Dennis Kucinich, the Ohio Congressman and former 2008
Democratic presidential candidate, said he would continue to introduce
resolutions calling for the removal of President George W. Bush from office if
the articles of impeachment against Bush that he presented to the House Monday
is not taken up within 30 days.
On Monday, Kucinich introduced the articles of impeachment
against President Bush in the form of a privileged resolution, a procedural
maneuver requiring Congress to take up the measure within two legislative days.
Kucinich spent four-hours reading 35 articles of impeachment against President
Bush, accusing the commander-in-chief of a wide range of high crimes and
misdemeanors, such as lying to Congress and the public to win support for the
Iraq war.
Congressman Robert Wexler, (D-Fla.), agreed to co-sponsor
the measure Tuesday.
Congress voted 251-166 Wednesday to send the articles of
impeachment to the House Judiciary Committee for review where it's expected to
die.
But Kucinich said if that happens he will just introduce
another resolution until lawmakers vote on the measure.
"Leadership wants to bury it, but this is one
resolution that will be coming back from the dead," Kucinich told the
Washington Post Wednesday "Thirty days from now, if there is no action, I
will be bringing the resolution up again, and I won't be the only one reading
it. We'll come back and many of us will be reading this [on the House floor],
and we'll come back with 60 articles, not 35."
In a statement Wednesday, Kucinich urged the House Judiciary
Committee to "begin a review of the 35 articles" and said he
"will be providing supporting documentation to the committee so that it
can proceed in an orderly manner."
Kucinich said he expects to meet with Judiciary Committee
Chairman John Conyers within a week. A resolution Kucinich sponsored last year
to impeach Cheney was sent to Conyers' committee but was not debated.
Conyers, as well as others in the Democratic leadership, has
opposed initiating impeachment proceedings against President Bush. Conyers has
said the House simply does not have enough votes to support impeachment and, therefore,
pursuing it would be a waste of time.
He did, however, state in a letter sent to President Bush on
May 8 that he would pursue impeachment if the president were to launch a
military strike against Iran without first receiving approval or consulting
Congress about the matter.
"Late last year, Senator Joseph Biden stated
unequivocally that 'the president has no authority to unilaterally attack Iran,
and if he does, as Foreign Relations Committee chairman, I will move to
impeach' the president.
"We agree with Senator Biden, and it is our view that
if you do not obtain the constitutionally required congressional authorization
before launching preemptive military strikes against Iran or any other nation,
impeachment proceedings should be pursued," Conyers' letter says.
Kucinich said the articles of impeachment against President
Bush are a way for lawmakers to "create an historical record of the
misconduct of the Bush administration."
"The weight of evidence contained in the articles makes
it clear that President Bush violated the Constitution and the U.S. Code as
well as international law,� Kucinich said in a prepared statement.
"It is the House�s responsibility as a co-equal branch
of government to provide an effective check and balance to executive abuse of
power," Kucinich continued in the statement. "President Bush was
principally responsible for directing the United States Armed Forces to attack
Iraq."
"I believe that there is sufficient evidence in the
articles to support the charge that President Bush allowed, authorized and
sanctioned the manipulation of intelligence by those acting under his direction
and control, misleading Congress to approve a resolution authorizing the use of
force against Iraq," he added.
Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has said
impeachment is �off the table� because it would hinder the Democrats� chances
of securing a bigger majority in Congress come November and could result in a
public backlash and cause the party to lose the November presidential election.
"Speaker Pelosi will continue to lead legislative
efforts to find a new direction in Iraq but believes that impeachment would
create a divisive battle, be a distraction from Congress's efforts to chart a
new course for America's working families and would ultimately fail,"
Pelosi's spokesman, Nadeam Elshami, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer Tuesday.
Congress has not considered impeachment because the
Democratic leadership believes it will hurt their party's chances of securing
the White House in November's hotly contested presidential election between
Senators Barack Obama and John McCain.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence agreed. Last
week, the committee released a long-awaited report on prewar Iraq intelligence
that concluded President Bush and Vice President Cheney knowingly lied to the
public and to Congress about Iraq's links to al-Qaeda and the threat the
country posed to the U.S. in the aftermath of 9/11.
That would be an impeachable offense, according to former
Nixon counsel John Dean.
"To put it bluntly, if Bush has taken Congress and the
nation into war based on bogus information, he is cooked," Dean wrote in a
June 6, 2003 column for FindLaw.com.
"Manipulation or deliberate misuse of national security
intelligence data, if proven, could be 'a high crime' under the Constitution's
impeachment clause. It would also be a violation of federal criminal law,
including the broad federal anti-conspiracy statute, which renders it a felony
'to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any
purpose.'"
Jason
Leopold is the author of "News Junkie," a memoir. Visit
www.newsjunkiebook.com for a
preview. His new website is The Public Record.