On a conference call with Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) supporters today, our Congressman and DCCC chairman Chris Van Hollen said he was against supporting impeachment.
A caller asked about “Congress’s constitutional responsibility to impeach,” adding “How much further abuse will be required for Democratic leadership to take action?”
Representative Van Hollen replied that Democrats have “stepped up from Day 1″ and that they’re now in a “big fight” over the process of how U.S. Attorneys are hired and fired, and are now using subpoena power to try to compel testimony about that matter.
However, he did not want to “consume the entire resources and efforts” of Congress on impeachment. He claimed that impeachment would “would indisputably be the whole [focus] of Congress,” and that with the amount of time remaining before the next election, that would hinder Democrats’ ability to move forward on other things. He closed by reiterating the talking point that he did not want to “consume the entire resources of Congress on impeachment.”
Neither the caller nor Rep. Van Hollen mentioned Monday’s Takoma Park city council vote recommending impeachment.
Watch this space for links to any recordings, transcripts, or corroborating links that become available.
I am sorely sorely disappointed. And, I don’t buy it. I’m callin Van Hollen.
Well, other Congressmen like Jim Moran have changed their minds on this; there’s no reason to think Van Hollen can’t do the same thing. He seems like he’s on the fence to me — this wasn’t saying “it’s not merited”, after all, and he did tell many people on July 4th that the Libby commutation was making him think about supporting impeachment. So you’re right, there’s no need to feel like this is the end of the story — thanks for calling him!
Is Van Hollen having any town hall meetings anytime soon? I’d like to see a crowd of us to face him and insist that he support impeachment.