In 1974, Representative Father Drinan won admiration and a place in history to be the first Congressperson to call for the Impeachment of President Nixon during the Watergate scandal.
Who will be the first to call for impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney?
Update. HoundDog tells me that John Conyers HJC Resolutions 635, 636, and 637 constitute an effective call and required motions for the start of the impeachment process as reported in the John Conyers diary up now in the reccomended list. Thank you and congratulations Rep John Conyers. You will go down in history with Father Drinan as great defenders or our Constitution.
Censure motion introduced in House over Iraq, torture by Larisa Alexandrovna, in Raw Story.
Ranking House Judiciary Democrat Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) has introduced a motion to censure President Bush and Vice President Cheney for providing misleading information to Congress in advance of the Iraq war, failing to respond to written questions and potential violations of international law.
House Resolution 636 seeks to censure the President for failing to respond to repeated requests for information on pre-war intelligence, possible war crimes against detainees and violation of international law, and retaliatory action against critics of the administration. House Resolution 637 seeks censure the Vice President for the same alleged abuses of power and failure to respond to repeated requests for information and testimony.
Barbara Boxer came really close this morning when she repeated John Deans statement yesterday that "President Bush was the first president in American History to confess to an impeachable offense. But she then said she has asked fout costitutional scholars to testify in hearings in January.
Remember the final impeachment conviction after a Senate Trial needs to be preceded by lots of steps.
The House must appoint impeachment case managers who collect evidence and make a presentation to the House Judicary Committee.
The HJC must then debate this and vote to make a referal reccomendation to the House. After extensive hearings, a majority of the House must vote for impeachment, which only then sends the case to the Senate.
So these first steps are more like appointing a prosecutor and empanelling a grand jury to hear and evaluate the evidence.
It should not be surprising or dissappointing to folks that most Senators will assert they need to hear and debate all the evidence before announcing their final impeachment conviction vote.
But, who do you believe will be the first to make a non-contingent call for this long formal impeachment process to begin?