http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/24479Sheehan Versus Pelosi?
Submitted by davidswanson on Mon, 2007-07-09 21:03. Cindy Sheehan | Elections | Impeachment
By John Nichols, www.thenation.com
The Bush administration is no barrier to the burgeoning movement for impeachment. In fact, George Bush and Dick Cheney should probably be made honorary members of the various coalitions seeking to remove them from office. Not a day goes by when the president and vice president do not take actions that strengthen the case for impeachment — actions that, on Cheney’s part, have already inspired ten U.S. House members to endorse articles detailing his high crimes and misdemeanors.
Many more House Democrats would sign on for impeachment if the leadership of their caucus was not pressuring them to back off.
Thus, the greatest barrier to the movement to hold the president and vice president to account is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California.
Before last year’s election, Pelosi announced that impeachment was “off the table.” It is probably good that she did not try to nullify another section of the Constitution — say, the part about freedom of speech. But Pelosi did serious damage to the system of checks and balances when she declared that her House would not use the tool created by the founders to assure that the legislative branch could keep errant executives in line.
No one really expected Pelosi to lead the charge for impeachment.
As the office holder who follows Cheney in the line of succession to the presidency, the Speaker ought not be the primary proponent of the removal of those ahead of her in the Oval Office queue.
But the solemn oath she swore to support and defend the Constitution of the United States should have precluded her from cherry picking the sections to which she chose to “bear true faith and allegiance.”
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