Kucinich Pushes for Bush Impeachment
Jul 31, 2020251K Shares3.6M Views
Americans wondering whatever happened to White House accountability have at least one energetic ally in Congress. For the past two days, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D) has spent hours on the House floor detailing the reasonshe thinks President George W. Bush should be impeached. He’s come up with 35 (listed below) — most of them related to the war in Iraq, though a few others touch, for example, on the administration’s dismal responses to Hurricane Katrina and the looming threat of global warming.
House Democratic leaders oppose the move toward impeachment. Indeed, in the run-up to the 2006 elections that swept Democrats into control of both chambers, party leaders ran explicitly on the platform that impeachment would be off the table.
That hasn’t discouraged Kucinich, however. The perennial presidential candidate has sponsored legislation to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney, and this week employed a rarely used procedural tool that could force a vote on the Bush impeachment today.
Not that it’s got a chance of getting anywhere. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), speaking with reporters yesterday, implied that the impeachment debate only fritters the fast-shrinking legislative time the chamber has remaining this year. Hoyer added that Congress is already taking the White House to task:
“„We ought to hold this administration accountable. This administration has had one of the worst records domestically and internationally of any administration in my lifetime. Maybe ever.
“„And I think that this Congress, for the first time since this president has been in office, is holding him accountable, doing oversight both in terms of Iraq and Afghanistan; and in terms of domestic policy as well in terms of civil liberties and civil rights; in terms of contracting out; in terms of its relationship to special interests. Much oversight is being affected.
But that doesn’t explain why the chamber is poised to approve $165 billion in additional (borrowed) funding for a war still in search of a reason.
Kucinich’s 35 articles of impeachment:
Article I: Creating a Secret Propaganda Campaign to Manufacture a False Case for War Against Iraq.
Article II: Falsely, Systematically and with Criminal Intent Conflating the Attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, With Misrepresentation of Iraq as a Security Threat as Part of Fraudulent Justification for a War of Aggression.
Article III: Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, to Manufacture a False Case for War.
Article IV: Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Posed an Imminent Threat to the United States.
Article V: Illegally Misspending Funds to Secretly Begin a War of Aggression.
Article VI: Invading Iraq in Violation of the Requirements of H. J. Res. 114.
Article VII: Invading Iraq Absent a Declaration of War.
Article VIII: Invading Iraq, a Sovereign Nation, in Violation of the U.N. Charter.
Article IX: Failing to Provide Troops With Body Armor and Vehicle Armor.
Article X: Falsifying Accounts of U.S. Troop Deaths and Injuries for Political Purposes.
Article XI: Establishment of Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq.
Article XII: Initiating a War Against Iraq for Control of That Nation’s Natural Resources.
Article XIIII: Creating a Secret Task Force to Develop Energy and Military Policies With Respect to Iraq and Other Countries.
Article XIV: Misprision of a Felony, Misuse and Exposure of Classified Information And Obstruction of Justice in the Matter of Valerie Plame Wilson, Clandestine Agent of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Article XV: Providing Immunity from Prosecution for Criminal Contractors in Iraq.
Article XVI: Reckless Misspending and Waste of U.S. Tax Dollars in Connection With Iraq and U.S. Contractors.
Article XVII: Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign Captives.
Article XVIII: Torture: Secretly Authorizing, and Encouraging the Use of Torture Against Captives in Afghanistan, Iraq and Other Places, as a Matter of Official Policy.
Article XIX: Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to “Black Sites” Located in Other Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture.
Article XX: Imprisoning Children.
Article XXI: Misleading Congress and the American People About Threats from Iran, and Supporting Terrorist Organizations Within Iran, With the Goal of Overthrowing the Iranian Government.
Article XXII: Creating Secret Laws.
Article XXIII: Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.
Article XXIV: Spying on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the Fourth Amendment.
Article XXV: Directing Telecommunications Companies to Create an Illegal and Unconstitutional Database of the Private Telephone Numbers and Emails of American Citizens.
Article XXVI: Announcing the Intent to Violate Laws with Signing Statements.
Article XXVII: Failing to Comply with Congressional Subpoenas and Instructing Former Employees Not to Comply.
Article XXVIII: Tampering with Free and Fair Elections, Corruption of the Administration of Justice.
Article XXIX: Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Article XXX: Misleading Congress and the American People in an Attempt to Destroy Medicare.
Article XXXI: Katrina: Failure to Plan for the Predicted Disaster of Hurricane Katrina, Failure to Respond to a Civil Emergency.
Article XXXII: Misleading Congress and the American People, Systematically Undermining Efforts to Address Global Climate Change.
Article XXXIII: Repeatedly Ignored and Failed to Respond to High-Level Intelligence Warnings of Planned Terrorist Attacks in the U.S., Prior to 911.
Article XXXIV: Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Article XXXV: Endangering the Health of 911 First Responders.
Rhyley Carney
Reviewer
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