Kucinich Introduces Articles of Impeachment

Rep. Dennis Kucinich introduced 35 articles of impeachment against President Bush yesterday in the House of Representatives.  Here's a portion of Kucinich's speech:

Many will watch Rep. Kucinich's speech, roll their eyes, and decide it's a major waste of time.  The President's term is almost up, and Americans just don't support impeachment.  Right?

Nope, not right.  In fact, there is a surprisingly large percentage of Americans who support the impeachment of President Bush. 

According to Angus Reid, an InsiderAdvantage poll around May 1, 2007, found 39 percent of American voters to favor impeaching both Bush and Cheney, and 55 percent opposed.   Analyzing these numbers, Bob Barr, who initiated the Clinton impeachment hearings, said that "this indicates the surprising depth of dissatisfaction with Bush."

On July 6, 2007, a telephone poll conducted by the American Research Group found that 45 percent of American adults favored the US House of Representatives beginning impeachment proceedings against Bush, with 46 percent opposing the proceedings.  In the same poll, 54 percent wanted impeachment proceedings against Cheney, and 40 percent were opposed.

In another July 2007 pool by USA Today/Gallup, 36% of Americans felt there was justification for congress to begin impeachment proceedings against the President, while 62% felt that there was no justification.

A November 13, 2007 nationwide poll by American Research Group found 34% of all voters agreeing that "President Bush has abused his powers as president which rise to the level of impeachable offenses under the Constitution and he should be impeached and removed from office", distributed among 50% of Democrats, 18% of Republicans and 34% of independents. 43% of all voters nationwide agreed Dick Cheney has abused his powers as vice president to the level of impeachable offenses and he should be impeached and removed from office. (Link)

Clearly not majorities, but note that the polling was done a year ago and, even then, the number supporting impeachment was surprisingly high.  When the question is rephrased slightly:

A new American Research Group poll finds that 55 percent of voters believe President Bush has “abused his powers” in a manner that rises “to the level of impeachable offenses under the Constitution,” yet just 34 percent believe he should actually be impeached. Fifty-two percent say that Vice President Cheney has similarly abused his powers, with 43 percent supporting impeachment.

It may be that, with only six months left in the President's term, Congress won't have much enthusiasm for beginning an impeachment process.  But the meme that the country just isn't interested in impeaching the president is not completely correct.

The president will, undoubtedly, be held accountable for his actions.  But it will happen later rather than sooner.

Comments

[Mouthful of Politics]

Congressional Democrats have been sidestepping the impeachment question since taking the reins of power in 2006. This issue is the GOP elephant in the room, and it has the initials "G.W.B." tattooed on its arse.

The reasoning is fairly clear I think. Once the House passes the article of impeachment, then the Senate, resided over by Chief Justice Roberts, must try the convicted. Without Republican support to reach the required two-thirds majority, the defendant(s) would then be acquitted.

This would lead us into the same quagmire we had in 1998, with an impeached, but unpunished, commander and chief. I think that Democrats are simply afraid of a backlash in public support.

In any event, my view is that he and Dick should have been impeached a long time ago.