From The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, 1/24/06:
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/13701168.htm

Some activists, politicians speaking openly about impeachment

BY JIM PUZZANGHERA
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON -

The word "impeachment" is popping up increasingly these days and not
just off the lips of liberal activists spouting predictable
bumper-sticker slogans.

After the unfounded claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction
and recent news of domestic spying without warrants, mainstream
politicians and ordinary voters are talking openly about the
possibility that President Bush could be impeached.

So is at least one powerful Republican senator, Sen. Arlen Specter,
R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

So far, it's just talk.

And with Republicans controlling Congress - and memories still fresh
of the bitter fight and national distraction inflamed by former
President Clinton's 1998 impeachment - even the launching of an
official inquiry is a very long shot.

But a poll released last week by Zogby International showed 52 percent
of American adults thought Congress should consider impeaching Bush if
he wiretapped U.S. citizens without court approval, including 59
percent of independents and 23 percent of Republicans.

(The survey had a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.)

With numbers like that, impeachment could become an issue in this
fall's congressional elections - and dramatically raise the stakes.

If Democrats win control of the House of Representatives, a leading
proponent of starting an official impeachment inquiry, Rep. John
Conyers, D-Mich., would become chairman of the House committee that
could pursue it.

Conyers introduced legislation last month to create a special panel to
investigate the Bush administration's alleged manipulation of pre-Iraq
war intelligence and "make recommendations regarding grounds for
possible impeachment."

He's not the only one dropping the "I word."

A day later, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., wrote to four presidential
scholars asking whether domestic spying by the National Security
Agency was an impeachable offense.

Former Vice President Al Gore said last week that the NSA wiretapping
could be an impeachable offense.

He delivered a blistering speech accusing Bush of "breaking the law
repeatedly and insistently" and calling for a special counsel
investigation and for Congress to stand up to the Bush White House.

Impeachment also came up at a televised town-hall-style forum in San
Francisco on Jan. 14 by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Some in the audience chanted for Bush's ouster and booed when the San
Francisco Democrat said she wouldn't sign on to Conyers' bill.

"I think that we should solve this issue electorally," said Pelosi,
who told the crowd to channel its energy toward electing a Democratic
House majority.

Bush contends that he holds authority as commander in chief to order
the eavesdropping on international calls of terrorism suspects without
court approval.

He also claims that Congress' resolution authorizing him to use force
against terrorists implicitly authorized his NSA spying.

But a 1978 law requires court-issued warrants for wiretapping people
in the United States.

And many in Congress, along with the nonpartisan Congressional
Research Service, said Bush is on shaky legal ground in ordering NSA
spying without warrants as required by that 1978 Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA).

Tucker Bounds, a Republican National Committee official, said talk of
impeachment is "nonsense."

But asked Jan. 15 what recourse there would be if Bush broke or
ignored the law in authorizing wiretaps, Senate Judiciary Committee
chair Specter mentioned impeachment.

"I'm not suggesting remotely that there's any basis, but you're
asking, really, theory, what's the remedy?" he said on ABC's "This
Week."

"Impeachment is the remedy."

Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., said of a Bush impeachment, "I'm not
saying it would happen, but I think it should be explored."

She was one of a handful of House members to co-sponsor Conyers' bill,
which is unlikely to get a hearing or vote as long as Republicans rule
the House of Representatives.

Stanford University historian Jack Rakove, a constitutional expert,
said breaking the law on domestic spying would qualify as an
impeachable offense, but that Congress should be hesitant to pursue
it.

The Clinton impeachment was a major distraction for the nation, he
said. Some have suggested it hurt the U.S. effort against al-Qaida
before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Despite such concerns, some liberal activists say it's time to impeach
Bush.

Bob Fertik, president of Democrats.com, has formed ImpeachPAC to fund
campaigns of congressional candidates who support impeachment.

It has raised more than $52,000 in 10 weeks.

"If the truth comes out," Fertik said, "there will be an open-and-shut
case for a high crime of breaking the law."

__________________________________________________________

"High Crimes and Misdemeanors:" A Short History of Impeachment
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0764613.html


The right to impeach public officials is secured by the U.S.
Constitution in Article I, Sections 2 and 3, which discuss the
procedure, and in Article II, Section 4, which indicates the grounds
for impeachment: "the President, Vice President, and all civil
officers of the United States shall be removed from office on
impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high
crimes and misdemeanors."



Harry