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Public sentiment for
Bush / Cheney impeachment expands
By John Kaminski and Gary Higginbottom
12/01/07 "Times
Record" -- -- The percentage of Americans
favoring impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney
is approaching the percentage who favored impeachment of
President Nixon in 1973-74.
Public opinion has reached this high level even before Congress
has started any impeachment investigation of the Bush-Cheney
administration. The public is way ahead of Congress, suggesting
that it is time for the U.S. House of Representatives to move
forward with the impeachment process.
In October 1973, a Gallup Poll results showed only 28 percent
favored Nixon's impeachment and removal from office. That was
after a summer of well-publicized Senate Watergate Committee
hearings.
Just nine months later, the day before Nixon resigned, nearly
two-thirds of Americans believed there was enough evidence for
an impeachment trial, and 55 percent thought Nixon should be
removed from office.
That is how drastically opinion shifted once Congress acted and
revealed the full extent of Nixon's abuses of power.
Now, without any impeachment investigation by Congress, we
already see the public's desire for impeachment action
approaching the level that led to Nixon's departure from office.
Now, 55 percent of Americans believe that "President Bush has
abused his powers as president, which rise to the level of
impeachable offenses under the Constitution," and 34 percent
believe he should be removed from office.
For Vice President Cheney, 52 percent believe he committed
impeachable offenses, and 43 percent believe he should be
removed.
Perhaps most telling is that 64 percent of Americans believe
that President Bush has abused his powers, and 70 percent
believe that Cheney has done so. Polling was conducted by
American Research Group Inc., on Nov. 9-12.
Maine people feel much the same way. According to a recent poll
by Critical Insights Inc., 40 percent of Maine adults say they
favor "the U.S. House of Representatives beginning impeachment
proceedings against Vice President Cheney," and 38 percent
against President Bush.
Not surprisingly, Maine Republicans and Democrats differ
substantially on this matter. Among Maine Democrats, 58 percent
favor impeachment proceedings against Cheney, and 54 percent
against Bush.
One in six Maine Republicans favors impeachment proceedings
against Cheney, and one in eight against Bush.
Maine independents are about evenly split on the impeachment of
both Bush and Cheney.
By any historic gauge, the nation clearly believes that we have
a major problem with our president and vice president, although
the Democrats in control of Congress have refused to even start
an impeachment investigation. They are dismissing the sizable
portion of citizens calling for Congress to act as the
Constitution directed to keep presidential power under control.
The Constitution gives Tom Allen, Mike Michaud and Congress the
tool of impeachment to address the problem that a majority of
Americans now recognize. This impeachment tool is designed to
keep our rulers' power in check — to prevent drifting into a
situation of absolute power by an individual or a small
controlling group.
Impeachment is the tool being demanded by 43 percent of
Americans who not only recognize the problem, but even call for
the drastic action of removing Cheney from office.
House Democratic leadership is acting in a timid and
irresponsibly political fashion. Likely, they want to keep the
Republican executives in power and all Republican politicians
"on the ropes" until the 2008 elections. Or perhaps they
misguidedly believe that there are more important activities for
Congress than heeding this historically strong demand to address
these obvious abuses.
Whatever the motivation, Democratic congressional leaders
continue to shirk their oaths of office by allowing the
executive branch to ignore laws and plan expanded warfare
without congressional authorization.
Public opinion and Constitutional responsibility are commanding
congressional Democrats Tom Allen and Mike Michaud as strongly
as in Nixon's day.
Will they recognize the strength of public sentiment and the
dire condition of our nation and take the required corrective
action of impeachment investigation? Or will they choose to
ignore the call and allow present and future presidents to
control the people and their representatives — an authoritarian
power that the Constitution directed Congress to prohibit?
John Kaminski is a Topsham resident and chairman of Maine
Lawyers for Democracy. Gary Higginbottom is one of the founders
of the Maine Campaign to Impeach.
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