[Mb-civic] Bush Impeachment - The Illinois State Legislature Is Preparing to Drop a Bombshell

[Michael Butler]

Also see below:    
Democrat Asks Legislature to Push Bush Impeachment    €

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    Bush Impeachment - The Illinois State Legislature Is Preparing to Drop a
Bombshell
    By Steven Leser
    OpEd News

    Saturday 22 April 2006

    Utilizing a little known rule of the US House to bring Impeachment
charges.

    The Illinois General Assembly is about to rock the nation. Members of
state legislatures are normally not considered as having the ability to
decide issues with a massive impact to the nation as a whole. Representative
Karen A. Yarbrough of Illinois' 7th District is about to shatter that
perception forever. Representative Yarbrough stumbled on a little known and
never utlitized rule of the US House of Representatives, Section 603 of
Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of the United States House of
Representatives, which allows federal impeachment proceedings to be
initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature. From there, Illinois
House Joint Resolution 125 (hereafter to be referred to as HJR0125) was
born.

    Detailing five specific charges against President Bush including one
that is specified to be a felony, the complete text of HJR0125 is copied
below at the end of this article. One of the interesting points is that one
of the items, the one specified as a felony, that the NSA was directed by
the President to spy on American citizens without warrant, is not in
dispute. That fact should prove an interesting dilemma for a Republican
controlled US House that clearly is not only loathe to initiate impeachment
proceedings, but does not even want to thoroughly investigate any of the
five items brought up by the Illinois Assembly as high crimes and/or
misdemeanors. Should HJR0125 be passed by the Illinois General Assembly, the
US House will be forced by House Rules to take up the issue of impeachment
as a privileged bill, meaning it will take precedence over other House
business.

    The Illinois General Assembly joins a growing chorus of voices calling
for censure or impeachment of President Bush including Democratic state
committees in Vermont, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Nevada and North Carolina as
well as the residents themselves of seven towns in Vermont, seventy Vermont
state legislators and Congressman John Conyers. The call for impeachment is
starting to grow well beyond what could be considered a fringe movement. An
ABC News/Washington Post Poll Conducted April 6-9 showed that 33% of
Americans currently support Impeaching President Bush, coincidentally, only
a similar amount supported impeaching Nixon at the start of the Watergate
investigation. If and when Illinois HJR0125 hits the capitol and the
individual charges are publicly investigated, that number is likely to grow
rapidly. Combined with the very real likelihood that Rove is about to be
indicted in the LeakGate investigation, and Bush is in real trouble beyond
his plummeting poll numbers. His cronies in the Republican dominated
congress will probably save him from the embarassment of an impeachment
conviction, for now, but his Presidency will be all but finished.

 

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    Democrat Asks Legislature to Push Bush Impeachment
    By Tracy Swartz
    The Chicago Sun-Times

    Monday 24 April 2006

    Springfield - Leave it to the Democratic-controlled state Legislature to
find an obscure way to attempt to oust President Bush.

    State Rep. Karen Yarbrough (D-Maywood) has sponsored a resolution
calling on the General Assembly to submit charges to the U.S. House so its
lawmakers could begin impeachment proceedings.

    It would be the first state legislature to pass such a resolution,
though the measure faces a dim future in a Republican-controlled Congress.

    "This is absolutely ridiculous," said John McGovern, a spokesman for
U.S. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). Only the U.S. House can
formally initiate impeachment proceedings.

    Yarbrough is hoping to get the U.S. House's attention through her
grass-roots effort. She already has picked up two co-sponsors to her
legislation, Democratic state Representatives Eddie Washington (Waukegan)
and Sara Feigenholtz (Chicago).

    According to the resolution, Bush has "willfully violated his oath of
office" by manipulating intelligence to start the war in Iraq, leaking
classified national secrets and authorizing illegal spying on American
citizens.

    "This president has acted like an emperor," Yarbrough said.

    To support her legislation, Yarbrough is relying on a provision from
Jefferson's Manual, a procedural handbook written by Thomas Jefferson as a
supplement to U.S. House rules.

    Anti-Bush Sentiment There

    Jefferson wrote that there are various methods of setting an impeachment
in motion, including "charges transmitted from the legislature of a State."

    If Yarbrough's resolution passes the General Assembly, it would go to
the U.S. House, where it likely would be referred to the Judiciary
Committee, said a spokesman for the Committee on U.S. House Administration.

    "It's up to that committee to decide what action it will take, if any,"
committee spokesman Jon Brandt said. "[The resolution] does not, in and of
itself, start a process."

    Nevertheless, a handful of cities and state Democratic committees have
adopted impeachment resolutions similar to Yarbrough's. Vermont Democrats
agreed earlier this month to urge lawmakers to approve it at the state
level.

    These groups hope the measures generate dialogue that will eventually
lead to impeachment.

    In Illinois, it is uncertain whether Yarbrough's measure will make its
way to a floor vote. House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) has not
voiced an opinion on the legislation, and the session is winding down.

    But the anti-Bush sentiment is there. Lawmakers toyed with keeping him
off the presidential ballot in 2004, and Democrats mocked him this month
during floor debate.

    Said Yarbrough: "I'm not a baseball or a football or a sports person,
but I know when the team isn't doing well, they don't get rid of the team,
they get rid of the coach."