Impeachment

J U LY / A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 W W W. T I K K U N . O R G T I K K U N 39 T IKKUN: There was a very put-downish editorial in the Cleveland PlainDealer about your plan to impeach Vice President Cheney. Its basic point was that there isn’t a single person in the Congress who’ll back you on this. KUCINICH: Some already have. More will be signing on. This is about our Constitution , about whether those who take an oath to defend the Constitution keep faithfully that pledge. Vice President Cheney has not only failed in his oath to protect the Constitution , but he has also led this country into a war based on a very aggressive program of misinformation in the media that he fostered. He needs to be held accountable. TIKKUN: But opponents might argue that his acts were speech acts. He didn’t engage in theft, or killing anybody directly. He didn’t sleep with an intern. All he did was advocate for a position—it was the Congress that didn’t exercise its responsibility to investigate before voting for a war. KUCINICH: You’re correct in that Congress had a responsibility. However, the vice president sat over the shoulders of people in the intelligence community. He made strong efforts to change intelligence products when he had no right to do that. Then, based on that cooked intelligence, he went and created a case for war. This is a very clear-cut case of a violation of his role as the vice president. It doesn’t excuse those members of Congress who failed to adequately perform their role, but the vice president was in a singular position in this regard and took the lead. If you look at the articles, I cite chapter and verse where time after time he went to the national media and said: “We know they have weapons of mass destruction.” He stated it with the certitude that anyone would expect the vice president of the United States to be able to have when he’s equipped with the facts. But he had no facts to base it on, and he basically created a case out of fiction. That raises this to the level of an impeachable offense. TIKKUN: The second main argument against impeachment has been that (a) it will divert energy from stopping the war, and (b) Congress will accomplish nothing else if it first tries to impeach Cheney , but then tries to impeach Bush. How do you respond to this argument? KUCINICH: We should end the war, of course. Congress is currently engaging in a less-than-substantive debate on the war. Congress has the authority to stop the war right now by simply refusing to provide any funds whatsoever. AP PHOTO/CHARLIE NEIBERGALL One thing we celebrate in America is the possibility that Congress can impeach our president and vice president . Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, announced immediately after the Democrats won majority control of the House, that impeachment was “not on the table.” In April, Dennis Kucinich introduced a resolution to impeach Vice President Cheney. We asked him and other members of Congress to explain whether or not this is the time to put impeachment back on the table. Rep.DennisKucinich(D-OH) IMPEACHMENT 40 T I K K U N W W W. T I K K U N . O R G J U LY / A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 REASONS FOR IMPEACHMENT: • Article I, that Richard Cheney had purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and the Congress of the United States by fabricating a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify the use of the United States armed forces against the nation of Iraq in a manner damaging to our national security. • That despite all evidence to the contrary, the vice president actively and systematically sought to deceive the citizens and the Congress of the United States about an alleged threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. • That preceding the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the vice president was fully informed...