D-OH Rep. Dennis Kucinich has tirelessly brought constitutional matters before the body. He is undeterred by the fact that his colleagues in Congress do not want to listen to him. Kucinich stands for truth, the Constitution, and integrity of the process, and for that reason I consider him a modern-day hero.
"Only one Congressman had the personal courage and the profound respect for our Constitution to stand on the floor of the House of Representatives and exercise his right and his responsibility to bring Articles of Impeachment against President George W. Bush - Ohio Representative Dennis J. Kucinich."
"Now, Americans who cherish our Democracy and the Constitutional principles upon which it was founded can stand up, speak out, and take action by signing the one official petition that carries the full and unqualified support of the one and only original sponsor of the impeachment resolution: Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich."
I watched 5 hours of the impeachment hearings held yesterday in the House's Judiciary Committee room. And it was excellent and thrilling. It was admitted even from staunch Bush supporters that there are impeachable offenses rising to the level of High Crimes and Misdemeanors. Several contended that there have been criminal acts, with existing weight of evidence for prosecution.
In May 2007 Kucinich presented articles of impeachment regarding Vice President Cheney but they were sent to the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties and there they languished into oblivion.
Last year, CNN wrote: "Kucinich introduced a resolution to impeach VP Dick Cheney. But in November when Republicans tried to force a debate on the move, the attempt failed. Democrats voted to send the resolution to the House Judiciary Committee, where committee chairman Rep. John Conyers has taken no action on it.
This June 2008, Rep. Kucinich offered Bush impeachment articles from the floor of the House, reading them into the record. From there, the matter languished.
On July 10, Kucinich offered one article, and this time the matter was sent to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration!
The deliberations occurred yesterday and I watched them all on C-SPAN
The Committee heard testimony from its members. They heard testimony from Rep. Kucinich. They heard from expert witnesses in their field. John Dean was supposed to testify but illness kept him home. Instead, he wrote a legal treatise on the subject. Below, find some of the quotes from that five hour discussion.
Libertarian candidate for President, and former member of the Judiciary Committee Bob Barr: "There is a systemic problem. I think history will bear this out, that every Administration takes its power from the previous Administration and considers that a floor, not a ceiling. We must stop this upward trend."
Former Chief Counsel Frederick A.O. Schwartz: "In our zeal to protect ourselves, we have employed the very same tactics employed by our enemy. Regarding torture: We prosecuted Japanese soldiers for waterboarding American soldiers in WWII."
Bob Barr: "Might I enter into the record the disappearing Bill of Rights."
Constitutional Law Attorney Bruce Fein: "This Administration is extra-monarchical because this Administration claims more powers than King George III ever did."
Rep. Dennis Kucinich: "Iraq is the main contributing factor to the destruction of the US economy."
D-Minn Rep. Keith Ellison: "Powers abused are powers lost. We could end up with an Imperial Presidency."
D-NC Rep. Brad Miller: "Excessive control of information is incompatible with a democracy."
President of High Roads for Human Rights Ross Anderson: "It's not about waiting for the goodwill of the next president to restrain himself. It's our duty to act."
It IS our duty to act, because the government rests with We the People. Click over to Rep. Kucinich's site and sign the petition. Find your Congressman here and call or write to state your opinion. The MainStreamNews did not cover these important discussions yesterday, and the few that mentioned them briefly distorted the issue. This alternative news article closely matches what I saw. Having attempted to depict this issue as the venting of a few disgruntleds, the news failed to mention that the Committee Judiciary room was packed, and there was not one but two overflow rooms, with hundreds making the trip to Congress to listen in person. And countless more watching live on C-SPAN, which covered the discussion in its entirety and then repeated the deliberations in their entirety later that evening. The blogs and forums are alive with the sound of passion for truth. Yet, if relying on traditional news outlets, one would never know this groundswell is occurring.
The Constitution gives us the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. It's up to us.
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