Ellison Says Principles Are Behind Effort to Impeach Cheney
Ellison cites Cheney’s abuses of power as reason to impeach.
Some people say the attempt to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney isn’t anything more than a charade by far-left Democrats.
That’s not the case for U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, who gets animated about the subject. The freshman Democrat from Minneapolis has joined a dozen or so lawmakers as co-sponsors of a bill to impeach Cheney for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
The alleged crimes are yet to be spelled out by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who sponsored the bill late last month. But Ellison accuses Cheney of “abusing his power…and abstracting information.”
Ellison cites two instances in which Cheney classified his role differently each time.
In 2001, Cheney fended off a congressional inquiry into the inner workings of his energy task force, claiming that doing so “would unconstitutionally interfere with the functioning of the executive branch.”
This year, the vice president, dubbed by some as the most powerful in U.S. history, refused to file national security documents with the national archive, saying that his office is not an “entity within the executive branch.”
“If that’s not abuse of power,” said Ellison in an interview with Minnesota Monitor, “I don’t know what is.”
Asked if an impeachment effort is practical and worth his energy, Ellison said: “I didn’t sign on to it for reasons of practicality. It’s about principles and holding [Cheney] accountable for his actions.”
Still, few expect the impeachment effort to gain enough traction.
“I understand how unpopular [Cheney] has become, but that’s no basis for impeachment,” said Michael J. Gerhardt, professor of law at North Carolina State University who testified before Congress as an expert witness on impeachment. “You have to make both political and constitutional calculations. Even the political calculations are not right now in favor of moving forward on it. I don’t think there’s much taste for it in Congress.”
President Bush’s recent decision to commute the sentence of Scooter Libby, Cheney’s former chief of staff, “broke the camel’s back for me,” said Ellison. “Cheney had everything to do with that decision.”
Asked why not impeach President Bush then, Ellison said, “I haven’t ruled that out, though I haven’t ruled it in either. I just haven’t addressed it yet.”
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Comments
Best Argument for Impeachment Yet
If WE the PEOPLE refuse to protect the Constitution and allow Bush and Cheney to set the standard of lawlessness for the Presidency, all future presidents will follow suit. At that point we will have a monarchy. This is a constitutional crisis. The impeachment process would send a message that the American people are on watch, and that the president must follow the law of the land.
Here’s the big question for our Congressional reps: whom do you serve, your country or your political party?
"Yet to be spelled out"??
On the contrary, House Resolution 333, the articles of impeachment filed against Cheney, are quite clear about the nature of the crime. In addition, Congressman Kucinich has released over 40 documents full of supporting evidence for them. Did you do any research before writing this article? Check his website!
Not much taste for it?
54% of Americans want Cheney Impeached. 76% of Democrats want Cheney Impeached. What is the Political downside? Historically every Party that has brought Impeachment proceedings against a President have gained seats in Congress the following election. It didn’t take 2/3 of the Senate to get rid of Nixon. Your “expert” has flawed logic based on Republican talking points.
Your journalist also chimes in
“Still, few expect the impeachment effort to gain enough traction.”
If the media would connect the dots it would gain traction. Cheney allows ISOO and National Archive to inspect his office in 2001 and 2002. From 2003 until today Cheney has not allowed anyone determine how his office has been handling sensitive intelligence documents. What happen in 2003? The invasion if Iraq and the outing of Valerie Plame. Do independent research instead of copy and pasting press releases. It helps.
http://impeachcheney.org
Impeach the Bush Administration
Yeah, what do they mean by “The alleged crimes are yet to be spelled out by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who sponsored the bill late last month.”
HR 333 names deceiving us about WMD, the connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda and threatening to attack Iran, which have all been documented/promoted by the fascist corporate media, incl. the NY Times. Doesn’t even mention torture, rendition, holding Americans w/o charge, subversion of the Constitution, permitting 9/11 to happen. And if this Republocrat Congress would actually investigate anything, like Phase 2 of the Iraq War Inquiry, Sibel Edmonds, the VP’s method of classification and Pat Tillman, apparently they’ll find out more, crimes- if they’ve got nothing to hide what are they afraid of? That’s the argument make for warrantless wiretapping- but we shouldn’t fear our govt., people who want to be public servants need to fear violating their oath to defend the Constitution
The Top 40
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20041221155307646
"Still, few expect the impeachment effort to gain enough ..."
What rock have you been under and for how long?
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