Published in : What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and the Culture of Washington Deception, that suggested Bush and Cheney played a bigger role in the scandal than they have publicly acknowledged.
Additionally,
McClellan wrote that the White House mislead the public about Iraq’s
arsenal of chemical and biological weapons and the threat the country
posed to the U.S.
“What Scott McClellan wrote in his new book
about the administration’s propaganda campaign to promote and defend
the occupation of Iraq was not a revelation,” Conyers’ opening
statement says. “It was confirmation that the White House has played
fast and loose with the truth in a time of war. Depending on how one
reads the Constitution, that may or may not be an impeachable offense.”
Conyers did not elaborate on whether he would consider
impeachment proceedings against President Bush beyond what he said in
his opening statement. Conyers' office did not return calls Tuesday. In
the past, the Michigan congressman said he did not support Democratic
efforts to impeach President Bush. Last year, a resolution introduced
by Kucinich to impeach Vice President Cheney died in Conyers'
committee.
Talk of impeachment, however, was not limited to
Conyers’ opening statement. Several Democratic members of the Judiciary
Committee, including Robert Wexler, and Sheila Jackson Lee, both of who
signed on as co-sponsors to Kucinich's resolution when it was
introduced last month, discussed the need for impeachment during the
McClellan's testimony based on revelations that the former press
secretary made in his book.
'How Many More Hearings?'
Kucinich
said there have been numerous hearings held in the Senate and House
over the past several months on issues such as the administration's
interrogation techniques, domestic surveillance, and flawed prewar Iraq
intelligence that has proven “this administration has violated the
constitution, taken the law into its own hands, and condoned torture.”
“How
many more hearings do we need to have?” Kucinich said. “There is a
point at which you reduce congress to a debating society which
diminishes Congress’s role.”
The Democratic congressman has been
an outspoken critic of the Iraq war and has consistently voted against
funding the conflict. Last year, he introduced a resolution last year
that called for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney, but the
House did not act upon it.
Democratic Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi has said impeachment is “off the table” because it would
hinder the Democrats’ chances of securing a bigger majority in Congress
come November, could result in a public backlash and cause the party to
lose the November presidential election.
"Speaker Pelosi will
continue to lead legislative efforts to find a new direction in Iraq
but believes that impeachment would create a divisive battle, be a
distraction from Congress's efforts to chart a new course for America's
working families and would ultimately fail," Pelosi's spokesman, Nadeam
Elshami, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer last month in response to
Kucinich’s move to impeach President Bush.
The impeachment
articles introduced by Kucinich last month took place a few days after
the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a long-awaited
report on prewar Iraq intelligence that concluded President Bush and
Vice President Cheney knowingly lied to the public and to Congress
about Iraq's links to al-Qaeda and the threat the country posed to the
U.S. in the aftermath of 9/11.
Democrats would consider
impeachment proceedings if the president authorizes a military strike
against Iran without first consulting Congress, according to a May 8
letter sent to President Bush by House Judiciary Committee Chairman
John Conyers.
"Late last year, Senator Joseph Biden stated
unequivocally that “the president has no authority to unilaterally
attack Iran, and if he does, as Foreign Relations Committee chairman, I
will move to impeach” the president.
"We agree with Senator
Biden, and it is our view that if you do not obtain the
constitutionally required congressional authorization before launching
preemptive military strikes against Iran or any other nation,
impeachment proceedings should be pursued, Conyers' letter says.
Kucinich
told The Public Record that Conyers’ way of ensuring the administration
does not launch a preemptive attack against Iran was flawed.
“The
way to make sure [the Bush administration] doesn't attack Iran is to
move forward with impeachment now,” Kucinich said. “We have an
obligation to move forward now. We can't have this administration put
us in a second war based on a similar approach.”
President Bush
“misled the American people. He led us to believe Iraq posed an
imminent threat. We cannot wait until they do something with Iran I am
going to meet with Conyers to impress upon him to proceed with
impeachment,” Kucinich told The Public Record.
Back in 2003,
John Dean, the former White House counsel during Richard Nixon’s
presidency, said knowingly using flawed intelligence to win support for
the Iraq war would amount to High Crimes and Misdemeanors, and warrant
impeachment
"To put it bluntly, if Bush has taken Congress and
the nation into war based on bogus information, he is cooked," Dean
wrote in a June 6, 2003 column for findlaw.com.
Kucinich was seeking co-sponsors Tuesday for the single article of impeachment.
“There
has been a breach of faith between the Commander in Chief and the
troops,” Kucinich said Tuesday. “Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 or
with Al Qaeda’s role in 9/11. Iraq had neither the intention nor the
capability of attacking the United States. Iraq did not have weapons of
Mass of Destruction. Yet George W. Bush took our troops to war under
all of these false assumptions. Given the profound and irreversible
consequences to our troops, if his decision was the result of a
mistake, he must be impeached. Since his decision was based on lies,
impeachment as a remedy falls short, but represents at least some
effort on our part to demonstrate our concern about the sacrifices our
troops have made.”
Last update : Wednesday, July 09, 2008
posted on July 9, 2008 6:53 PM ()
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