Sunday, April 09, 2006

Impeachment 2006

Crossposted on Marathon Pundit.

Pat at Brainster has been closely following the move by the some within the Democratic Party to not only re-take Congress this fall, and following that accomplishment, begin impeachment proceedings again President Bush. The charges will center on Bush's "lies" about pre-war Iraq intelligence, and the recent revelations over NSA eavesdropping.

Five state Democratic state committees have voted to petition Congress to start the impeachment process against the president. Those states are Vermont, Nevada, North Carolina, Wisconsin and New Mexico.

Even if the Democrats take control of Congress after this fall's elections (but I don't think they will), impeachment faces an uphill battle.

Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is strongly against impeachment.

Among other members of the Illinois congressional delegation, only three have come out in support of impeachment. There among the most liberal members of the House: Jesse Jackson, Jr., Danny Davis, and my own congresscritter, Jan Schakowsky.

Schakowsky, whose politico husband Robert Creamer was sentenced last week to five months in prison for bank and tax fraud charges, is a co-sponsor along with Davis, of a House impeachment resolution.

Melissa Bean, a Democrat who represents Northwest Suburban Chicago in a Republican-leaning district, faces a tough re-election battle this fall. She's against impeachment.

South of Bean's district is the 6th, where Democrat (and Iraq war vet) Tammy Duckworth faces Republican Peter Roskam for the open seat being vacated by retiring Republican Henry Hyde. After an exhaustive internet search (and yes, I do research this stuff), I couldn't find out what Tammy's position on impeachment is, but I believe she opposes it. Roskam is certainly against it.

9 comments:

Anonymous,  7:51 PM  

Of course Roskam opposes it. What else would a Bugman DeLay protege do?

Whether it's impeachment or censure or a mass resignation by military officers, something needs to stop this administration before it uses nuclear weapons against Iran. They're crazy enough to try, as should be clear to any conscious observer by now. Plus Sy Hersh has been right too many times for his latest scoop in the New Yorker to be casually dismissed. I can't even imagine the blowback that would cause--9/11 would look like a picnic.

Marathon Pundit 8:01 PM  

I'm not saying nuking Iran is the answer, but sitting back to see what the mullahs do is not the way to go.

Anonymous,  8:31 PM  

Wow thanks, Threat of impeachment should energize the base.

Anonymous,  10:42 PM  

Of course Tammy opposes impeachment. That is a no-brainer. She will take any position on any issue the way Rahm will tell her to.

Bill Baar 7:08 AM  

It energizes me.

I was thinking of posting a copy of my letter from Hastert to my letter against impeaching Clinton.

Clinton had been a great disappointment to me but I thought the country had bigger issues to deal with.

I like Duckworth. I don't know much about Roskam. I'd want to vote for Duckworth if I lived in district but if I thought it was going to lead to talk about impeachment and Bush lied along the lines of Illinois Shadow's post below, it would leave no choice but a vote for Roskam.

We need sensible Democratic criticism of the war. We need them to review the 1000 tactical mistakes Rice mentioned. We need them to question the core strategy of Democratic Nation Building.

But when Democrats backed off their original votes in support of Iraqi Liberation and went with the Bush Lied strategy, they lost seriousness on War and National Security.

Anonymous,  7:13 AM  

Given that Duckworth was criticizing Roskam for not having positions up on his website yesterday on Fox Sunday Morning (she hasn't been in Illinois long enough to know that they are well-known in the community), seems a wee bit hypocritical that an important issue like this is missing from her own website. What gives?

Anonymous,  8:44 AM  

Calling for impeachment would lead to the Dems losing seats just like it did to the GOP in 98

Anonymous,  9:55 AM  

Why are so many Duckworth-haters cowards? Get a friggin' nickname lest Rich Miller decide to start posting your IP address and we look up where you actually are (a GOP headquarters somewhere? your parent's basement maybe?)

Anon 8:44, the difference between 98 and now is that people, not the least of whom are our brave soldiers, have died directly as a result of Bush's lies and deceptions.

Anon 7:13, Roskam still hasn't figured out how to hide his radical right-wing positions in flowery language which make him sound like a Mark "Rubber Stamp Rooster" Kirk moderate too. At least Major Duckworth has the guts to put her principles and values out there for the voters to judge. We still can't say the same for 'Fraidy Cat Roskam.

Anon 10:42, your comment is just plain stupid given what we can all gather from Major Duckworth's interviews and her own statements. Here's a clue, she differs with Rahm just like you or I might -- while she can certainly follow orders she's also an independent-thinker (you'd have to be both to earn Major in the Army).

Why are the GOP and their movement conservative puppeteers so worried about Major Duckworth if she's anything like what you whiney folks keep saying she is?

Maybe, just maybe, it's because she's a smart, strong, independent woman with a distinguished military career whose positions on the issues of our day make sense and are pragmatic for the citizens of the 6th District.

Then again, maybe you're just peeing your pants about her reasonable, mainstream ideas because you know how radical Roskam's out-of-touch positions really are.

grand old partisan 10:54 AM  

Um, nw burbs, did you miss the first post? The anonymous one bashing Roskam and Bush? Perhaps you'd look a little less hypocritical if you didn't reserve your name-calling for only those who attack Democratic candidates. Or is the IP address of Anon 7:51 PM not as important to you as the rest?

  © Blogger template The Professional Template by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP