"The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 11, 2006
CONTACT:
Hooman Hedayati, 210-601-7231 hooman[at]texasabolition.org
Scott Cobb, 512-689-1544 scottcobb99[at]gmail.com
Resolution to Impeach Bush Receives Strong Support at Texas Democratic Convention but Falls Short of Passage
The “Impeach Bush Resolution Campaign” delivered almost 1400 signatures signed by more than 30% of the delegates at the 2006 Texas Democratic Party state convention in Fort Worth to the party. The resolution called on the U.S. House of Representatives to impeach President George W. Bush for high crimes and misdemeanors and for willfully violating his Oath of Office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. The resolution failed in a close vote on the floor of the convention.
A video of the floor debate on the resolution is on YouTube.com
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMsth3faJkE
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0E8NNw72yM
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoP8LNIqFq4
Texas would have joined ten other states whose Democratic parties have passed impeachment resolutions: Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, California and Hawaii.
The vote on the impeachment resolution took place in a nearly empty convention hall, although it could have been brought up much sooner if the rules of the TDP had been followed in a timely manner. The TDP rules state, “A submission of such a resolution shall be immediately recognized as being before the convention as the next order of business after completion of any item under consideration.” However the convention chair kept the resolution off the agenda until two point of order requests from delegates caused the chair to bring the resolution to the floor in the final hours of the convention, when only around 250 people were present in the hall. The chair also refused to accept a friendly amendment to the resolution to include vice president Dick Cheney. Many people did not want to vote for the resolution unless it included a call for impeaching Cheney as well as Bush.
In addition to the impeachment resolution that was brought to the floor as a result of the petition drive, the Resolutions Committee at the convention approved an impeachment resolution, but the convention was adjourned before that resolution was voted on by the floor. It, along with all remaining resolutions, were sent to the State Democratic Executive Committee for consideration at its next meeting in Austin.
Hooman Hedayati, 19, who volunteered 20 hours to collect signatures was very disappointed at Texas Democratic Party officials for not letting the resolution get to the floor before so many delegates had left. “Democrats need to understand the reason for such a low youth turn out at the convention. A big reason why young people are staying away from the Democratic Party and finding alternative avenues of political involvement is because the Democratic Party has consistently failed to stand up for Americans and protect our rights” said Hedayati.. “The continuing perception that the Democrats are afraid to stand up to the Bush Administration is going to lose Democrats the votes of many people.”
