BREAKING NEWS: Illinois Assembly Calls for Impeachment
Thanks to a tip from GLONO contributor Sarah Horne, we just got word that the Illinois General Assembly has just introduced a Joint Resolution calling on the United States House of Representatives to initiate impeachment proceedings against the President. According to OpEdNews, Illinois Representative Karen Yarbrough "stumbled on a little known and never utltized (sic) rule of the US House of Representatives, Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives, which allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature."
Additionally, according to OpEdNews, California has introduced its own bill; this one also targeting Cheney.
The resolution, in the words of Koretz's press release, "bases the call for impeachment upon the Bush Administration intentionally misleading the Congress and the American people regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify an unnecessary war that has cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives and casualties; exceeding constitutional authority to wage war by invading Iraq; exceeding constitutional authority by Federalizing the National Guard; conspiring to torture prisoners in violation of the 'Federal Torture Act' and indicating intent to continue such actions; spying on American citizens in violation of the 1978 Foreign Agency Surveillance Act; leaking and covering up the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, and holding American citizens without charge or trial."
No sign of either of these resolutions getting play outside of the blogosphere just yet, but here's the entry on the Illinois General Assembly's website. Stay tuned.
Comments
I'm not sure it's worth opening up this can of worms. They know it's not going to work, given the current makeup of Congress. But now that it's been tried, what's to stop a "red state" legislature from starting such a process against a future Democratic president, with a GOP-ruled Congress? I think I'd prefer not to start down this path.
Posted by: Tom | April 24, 2006 1:39 PM
I thought it commendable that you addressed a local Illinois political issue only then to discover it's a Bush bash story.
I guess there are too few problems in Illinois, so the General Assembly has time to turn to to more pressing national issues. This stinks like the former City Council vote against the war in Iraq. How very brave.
Get a life Ms. Yarbrough and stop wasting tax-payer money.
And Politics Junky, you may want to reveal more interesting Illinois General Assembly crusades, like legislation regulating the weight of text books to save the backs of our children. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Representative!
Posted by: Eric Rojas | April 27, 2006 1:41 AM
Rojas,
Regardless of the merits of this action (and I would argue that a STATE assembly has as much right to comment on our federal issues as any other free body in this great land), it's newsworthy. Or are you proposing we should only report on matters that you deem worthy?
Posted by: Derek Phillips | April 27, 2006 9:18 AM
Get real Dr. Phil,
Let's call it what it is... grandstanding. I have no problem with one taking action to support candidates and/or movements that will take another policy direction. The assembly person can put pressure on the Congress to investigate weong doings of the Executive on her own time. But these symbolic statements are tired.
Legislators hardly meet and move a football forward… its poor use of time and energy on behalf of the constituency.
My point is, the Genearl Assembly is a layer of government created to legislate on the local level. The nationalization of all politics has weekened the attention on the local.
Are we still friends?
Posted by: Eric Rojas | April 27, 2006 8:27 PM