January 15, 2008
CBS.com Covers Wexler Impeachment Push
Filed under: Related to Impeachment, Impeachment Progress News, Florida — Mikael @ 8:00 pm
cbsnews.com
Wexler Calls For Cheney's Impeachment
By John Bresnahan
(The Politico) Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) is urging the House Judiciary Committee to begin impeachment hearings against Vice President Dick Cheney, despite opposition from House Democratic leaders.
Wexler, who first gained national attention for defending former President Bill Clinton during his impeachment in 1998, said Cheney has to be ousted in order to restore the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches, which in his view, has been eroded by an ever-expanding claim of authority under Cheney and President Bush.
"There's a litany of issues that need to be heard," Wexler said. "This administration has abused the power of executive privilege. This administration has completely avoided testifying before Congress on any one of a host of six, seven, eight issues.
“Whether we are talking about the manipulation of intelligence on Iraq,” he went on, “whether we are talking about the outing of a covert CIA agent, whether we're talking about the illegal use of torture, whether we're talking about the potentially unlawful firing of U.S. prosecutors - on all of these issues, the administration has thus far successfully used the power of executive privilege."
But impeachment hearings would be different, Wexler said, since the White House could not raise a privilege claim in order to avoid answering questions from lawmakers.
"In an impeachment hearing, the administration does not have the power of executive privilege," Wexler said, noting that the secret tapes that helped bring down President Richard Nixon did not surface until the House Judiciary Committee began impeachment hearings.
The House voted on Nov. 6 on a resolution by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) to bring articles of impeachment against Cheney for pushing for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, repeatedly suggesting that there ties between al Qaeda and the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and advocating military action to overthrow Iran.
When Republicans, in a bid to embarrass House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders, voted for the measure, the House was thrown into a brief deadlock. The measure was eventually approved and sent to the Judiciary Committee, where Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) has declined to take action, despite pressure from Wexler and liberal activists outside Congress.
Copyright 2008 POLITICO
(Original Article)
Please visit Alexandria Advocates Alliance to keep up with progress on the impeachment movement in Alexandria, VA. - a new way to think about impeachment is in the works.
View our calendar of events and take action!
From 8/10/07 - 8/18/07 Members of the VPA and Veterans for Peace will be at the Prince William Peacemaker's peace booth at the Prince William County Fair in Manassas, VA
7/20/07 - The Alexandria Times interviews some members of our group.
Welcome to the Virginians for Peace and Accountability. We are a non-partisan group of individuals who are concerned about the criminality of the Bush Administration and the war in Iraq. We are involved in citizen activism to encourage the investigation of the Bush Administration for impeachment.
Democrats.com set up a movement to promote forming an impeachment committee in every Congressional District in the country. We formed in January 2007 in the 11th Congressional District to open dialog with our Congressman, Tom Davis (R-VA). We write correspondence to him and have set up meetings with Davis and his staff. We also participate with area impeachment and peace groups in numerous activities in the Washington D.C. metro area. Although we originally formed as a vehicle for the 11th Congressional District, we welcome other members of neighboring Congressional Districts to join us so we can spread the word to Congress about impeachment.
Please email me if you would like to join our group, or if you wish to leave a comment. | 
