FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT IMPEACHMENT
By Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice

Why would we want a President Cheney? Or why would we want a new Republican who could run as an incumbent? Or why would we want a President Pelosi?

Demos defeat measure seeking impeachment
By Elaine Jarvik
Deseret Morning News

With one of their own serving as the county's mayor and the U.S. Congress now in their party's hands, Salt Lake County Democrats were in an upbeat mood Saturday at their annual convention.

By David Swanson

Unlike the previous majority party in Congress, the Democrats who take power today know their weaknesses. They know they're not very good at the whole press conference thing where you're supposed to stand there and say something people care about. So they've announced an open-mic policy.

By David Swanson

Black is white. War is peace. Impeachment is good for Republicans. Haven't you heard? The Republicans say so. The Democrats say so. It just must BE so.

And yet there isn't a shred of evidence to support it. Usually when we hear that a minimum wage is bad for low-income workers or tax cuts for billionaires benefit the poor, or any such apparently upside-down fantasy, we are at least given semi-plausible theories for how those lies could be truths.

Key documents in Spanish:

Mensaje (Talking Points)

Guía de los Ciudadanos (Citizen's guide)

Razones (Reasons for Impeachment)

Translation provided by www.latinosforamerica.com

“La palabra inglesa ‘impeachment’, que puede traducirse aproximadamente como acusación o impugnación, se refiere al proceso, prescrito por la Constitución de Estados Unidos, mediante el cual un presidente, vicepresidente u otro oficial civil estadounidense puede ser separado de su cargo por el Congreso”.

Please send us improvements to this translation.

Por David Waldman

¿Una resolución de la acusación? ¡Fresco! ¿Puede ser hecha en mi ciudad?
Puede sí. Y puedes hacerla. Una de las cosas más notables sobre este movimiento es que hay gente por todas partes - incluso donde lo menos lo cuentas con - que sean tan justos que convencido pues eres que algo tiene que ser hecho. Sí, republicanos uniformes.

SPANISH VERSION

Talking Points

While impeachment is a very serious step that should not have been trivialized the way it was during the last presidential administration, it is also an indispensable part of a system of checks and balances that sustains our democracy. When strong evidence exists of the most serious crimes, we must use impeachment or lose the ability of the legislative branch to compell the executive branch to obey the law.

On TomPaine.com, Constitutional Law professor (and Maryland State Senate candidate) Jamie Raskin devotes 1,440 words to impeachment. After laying out a few of the most important reasons for impeachment, Raskin confronts the reality that Republicans control Congress - and the resulting cowardice of House Democrats who don't want to pick a fight they believe they will lose.

By David Swanson

Can you even imagine Republicans, even if they were in a minority in Congress, debating whether or not to call for the impeachment of a Democratic president known and documented as guilty of a wide range of high crimes and misdemeanors? In particular, if you can imagine that, can you imagine the Republicans who opposed impeachment arguing that they were doing so for strategic political reasons?

David Swanson responded brilliantly to Arianna Huffington's wrongheaded argument against impeachment. I wanted to echo David and add a few more points on Why Arianna is Wrong on Impeachment.

I just received a survey from the DCCC. Of course all they want is our money, but they claim:

In order to provide you with resources you need and to understand what Democratic activists like you want from the DCCC, please take the survey so we can learn from each other -- because only together can America do better. We are spending the month of February gathering information and will send you a survey report at the end of the month.

Impeachment Versus Arianna
By David Swanson

Joe Scarborough hosted a discussion of impeachment last night on MSNBC. Here's the transcript:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11256483/

There were four guests, two explicitly labeled as liberals, and two as conservatives. The conservatives were Tucker Carlson and Pat Buchanan. The liberals were Liz Holtzman and Arianna Huffington.

Here's a short audio clip from the Alternative State of the Union event hosted by the Progressive Caucus, the Nation Magazine, and the Institute for Policy Studies. The only voice you'll hear will be that of Congresswoman Maxine Waters, speaking about Bush, and saying:

By David Swanson
Talk of censure and impeachment has begun swirling around President Bush. Can Vice President Cheney come to the rescue? He will do so if enough of Bush's opponents adopt the position of this Philadelphia Daily News op-ed writer -- the position that impeaching Bush would be a mistake, since Cheney is worse than Bush.

On December 14, RNC spokesman Brian Jones attacked John Kerry by declaring: "For one of the leaders of the Democratic Party to begin a push for presidential impeachment, in seriousness or jest, on the eve of the Iraq elections is both foolish and shortsighted."

Roll Call's Stu Rothenberg believes Democrats would commit political suicide by trying to impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney for lying about Iraq.

Rothenberg's conclusion is based on no facts at all; if he checked the latest poll on impeachment, he would discover that a solid majority of Americans - 53% to 42% - think Bush should be impeached if he lied about Iraq. And a November NBC poll found an even bigger majority - 57% to 35% - think Bush deliberately misled people to make the case for war with Iraq - in other words, they think Bush lied.

Roll Call reports on Wednesday's caucus meeting of House Democrats to try to find common ground on Iraq.

Democrats, who actually think for themselves rather than goose-step behind their mis-leaders like Republicans, naturally differ in their ideas on how best to get out of Iraq. But House Dems all agree on one thing: Bush created a f***ing mess.

I just received the fine letter below from Jim Dean - Howard Dean's brother and the Chair of Democracy for America, which carries on the work begun by Dean for America. Dean's letter includes this indictment of Bush:

If Americans don't challenge a president who is bankrupting our treasury, damaging our moral leadership in the world, and jeopardizing our national security then we are failing our democracy.

That's exactly right! But what on earth does "challenge" mean? If Bush is doing these awful things - AND HE IS - we need to STOP him. And the only way to stop him is through IMPEACHMENT.

Use this link to ask Jim Dean: Why don't you support Bush's impeachment?