David Swanson: Impeach Cheney First

3 May 2006

Impeach Cheney First By David Swanson

We should impeach VicePresident Dick Cheney first, and President George Bushimmediately thereafter. This idea is not original with me. It's been seen on bumper stickers for quite some time. Myattention has been called to it by the fact thatCongresswoman and Judiciary Committee Member Maxine Watersis talking about it.

I'm persuaded of thevalue of thisapproach for several reasons. Among activists who very muchwant impeachment, one can hear a long list of fears andconcerns about how things might go wrong, how impeachmentcould help Republicans who come around and back it, howimpeachment could take energy away from elections, etc. Butby far the most common of the nonsensical fears one hears isthis one: "Impeaching Bush would give us Cheney, who isworse."

By proposing to impeach Cheney first, weeliminate this fear.

I cannot conceive of a seriousinvestigation, with subpoena power, of either Bush or Cheneythat would not incriminate the other as well. If I'm rightabout this, then the whole debate over which of these twocriminals to impeach first, in one sense, doesn't mean much.But for purposes of organizing activists today it meanseverything. We need as many people as possible -- includingthose terrified by Cheney -- to push for an impeachmentinvestigation. This campaign, and an investigation itself,should we get one, serve educational and political purposes.They further discredit Bush and Cheney while helping tobuild an opposition.

Our choices are not betweenimpeachment and elections but between both and neither. Polls suggest it will be very difficult to win electionswithout demanding impeachment.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/polling

After an investigation, we will have to fight forimpeachment, and after that for conviction and removal fromoffice by the Senate, and after that for criminalindictments. While millions of Americans who favorimpeachment have announced to each other that this goal isimpossible or extremely unlikely to be achieved, almostevery single one of them has implicitly determined thatconviction in the Senate (which has never been achieved witha president in U.S. history) is a guaranteed lock. Thus"impeachment" is equated with "removal from office." Weshould bear in mind that Clinton was impeached but notremoved from office. We very much need to remove Bush andCheney from office, but it's remarkable how quickly we jumpahead to that stage when searching for reasons to fear anddoubt ourselves.

If we were to impeach Bush and remove himfrom office and somehow not manage to do the same to Cheney,there would be a number of advantages to this. The man whois running much of the government backstage would be thrustup front. His 18 percent approval rating makes Bush's 32percent look stellar. A President Cheney would be a lameduck and a walking advertisement against the Republicanparty and its Democratic allies.

If, somehow, we were toremove Cheney from office and leave Bush untouched, therewould be disadvantages. Bush would (if Congress caved in,as it almost always does) be able to install as VicePresident someone capable of running for the top job in2008.

Nonetheless, I am persuaded that we should go afterCheney first. Again, he is incredibly unpopular. Very fewRepublicans in Congress are going to be willing to defendhim. This will split the White House and the RepublicanParty and (if this can ever be done) unite the Democratsbehind an aggressive and popular position. This would be astep toward a strong push in Congress for the impeachment ofBush as well. Aiming for the low hanging fruit first isjust good organizing.

Currently 36 Congress Members (twoof them just added this week) support Congressman Conyers'bill to create an investigation into grounds for impeachmentof Bush (actually of any unnamed individuals in the BushAdministration). I suspect that specifically andexclusively targeting Cheney could add significantly to thatnumber right away.

While it is the duty of U.S. citizensto demand the impeachment of criminal office holders,regardless of any predictions of success, it makes sense tobegin from the angle most likely to succeed. More importantthan which individual ends up briefly or for yearsafterwards occupying the Oval Office is that he or she beaware that we can hold them accountable, that they becompelled to fear us, rather than we continuing to fearthem.

The situation in Congress is as follows. Congressman John Conyers has taken the lead on the matter ofimpeachment and is not at this time prepared to move beyondhis resolution for an investigation. Many other members arenot leaders and will only sign onto someone else'sinitiative. Of those who are leaders, most defer to Conyersand are reluctant to step ahead of him, even as theirconstituents demand it ever more insistently. Butintroducing articles of impeachment against Cheney, and notBush, is something that Conyers' office has suggested hewould not oppose.

The idea arose several weeks back whenCongresswoman Waters' proposed it at a meeting of severalCongress Members, staff, and activists, which I attended. She went public with the idea this past Saturday at a forumin Sacramento held by the California Democratic PartyProgressive Caucus. Nearly 1,000 rowdy, enthusiastic partymembers packed a large hall to capacity to hear Waters andothers discuss impeachment. According to Bob Fertik, whospoke on the panel and wrote an account of itafterwards:

" the next question [was] why CongressionalDemocrats have refused to introduce Articles of Impeachment.Luckily Rep. Maxine Waters was on the panel, and shedescribed discussions we had earlier this year, which ledher to propose impeaching Cheney first. That discussion wassidetracked when Sen. Russ Feingold introduced his CensureResolution, but the refusal of most Senate Democrats to backFeingold appears to have convinced Waters to move ahead withher idea. And of course we will support Waters 1000% if shedoes."

1000 percent? Is that all? She'll be a nationalhero. No. Scratch that. She'll be an international hero. We'll need to add a Maxine Waters Day to our calendars,celebrating the day on which she placed the first stone inthe edifice of a rebuilt democracy by introducing articlesof impeachment against Richard Cheney.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/cheneyfirst

ENDS

THIS ISSUE Lead NZ News NZ Politics World News FeaturesComment & Opinion Film: Sonia Nettnin Covers The Chicago Palestine Film Festival - After five years I have decided to write some of the reasons why the Chicago Palestine Film Festival is one of Chicago s cinematic treasures. See... Sonia Nettnin: A Gem of a Film Festival

Iran: John Stanton Considers The Implications Of War With Iran - Just when it seemed unlikely that domestic and international events would unfold to test an already incompetent US government, along comes the acceleration of the movement to destroy Iran. See... Strike Iran, Watch Pakistan and Turkey Fall RELATED: Russ Wellen - Russ Wellen: Whoa, Mr. President!

Peak Oil: Kelpie Wilson On The End Of Cheap Oil - Gas prices are on the rise again and news analysts are kicking it around, wondering who is being ripped off this time. But geologists, scientists and even some economists suspect that unlike other gas shortages, this one is the real thing, or at least the beginning of the real thing: production has peaked and the era of cheap oil is about to end. See..Kelpie Wilson: Stop the Fossil Foolishness RELATED: Tony Soldo Big Oil and the Warporations

MORE SCOOP COMMENT & OPINION: Russell Brown - Public Address 28/04/06 - Backup! & Public Address: The Good, The Bad And The 256kMartin LeFevre - Meditations: Does God Give a Damn? Amira Hass - Scoop Link: Hungry and Shell-Shocked Jason Leopold - Target Letter Drives Rove Back To G. Jury William Fisher - We Can All Agree on This, Right? Ernest Partridge - UQ Wire: 911 Conspiracy - A Skeptic s View Evelyn Pringle - Big-Mouth Bush Told Clinton How To Handle OPEC Genevieve Cora Fraser - Kerry Sponsors Palestine's Collective Punishment Guest Opinion - Guest Opinion: We Don't Want Maoists In Nepal Shashi Malla - Nepal King's Reinstatement of Parlt. Thom Hartmann - The Story of Carl - On Workers Memorial Day John Chuckman - Cartoons: The Decider David Swanson - The War Looks Different From Inside Congress Steven A. Hass - More Notes From The Fringe Capt. Paul Watson - The Strange Transformation of Dr. Patrick Moore Harvey Wasserman - Chernobyl Kills While Bought Ex-Greenpeacer Shills Daniel Patrick Welch - Beyond Bashing Bush William Rivers Pitt - Changes Cindy Sheehan - Peace Takes Courage Marjorie Cohn - The Perfect Storm Narconews - Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos in Guerrero Tanveer Jafri - Iraq - Is it under Control?

Suzan Mazur: Interview With Prof. David N. Gibbs - I first met University of Arizona political science professor David N. Gibbs about a year ago while researching a story about the Patrice Lumumba matrix. Dr. Gibbs spent a couple of years in Africa in the Peace Corps(Niger, 1979-1980) where his ... See... Mazur: Deeper Into The Dillon-Euphronios Nexus

CLICK HERE FOR MORE RECENT COMMENTARYCalculate YOUR NETWORTHTarget 110 000 ConsumersNZ REAL ESTATE OnlineBook Cheap FLIGHTS OnlineQuick Retirement CalculatorMore TRAVEL choice hereHOME LOAN Calculators #this_text { text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;}#this_text a { font-family: "Verdana", sans-serif; font-size: 90%; color: #943517; text-decoration: underline;}#this_text a:hover { font-family: "Verdana", sans-serif; font-size: 90%; color: blue; text-decoration: underline;}Have You Checked Out the Scoop.co.nz Archives? Over 110 News Categories Here! THE WIRES Scoops Parliament Politics World Business Sci-Tech Culture Education Regional Health SEARCH _m1svt='');

Source: scoop

All trademarks and copyrighted information contained herein are the property of their respective owners.