Dear Congressman Price
I've heard you make the case that impeachment proceedings in the US House of Representatives would be a waste of time and a distraction. And you've heard me ask the question: distraction from what? It's clear that Congress is mired in a stalemate that will not end until Democrats have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. And in the meantime, only a few matters of significance are moving through the legislative pipeline.
Which brings me to this letter from Robert Wexler to Chairman Conyers. In case you haven't read it, the letter makes a compelling case that impeachment is the only way to get past the Bush smokescreen and get to the bottom of a whole host of violations of public trust on the part of this administration.
Dear Chairman Conyers:
You have been a tireless champion of providing oversight to an Administration that has run roughshod over our constitution, that operates with no limits on executive branch authority and one that has repeatedly flouted the investigations and oversight the 110th Congress has tried to provide over the past year. We have the greatest respect for the work you have done and believe that impeachment hearings pertaining to Vice President Cheney are the best way to move that work forward.
Impeachment hearings will allow for the exact kind of oversight that you and the Democratic leadership have provided regarding the actions of the Administration but without the opportunity for the Bush Administration to ignore lawful requests for information, refuse subpoenas and effectively limit its own oversight.
Impeachment hearings can provide the opportunity to cut through the executive privilege defenses and force this Administration to answer a Congress it has clearly chosen to ignore. We know you would agree that as Members of Congress, we can not allow legitimate oversight to be thwarted or such a dangerous precedent to stand.
Your name is not among those supporting this effort. Why is that?
James
PS For those of you the districts served by Congressmen Miller and Butterfield, please consider sending this post to both with the same question. They may have good reasons for standing by while the administration thumbs its nose at Congress, and I'd like to hear what those reasons are.
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you show proper respect and deserve an answer
I received a questionnaire from his office and wrote up one margin and down the other, demanding that he DO HIS DUTY or else resign. Price, of all people,(because he has an academic background) ought to know that this festering sore on our Bill of Rights is not going to magically heal itself.
I really see the next Administration taking its own sweet time in backtracking on all the ways Bush/Cheney have defined executive power. Who wants to answer to every investigation when it is easier to follow the example of taking one's ball, stomping one's feet, and going home?
This needs repeating: we need more and BETTER Democrats. For me, supporting Jim Neal puts my time and energy on that line. I have not asked his for a position on impeachment, but I know that he is no fan of business as usual. He knows that the people deserve better.
If we want better, we will have to show these candidates that we stand with them, as our efforts to show those incumbents that we will back them (if they show spine)have not given us much result.
By the way, no one every contacted me from Price's office about my answers to the questionnaire. If they don't notice our outrage, who can we elect who WILL pay attention?
Add my name to the petition. Because we need a petition.
One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Gee.....I guess I could send this to Myrick
heh
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
Yeah, it would do as much good as me sending it to Coble.
::sigh::
Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi