WP Congressman Conyers:No Rush to Impeachment

[cal04]

As Republicans have become increasingly nervous about whether they will be able to maintain control of the House in the midterm elections, they have resorted to the straw-man strategy of identifying a parade of horrors to come if Democrats gain the majority. Among these is the assertion that I, as the new chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, would immediately begin impeachment proceedings against President Bush.

I will not do that. I readily admit that I have been quite vigorous, if not relentless, in questioning the administration. The allegations I have raised are grave, serious, well known, and based on reliable media reports and the accounts of former administration officials. But none of these allegations can be proved or disproved until the administration answers questions. For example, to know whether intelligence was mistaken or manipulated in the run-up to the Iraq war, we need to know what information was made available to -- and actually read by -- decision makers and how views contradicting the case for war were treated.

We need to know the extent to which high-ranking officials approved of the use of torture and other cruel and inhumane treatment inflicted upon detainees. We need to know whether the leaking of the name of a covert CIA operative was deliberate or accidental, as well as the identity of those responsible. The administration's stonewalling, and the lack of oversight by Congress, have left us to guess whether we are dealing with isolated wrongdoing, or mistakes, or something worse. In my view, the American people deserve answers, not guesses. I have proposed that we obtain these answers in a responsible and bipartisan manner.

It was House Republicans who took power in 1995 with immediate plans to undermine President Bill Clinton by any means necessary, and they did so in the most autocratic, partisan and destructive ways imaginable. If there is any lesson from those "revolutionaries," it is that partisan vendettas ultimately provoke a public backlash and are never viewed as legitimate. So, rather than seeking impeachment, I have chosen to propose comprehensive oversight of these alleged abuses. The oversight I have suggested would be performed by a select committee made up equally of Democrats and Republicans and chosen by the House speaker and the minority leader.

more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/17/AR2006051701880.html

[kestrel91316]

1. Conyers to Bush: It's going to be Chinese water torture...................

and slow flaying.........the death of a thousand cuts. Finished off by the grande finale of impeachment.

[IChing]

3. That's what I got out of it too,

Nicely written piece that gives a thousand paper cuts

[Hekate]

14. Oh yessss. I love Conyers -- he's a very smart, very judicious man.

KnR

Hekate

[grytpype]

2. OH NOOOES!!!! IMPEACH MEENTT NOWWWWWWWWWWWW!

[Stand and Fight]

6. *chuckle*

That is about the knee jerk reaction some on here are going to have too... :rofl:

[peacetheonlyway]

4. Is Conyers outta his Friggin Mind?

what the hell?

am I reading this right.

what the heck is going on. Has every democrat in washington taking the poison red pill and now the only ones living in the REAL world are us lowly citizens..The Dems are Behaving like Leni Riefenstahl, making movies for Hitler while millions of jews (in this case American citizen's rights) are getting exterminated?

WTF? WTF?

now I"m pissed conyers WAS my hero.. but he's talking the same crap that pelosi is... what if they all think they have a plan for after 2006 starting impeachment proceedings but what if that doesn't give enough time to impeach him before he does tons more damage. what if Dems DON'T TAKE BACK CONGRESS because of election fraud..... I mean a 7 Trillion dollar deficit is not enough to put on the red light and haul his ass to jail and worry about the investigation later??

THIS SMACKS OF PUTTING ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET.

To you Mr. Conyers, I ask this simple question. Do we not have enough evidence with 6 years of his criminal behaviour and 2,000+ Dead american soldiers 15,000+ wounded soldiers and over 100K Iraqis dead for no reason at all but our imperialistic hegemony?

FOR EACH DAY YOU DUMBASS DEMS say "NO IMPEACHMENT" you put a little more blood on your hands.

come on, stop playing pussyfoot with words and 'technicalities..' this impeachment cry is not partisan because of blowjobs, this impeachment cry from the public is for CRIMINAL ACTIVITY THAT CONGRESS HAVE COMPLETELY OVERLOOKED and I thought you were leading the charge.. but it appears the lights are on in Congress, but nobody home...

grow a fucking goddamn backbone will you wall?????

[Stand and Fight]

5. Did you even bother to read the whole bloody article?

Good grief. Read the article and comprehend what he is saying before you start griping about the guy... :eyes:

[peacetheonlyway]

7. What the American People Need is Aggressive Impeachment proceedings NOW!

before shrub starts world war 3...

** Conyers **
We need to know the extent to which high-ranking officials approved of the use of torture
and other cruel and inhumane treatment inflicted upon detainees.
** Ok, Conyers.. here you go, straight from AG Gonzales Mouth to your Ears....

The link below will show you the Alberto Gonzales Torture Memo where he essentially endorses bending of the rules for enemy combatants... Abu Gharaib was not a one time thing, but shown to be a a systemic approach to torture by our entire top echelon in the WHite house...

http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/doj/bybee80102ltr.html


We need to know whether the leaking of the name of a covert CIA operative was deliberate or accidental
**

So I would say that's pretty deliberate and it comes from the top down...
Start with Cheney and we can weed out the rest as time goes by...
, as well as the identity of those responsible.
** OK, John, here ya go... I'll help you out...
BASICALLY, everyone that Bush has invited to work with him in the white house.
They are all fucking rats... and they have learned how to
delete emails permanently
give Telcos' permission to lie about NSA records
Violated basic privacy rights of 3500+ Americans
Gone to War and misused congressional power in one war (the Iraq War) to begin actions in Iran (which congress has not authorized us to go to war)
Hidden Secret service records from FOIA requests
Ignored national and international treaties and laws
Ignored Congressional laws with signing statements
Obstructed justice with thwarting of all investigations brought by congress or by Patrick Fitzgerald
** What else do you need, the list goes on and on....


ok. let me calm down. John Conyers. is what you are trying to say,
"let the Fitzgerald investigation proceed and then we'll start impeachment"

well if that's all you are saying, I'm all with you man.. just stop speaking in code and come right out and say be patient a few more months and then I won't have my panties in a wad.....

I take what I said back, you are still my hero, I don't care what happens, you are still America's strongest advocate for restoring true democracy...

[Stand and Fight]

8. Politics is like a game of chest...

You really think that they're going to come right out and energize the Republican wacko base and say, "Yeah, we're going to go balls-to-the-wall for impeachment. Zippity-fucking-do-da!"?

Short answer?

No.

There's got to be some finesse in the end-game. Just you wait and see... I hope.

[peacetheonlyway]

11. has any democratic strategy worked in the last 6 years?

no...

we all better hope together... the dems, dumb as rocks strategy wise, need all the hope they can get....

[cigsandcoffee]

9. He's trying to soothe moderates before the election.

All very typical, and pretty non-remarkable. If poll responders are hotter on impeachment later, Conyers will be all over it - if they're not, he'll draw things out the way he described above, and keep turning the screws slowly on the administrration.

[Jack Rabbit]

10. This is right and proper

Conyers isn't saying there will be no impeachment. He is saying there will only be impeachment if there is a good reason for it.

Who here thinks he'll have to look too hard for a good reason?

[peacetheonlyway]

12. jack rabbit I love your posts

right on!! my point exactly... ditto....

[Jack Rabbit]

13. I'd like to compliment your post, too

Yes, we need an aggressive impeachment investigation now, but we know we're not going to have one for months. The Republicans wouldn't investigate Bush's misdeeds if they included hacking Dennis Hastert's mother with an ax in front of all of them.

The evidence isn't going to run away. We know about Cheney's marginal notes, the Gonzales memos, the Downing Street memos, etc., etc. There's already enough in public to send these up the river for a long time.

The only problem will be presenting a case so compelling that enough Republicans will have to go along in order to make a two-thirds vote in the Senate to gain a conviction.