Congressman John Conyers came to New Haven yesterday to help kick off five days of intense grassroots campaign work for Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Speaking to an overflow crowd at the African-American Center, the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee reminded us of the importance of the task ahead and provided an update on where we stand as far as holding the Bush administration accountable for its lawlessness.
Details after the jump.
In response to a question about the subpoenas that had issued out of the Judiciary Committee and the possibility of contempt of Congress charges against those who ignored them, Conyers said, "I spoke to Nancy Pelosi two days ago and told her that we now have the votes to hold George Bush's lawyer, Harriet Miers, in contempt of congress for defying our subpoenas."
"There will be a vote," he assured us. Indeed, he sounded almost wistful as he described a procedure no longer available to the committee:
We have a process that we won't use but I'll tell you about it. It's one where we request that the person who has violated the contempt citation be brought before the House, arrested by the Sergeant at Arms and imprisoned in the cells that we used to have below the House of Representatives. The only thing is they're sealed and paved over now, so we're not going to use that process. But we don't care if the Department of Justice does it. We're going to hold her and anyone else who doesn't respond to general subpoenas in contempt.
He also suggested that Miers (and others) would be called to testify regarding the destruction of the CIA interrogation tapes and the role, if any, of the White House in that decision.
But he was here primarily to speak of Barack Obama. He didn't need to describe how energized he is by the campaign, as it was obvious. But in case we missed it, he told us
I'm working like I never thought I'd be able to work. I've been waiting for this my whole life. But you know what? Honestly, I had no idea that this could happen this year. There's two things about this brother that we would send to the White House. One is his towering intellectual capacities. Unquestionable. But the other is the charisma that he has to make people believe that it is right to hope, that you can dare to dream of an America that we can all be proud of and advance the democratic principles that have been trampled these last seven and a half years. We could restore and advance them around the world.
Indeed, as he reminded us, the whole wide world is watching:
The country isn't waiting for Barack Obama. The world is waiting for Barack Obama. Our reputation has been sullied across this globe. People have lost their respect for us. The whole notion that might makes right [has been] carried to the extreme with the neo-conservatives that Cheney brought in.
In response to another question, he spoke somewhat sadly of President Clinton's role in this campaign:
Bill Clinton is a friend of mine, but you know he was 46 years old too when he first ran for President of the United States. But now he's gotten a little cranky in his later years.
There's a feeling of entitlement in the way he talks about this. Does anybody notice that? . . . 'How dare this young man!' But (Clinton) was new to Washington. He was 46 years old. And now another 46 year old comes by and says 'Sorry, but the old style is gone. We're moving in another direction. And we're gonna unite not just the party and the Democrats. We're gonna unite America and lead the world.'
Describing the importance of this election and of Tuesday's primaries to an ever more interdependent world, Rep. Conyers noted that, in effect, "global" is the new "local."
China's pollution and global warming today is ours next week. We've got to look at this in a new way. [We can] have a man that can unite us, to make us believe that we can lead the way in America. And it begins these next five days.
"Are you up for it?" he asked. And upon getting the expected enthusiastic "Yes" from the assembled multitude, Conyers promised, "I'll see you at the swearing-in."
Book my ticket, Mr. Chairman. We'll be dancing in the streets in January.
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