"The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush"June 9, 2008
Kucinich reads Bush Impeachment Charges for over Four Hours
by Phil Burk
Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduced a resolution today containing 35 Articles of Impeachment against President Bush. The charges included misleading Congress about the threat from Iraq and Iran, authorizing and condoning torture, illegal domestic surveillance, gross negligence related to Katrina, and many others. At 7:13 PM Kucinich rose and requested the floor as a Question of Privilege, which overrides other issues in priority. He then immediately began to read the charges. It was close to midnight before he finished.
As he started to read the charges, many Representatives left the floor noisily and Pelosi had to restore order. By the time he finished even Pelosi had left. Her assistant then said that the Speaker had two days to determine if this was indeed a Question of Privilege. Pelosi's announcement might then be followed by immediate consideration of the resolution. This could happen any time Tuesday or Wednesday. It is possible that the resolution might be considered non-privileged but impeachment is often given as the best example of a Question of Privilege.
It is likely that the resolution will be tabled without debate or referred to the Judiciary Committee. If the House decides to consider the resolution then they could vote on each article independently. If one Article of Impeachment passes by a simple majority then, according to the Constitution, the President would officially be "impeached". The Senate would then hold a trial to determine guilt or innocence. If convicted by a 2/3 majority of members present then Bush would be removed from office and prevented from holding office in the future. There are no other penalties but after removal from office the President is subject to criminal prosecution.
Some have argued that it is too late in the President's term for impeachment. But Andrew Johnson was impeached within ten days of committing his offense (firing the Secretary of War) so it seems that impeachment is possible if there is sufficient political support.
This move by Kucinich took many by surprise. But it comes amid a flurry of related events that suggest the impeachment process may be snowballing. John Conyers, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, announced today that he has invited former White House Press Secretary Scott McLellan to testify on June 20th. McLellan has accepted the invitation. McLellan recently released a book in which he describes how the President and other members of the staff sold Congress on the need for war despite an alarming lack of evidence.
Last week on June 5th, the Senate Intelligence Committee released the final two phases of their report on "Prewar Iraq Intelligence". This bipartisan report concluded that President Bush had, according to Chairman Rockefeller, "led the nation into war on false pretenses".
That same day the Bush administration admitted that it was reexamining the case of Maher Arar. Arar, a Canadian citizen, was taken prisoner at JFK airport and flown to Syria by the US government. Arar was held in Syria for a year where he was beaten and tortured before being released to the Canadian government. Arar was accused of working at the same software company as another computer programmer whose brother once supported Al Qaeda in 1997, long before the 9/11 attacks. No formal charges were ever filed. The Canadian government apologized for their role but the United States has refused to acknowledge that they knew Arar was likely to face torture in Syria. The White House will be reexamining its earlier position. [AP]
The next few weeks are likely to involve much discussion in the halls of Congress and homes across America. There are two primary questions to consider:
1) Is there sufficient evidence to charge Bush with high crimes and misdemeanors? This will be easier to answer after we have all read the 35 Articles of Impeachment (soon to be released). The Articles include many references to primary sources. Remember also that guilt need not be proven before a President is impeached. That is the job of the Senate. There only needs to be enough evidence to support the charges.
2) Are these alleged crimes of misleading us into war, torture, domestic spying, gross negligence leading to mass casualties, and other serious enough that Bush should lose his job?
There are other questions, such as whether this will help or hurt Democrats or Republicans in the next election. But history will probably not give these political considerations much weight when judging the actions of Congress members in the coming weeks.
Current status and other information available here and on afterdowningstreet.org
