West Hollywood is #80

Last night the City Council of West Hollywood, CA became the 80th municipal government in the U.S. to pass an impeachment resolution against the President and Vice President. See video here

The news commentator shown in this clip makes the gratuitous (and erroneous) observation that impeachment has “zero chance” of passing in Congress since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi opposes it. Although the Speaker’s power to grant coveted spots on House Committees makes Members of the House reluctant to oppose her, they must also weigh the risk of losing their seats in Congress if they ignore the wishes of their constituents. Recent events such as the President’s commutation of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s prison sentence and the Administration’s refusal to comply with Congressional subpoenas have tipped the balance in favor of impeachment for several House members, and the list of cosponsors for H Res 333 to impeach the Vice President is rapidly growing. Two of the fourteen to have joined the list in the past ten weeks are from the DC area – Rep. Al Wynn of Maryland and Rep. Jim Moran of Northern Virginia.

Moyers airs “Tough Talk on Impeachment”

Conservative Clinton-impeacher Bruce Fein and progressive “The Nation” editor John Nichols joined forces on PBS’s “Bill Moyers Journal” last Friday. The duo — probably unthinkable ten years ago — were on to discuss and urge impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney for a pattern of executive overreach that is “totally anathema to a democratic society devoted to the rule of law,” as Bruce Fein put it. As ever, the PBS show’s web site has made the transcript, audio recording, and full video of the show available (via the “Tough Talk on Impeachment” home page)*, and it is an exceptionally valuable production.

Make it happen.**

Fein and Nichols — one an old-school conservative, one a progressive liberal — advance complementary, mutually reinforcing arguments for impeachment. Fein was positively eager to speak out — with what one might call unimpeachable credibility — on this administration’s numerous specific, patent abuses of power, which he rightly terms “[m]ore worrisome than Clinton’s– because he is seeking more institutionally to cripple checks and balances and the authority of Congress.” Fein also stressed how impeachment is intended to be about “political crimes against the Constitution,” as he quoted Alexander Hamilton at a Senate hearing on Bush’s signing statement abuses.