OntheWilderSide

Greens express support for Rep. McKinney’s motion to impeach President Bush

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Green Party leaders expressed support for Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s (D-Ga.) motion for impeachment of President George W. Bush, noting that the Green Party of the United States endorsed impeachment of the President in 2003.

“No President is above the law, and we thank Rep. McKinney for standing up for justice while the rest of her party retreats from holding President Bush accountable for a litany of high crimes and misdemeanors,” said Nan Garrett, co-chair of the Georgia Green Party and one of Rep. McKinney’s constituents from the state’s 4th Congressional District.  “Unless Democrats revive the bill in January, it will expire along with the 109th Congress, and the Bush Administration’s criminality and abuses of power will go unpunished.”

Rep. McKinney, in her floor statement on Friday, December 8, listed deceptions that the Bush Administration used to justify launching an invasion of Iraq in 2003, including claims that Iraq possessed WMDs and represented a threat to America and its own neighbors, and noted that Mr. Bush authorized unlawful spying on American citizens, circumvented the courts, violated the separation of powers provided by the Constitution, and attempting to cover up by making false statements to the public.

The Green Party has offered similar lists of reasons to impeach President Bush since 2003 http://www.gp.org/press/pr_07_21_03.html.  On December 18, 2005, Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) introduced into a resolution calling for the U.S. House to form “a select committee to investigate the Administration’s intent to go to war before congressional authorization, manipulation of pre-war intelligence, encouraging
and countenancing torture, retaliating against critics, and to make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment.”

Greens expressed disappointment that Rep. Conyers and other Democrats have decided to not to act on the mountain of evidence that Mr. Conyers himself has compiled that President Bush has broken the law (see “The Constitution in Crisis; The Downing
Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, and Coverups in the Iraq War” <http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/iraqrept.html>).

Greens also thanked Rep. McKinney for introducing living wage legislation last week; the Green Party has made a guaranteed living wage a major goal www.gp.org/press/pr_2006_11_27.shtml.

“Ms. McKinney was labeled a 9/11 conspiracy theorist in the media a few years ago, but the same media refused to recognize that the 9/11 Commission confirmed her allegations that the Bush Administration knew a lot more about the impending attacks than it admitted,” said Katey Culver, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States.  “The media and the two established parties are similarly dismissing Ms. McKinney’s
bill for impeachment.  The lesson is that a President can be impeached for lying about sex, but not for lying about national security and shredding the U.S. Constitution.”

MORE INFORMATION

“Greens Call for Impeachment of Bush, Withdrawal of Troops by the Winter Holidays”
Green Party press release, July 21, 2003
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_07_21_03.html

“Downing St. Memo is Evidence for Bush Impeachment”
Green Party press release, June 9, 2005
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_06_09.shtml

“Impeach Bush and Cheney Now!”
Green Party press release, January 3, 2006
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2006_01_03.shtml

“The Case for Impeachment: Why we can no longer afford George W. Bush”
By Lewis H. Lapham, Harper’s Magazine, March 2006
Online excerpt:
http://harpers.org/TheCaseForImpeachment.html

Filed under: Green Party Websites, international politics, Nonprofit Orgs, reform, US Politics Tagged: | George W. Bush