Grassroots Push for Impeachment Continues

Grassroots Push for Impeachment Continues

by Ben Terrall / January 22nd, 2008

Though it seems to have made little impression on the Democratic Party’s leadership, grassroots pressure for impeachment proceedings against Vice President Cheney and President Bush continues to grow in the U.S.

On January 15, the anti-war group Code Pink held a rally at the San Francisco Federal Building where they presented an aide to Nancy Pelosi with more than 8,000 signed letters from U.S. voters urging impeachment of Cheney and Bush.

Cindy Sheehan, whose decision to run as an independent against Pelosi in the next election was precipitated by the Democratic Congresswoman’s refusal to support impeachment, spoke to the assembled protestors. Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq, said, “I believe that when George Bush commuted Scooter Libby’s sentence for a crime that he was complicit in, he committed treason. A president can commute sentences, a president can pardon people, but not when they are involved in the crime.”

She continued, “I believe that Nancy Pelosi committed treason when she took impeachment off the table. You cannot ignore our constitution. And not only that, they have also been going against the constitution by approving torture, which goes against the Eighth Amendment, by approving spying on us without warrants, which goes against the Fourth Amendment.”

The former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who is running for the Green Party’s Presidential nomination, appeared at the San Francisco demonstration and spoke in support of Sheehan’s campaign. McKinney said, “People who betray the values of their constituents do not deserve to be part of the government. The government, actually, is us, it’s supposed to be us.

McKinney added, “We have an opportunity to learn from countries where people power has stepped up and through the power of the ballot they have changed things, like in Venezuela, like in Bolivia, like in Chile, like in Argentina, like in Ecuador. They have changed things. People power… and so our campaign is called the power to the people committee, and we are asking people of every political persuasion to join with us in the creation of a new people power movement that can change our country, that can change the policies and the values of our country, and take our government back.”

The day after the San Francisco rally, Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) urged the House Judiciary Committee to begin impeachment hearings targeting Vice President Cheney for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”