The Wall Street Journal, considered among the more conservative standard-bearers of the mainstream American print media, examines the effort to impeach President George W. Bush in Monday editions, RAW STORY has learned.
The article examines the grassroots effort and notes that party leaders are distancing themselves from the movement, looking to the 1998 House races in which Republicans used the prospect of impeaching President Clinton and failed to make congressional gains. Excerpts follow.
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If Democratic candidate Tony Trupiano wins a Michigan House seat this fall, he pledges that one of his first acts will be to introduce articles of impeachment against President Bush.
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That has earned Mr. Trupiano the endorsement of ImpeachPAC, a group of Democratic activists seeking to remove Mr. Bush from office. ImpeachPAC's Web site lists 14 candidates offering similar commitments, which are reminiscent of the Republican drive to oust former President Bill Clinton after the Monica Lewinsky scandal. But Mr. Trupiano's pledge hasn't much impressed Democratic Party leaders, who are keeping their distance from impeachment talk. They remember how the effort boomeranged on Republicans in the 1998 midterm elections, when Mr. Clinton's adversaries expected to gain House seats but lost ground instead.
Bob Fertik, who founded Democrats.com, paired with activist David Swanson to found AfterDowningStreet.org, named for minutes of a meeting at which the Director of British Intelligence MI6 declared that the facts were being "fixed" around a policy to invade Iraq. AfterDowningStreet hired independent pollster John Zogby to test support for impeachment in June 2005 and found that 42% of likely voters supported that step if it were proved that the president lied about prewar intelligence. That number rose to 51% in November.
The duo then founded ImpeachPAC.
"The movement can point to some small successes. Radio celebrity Garrison Keillor posted an article for the online magazine Salon calling for Mr. Bush's impeachment. Three California cities -- San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Arcata -- have passed resolutions backing impeachment, and municipalities in North Carolina and Vermont are considering such steps.
"But the Democratic National Committee, chaired by 2004 campaign firebrand Howard Dean has declined to chime in. A House resolution offered by Rep. John Conyers of Michigan seeking an initial impeachment inquiry has attracted support from just 26 of 201 House Democrats. Even Mr. Conyers, the ranking Judiciary Committee Democrat, allows, 'This isn't something we have to do right away.'"
