by David Swanson
Thirteen state Democratic parties have now passed resolutions
demanding impeachment, nine of them since Nancy Pelosi ordered the
Democratic Party away from impeachment.
In May 2004, the Nevada Democratic Party led the way, passing a
resolution demanding Bush's impeachment. On June 12, 2005, the
Wisconsin Democratic Party passed a resolution demanding the
impeachment of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld. On January 28, 2006, the
North Carolina Democratic Party Executive Committee called for the
impeachment of Bush, Cheney, and Gonzales, a call echoed by the full
state party in June with the focus on Bush alone. On March 21, 2006,
the New Mexico Democratic Party backed impeaching Bush and removing
him from office. In April 2006, the Vermont Democratic Party resolved
that Bush should face impeachment immediately.
Not a bad start: Nevada, Wisconsin, North Carolina, New Mexico, and
Vermont. Of course, Rumsfeld's gone (though not yet prosecuted), and
we all know where Gonzales is.
At this point in our story, a year ago now, the Republican National
Committee made its baseless claim that talk of impeachment would
benefit Republicans in the November 2006 elections, and Speaker-to-be
Nancy Pelosi immediately announced that impeachment was off the table.
But it wasn't. On May 20, 2006, The Colorado Democratic Party included
in its platform a call for Bush and Cheney to be "investigated,
censured or if appropriate, impeached." On May 21, 2006, the Alaska
Democratic Party passed a resolution "calling for the impeachment of
George W. Bush and Richard Cheney; and the recall of Paul Wolfowitz
as President of the World Bank and the dismissal of Donald Rumsfeld as
Secretary of Defense." In June 2006, the Hawaii Democratic Party voted
to call for the impeachment of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, and
Gonzales and their prosecution for war crimes. Also in June, Maine
called for Bush and Cheney to be impeached, New Hampshire asked for
Bush to be impeached, and the full North Carolina Party, as noted
above, called for Bush's impeachment.
Now we're rolling. Look at this list: Nevada, Wisconsin, North
Carolina, New Mexico, Vermont, Colorado, Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, and
New Hampshire. That's 10 state Democratic Parties demanding
impeachment by June of last year, and seven of them after Pelosi
ordered impeachment off the table, and before the elections.
Predictably, these states did very well for the Democrats in the
elections, as Nevada did in 2004 as well. And, of course, Wolfowitz is
on his way out (though not yet prosecuted).
In September 2006, still pre-elections, Washington State's Democratic
Party called for Bush and Cheney to be impeached. In March 2007, the
Oregon Democratic Party did the same. In April 2007, California called
for "appropriate remedies and punishment, including impeachment," for
Bush and Cheney.
And now Massachusetts has joined the list. On May 19, 2007, the
Massachusetts Democratic Party passed a resolution calling on "the
U.S. House of Representatives to investigate these charges and if the
investigation supports the charges, vote to impeach George W. Bush and
Richard B. Cheney." The charges were as follows:
"Whereas George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney have:
* Deliberately misled the nation about the threat from Iraq in
order to justify a war;
* Condoned the torture of prisoners in violation of the Geneva
Convention & US law;
* Approved illegal electronic surveillance of American citizens
without a warrant."
The majority of these resolutions have never been reported in the
media. Therefore, this list is almost certainly incomplete. So are the
following tallies:
* Cities and towns that have backed impeachment by resolution,
public vote, or both: 79.
* Largest cities: Detroit, home of the Chair of the House
Judiciary Committee, and San Francisco, home of the Speaker of the
House.
* Earliest and most frequent city: Santa Cruz beginning in 2003.
* States where impeachment has been introduced into the
legislature at least once: 10 (California, Hawaii, Illinois,
Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin,
Vermont).
* State legislative bodies that have voted on impeachment: 3
(Vermont Senate, Vermont House, New Mexico Senate).
* State legislative bodies that have passed impeachment
resolutions: 1 (Vermont Senate).
* National political parties backing impeachment: 1 (Green).
* Non-Democratic state political parties backing impeachment: 2
(Vermont Progressives, California Greens).
* Democrats Abroad Chapters backing impeachment: 1.
* Local political party organizations that have backed
impeachment: 32.
* Labor unions backing impeachment: 1.
* Page listing all these resolutions:
http://impeachpac.org/resolutions-list
* How to make corrections or additions to the list:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/listadditions
* Organization helping promote Democratic Party resolutions,
including those recently passed in Massachusetts and California:
http://pdamerica.org
* Articles of impeachment introduced against Bush: 3 (by Rep.
Cynthia McKinney).
* Articles of impeachment introduced against Cheney: 3 (by
Congressman Dennis Kucinich, H Res. 333, http://www.impeachcheney.org
).
* Impeachment Resource Center:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/resourcecenter
.
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