The Jefferson Rules -- Queries for National Democrats

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OpEdNews

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_alan_mcc_070430_the_jefferson_rules_.htm


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April 30, 2007

The Jefferson Rules -- Queries for National Democrats

By alan17b0


The Jefferson Rules state essentially that state legislatures may
bring impeachment resolutions to the House of Representatives, the
lower house of Congress, and such resolutions must be considered
by this House.

Several states have made valiant attempts to use these rules to
bring impeachment of Bush and/or Cheney to the Congress. But
national Democrats have used extraordinary energy to frustrate
these attempts. We are told that Senator Murray and Congressman
Inslee made trips to Olympia, WA to stop a resolution from being
enacted in Washington State, and that Senators Leahy and Sanders
-- Sanders not even a Democrat! -- did the same in Vermont.
Efforts in New Mexico were aborted by parliamentary tactics.

Why did the national Democratic party do this? what do they
know that we don't?


We ordinary citizens know that war is serious business, and that
waging aggressive war against a country 10,000 miles away is a
High Crime. According to the most recent polls, slightly over
50% of all Americans are ready to impeach our present president
for misleading the country into war, as well as for spying on us,
using signing statements to cherry pick among the laws that he
will enforce, etc etc. That's the criminality part.

We also know that the illegal and immoral war the United States
is waging in Iraq is a disaster, a totally failed policy. We have
seen failures elsewhere. A great American city was devastated;
the environment has been trashed; tax policies favor the
extremely rich, while the standard of living of ordinary citizens
shrinks. That's the incompetency part.

And it is no surprise that the the approval ratings of the
Present Occupant hover in the low 30% range, and his Vice
President's ratings are a good bit lower.


One would think that an effective opposition would say, to
itself and to us: Criminality, and incompetency, and being
despised by the people . . . we should take this gift that the
Republicans are giving us and utilize it. To start impeachment
proceedings is not only moral, it is also popular.

Yet the national Democrats not only lag back, they actively try
to squelch efforts to put impeachment "on the table". They don't
explain this squelching, they just do it.

This activity Against what any normal person would assume that
they would be For invites speculation. Can it be that the
national Democrats don't wish to indict this failed
administration for policies that they hope themselves to pursue
once they attain office? If this is overly cynical, I invite
others to offer alternative speculations.

The next time an administration gets in that will wage aggressive
war, and spy on the people, and pick and choose among the laws it
is sworn to uphold, it may be competent. If we the people(an
archaic phrase, no?) don't push impeachment now, the opportunity
to do so in the future to punish similar crimes may be lost.


Which means that the United States will have lost its cherished
system of government and perhaps its freedoms.

It is in this sense that the national Democrats have a lot to
be held accountable for.







Authors Bio: Alan McConnell is a retired mathematician, and a Co-trustee of the Washington Area Impeachment Fund, LLC.

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