Impeach 'em both!

NOTE: My better half Annie and I are off to New Mexico for Spring Break, so this will be my last post until we return on the week of March 19.

Although I'm not registered to vote in NM (because we haven't yet moved there full time), I have been following with pride the tremendous effort by many in that state to impeach Bush & Cheney. In a Republican orchestrated maneuver in which nine Democratic senators joined, NM Senate Joint Resolution 5 died yesterday. Had it passed, SJR 5 would have required the NM state government to send a petition to the U.S. House of Representatives asking that impeachment proceedings immediately begin against Bush and Cheney.

Via Steve Terrell's Legislature Blog, here's what NM Senator John Grubesic, co-sponsor of SJR 5 had to say after this resolution died:

This country was founded by rebels. This country was forged in violence, ferocity, dissent and uproar. This country is vanishing before our eyes, not because we are blind, but because we are willing participants in its destruction.

Today on the Senate floor you witnessed an excellent example. The Impeachment Resolution — (Senate Joint Resolution 5) – died quietly with no debate whatsoever. The dignity of the New Mexico State Senate was maintained as we followed carefully designed rules of procedure to ensure that nothing disrupted the workings of this austere body. We did a great job of making it appear that government was working.

However, we have to ask, which government and on whose behalf? The action taken by the Senate was not the action taken by a body that protects the freedoms of a sovereign people. The action was a carefully orchestrated option designed to protect the integrity of an institution and perpetuate the well-oiled workings of government. A government that has evidently forgotten that we serve at the please of those we govern.

It is clear that, from the highest levels of government in our country down to our State, very few of us want to deal with the unpleasant political mess that impeachment could become.

Our actions today showed where our priorities are – we forgot that the Constitution was not designed to serve government, but to protect the people.

There should have been debate, argument, uproar. Instead, we quietly gutted the sovereign power of the people with polite political procedure.

When future generations look back on our time, the shock will not be because of the violent, impolite nature of the fight that preceded the destruction of Constitutional government, but by the meekness with which we watched it die.

Grubesic is correct, there should have been debate, argument and uproar...but all across this land, not just in the Land of Enchantment. That there wasn't is a tragedy and another failure of timid and turncoat Democrats.

Vermont (Bush only) and Washington (Bush and Cheney) are two other states where state legislature impeachment measures have been introduced, but I haven't been following either of those measures so I really don't know much about them or their chances for success.

And wouldn't you just love to hear the following words from one of our Representatives of the People prior to Bush & Cheney & Gang leaving office on January 20, 2009?:

Mr. Speaker:

Under the standards set by the United States Constitution, President Bush—along with Vice President Cheney, and Secretary of State Rice—should be subject to the process of impeachment, and I have filed H. Res. _ in the House of Representatives.

Well, in fact, those are the exact words former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney said in introducing her Articles of Impeachment on December 8, 2006. No one in Congress has yet filed any such resolution in the 110th Congress, but I wouldn't rule it out despite what Pelosi said. My sense is that there is plenty of movement around the country and in the Halls of Congress to impeach Bush, Cheney or both.

For those of you who are against impeaching Bush, like I was, because you don't want the eviler Cheney to be promoted to take his place, I recommend you take a moment and read this terrific piece by David Swanson, a co-founder of After Downing Street. After you've read it let me know if you still feel impeachment proceedings shouldn't be undertaken.

See you after Spring Break.

Peace.