What in the H****llll where they sent to Washington for? For this crap????? I thought they were sent as (ahem) Senators to do the State's work they were elected by their people to do?
And I agree 100% THE CONSTITUTION DOESN'T EXIST ANYMORE!!!!!
Just ask any Supreme Court Judge!!!!
The democrats in the House of Representatives are especially dumb, in the original, low-IQ sense of the word. They live in this factless void and stumble over such intellectual challenges like producing the sum of 2 and 2. They are perfect paragons of leftism, liberalism and stalinism. They are truly way at the edge, and the wrong edge at that, of the Bell Curve.
Did high crimes include perjury and sexual assault? Obstruction of Justice, perhaps?
Why worry . . . these dipwads couldn't find their arse in the dark with both hands and a flashlight.
Are you sure we shouldn't cheer them on and then laugh as they fall flat on their butts? Hmmm, guess that would be kinda mean, huh?
What a joke!
Well this is more fun than having to really work on legislation. doncha know.
Apparently these people need some work to do. They have nothing better to do because everything in their states are just hunky dory? SURRRRRRRRRRE!
True, but it will play into our hands. The Republicans lost a lot of ground with the impeachment of Clinton, let the Rats jump off this cliff. The people in the mushy middle don't want to spend more than the weekend before the election thinking about politics, and impeachment hearings just force them to do that. Whoever makes the mushy middle feel the most discomfort is the party who loses their support.
And the shame is that there are a LOT of people who really do!
Sorry, I just can't help myself. Go ahead, Dems, bring it on. What a great way to head into the next election. Of course they will never get the votes in Congress, it will just be the usual shrill loonies brought to us by the MoveOn.org (aka Democratic) party.
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