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''.]] The phrase "Movement to impeach George W. Bush" for the purpose of this article is used to describe actions by individuals and groups within the public and private spheres intended to support an Impeachment of United States President George W. Bush . The phrase is also used in a more broad sense to refer to a Social Movement and Public Opinion Poll Data that includes both Democrats and Republicans which indicate a degree of public support for the Presidential impeachment of U.S. President George W. Bush. Reasons Cited For Seeking Bush's Impeachment vary, such as questions about the 2003 Invasion Of Iraq and the NSA Warrantless Surveillance Controversy . Those who have voiced support for impeachment include some members of the United States Congress , some Public Opinion Polls and Demonstration s, various other Politician s and government officials, Scholar s, Author s, organizations and members of the Media . The political affiliation of those calling for impeachment is predominantly from the Political Left , and groups affiliated or supportive of Anti-war causes, although some notable calls have come from members of the Political Right . The Republican-dominated United States House Of Representatives has taken no formal actions toward the impeachment of President Bush, nor are they scheduled to do so. BACKGROUND Impeachment in the United States is the process by which a "President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States" may be removed from office for " where they may be debated and, if consensus for a vote is reached, voted upon. If any of the articles are approved, then the President is considered "impeached" and would then be tried by the United States Senate to determine his guilt or innocence. If a President is found guilty on any charge, he is removed from office and replaced by the Vice President . There have been nine formal attempts to impeach a United States President. Four of these resulted in articles being referred to the House of Representatives: Earl Warren . Critics of the movement, on both the left and the right, state that a sitting chief executive has never been removed by conviction in the Senate and only one resigned under threat of impeachment. They also point out that getting a Congressional investigation while the Republican Party is in control of the House Of Representatives is improbable. Many critics on the right dispute the allegations against the Bush administration in their entirety, or deny that the actions of the Bush administration officials currently under investigation constitute anything more than normal handling of politics and national security matters, or are, at worst, legal technicalities. POLITICAL VIEWS AND ACTIONS Representative Conyers of George W. Bush , has been instrumental in calling for an investigation of the President.]] According to , 2003 , Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) convened "an emergency meeting of forty or more of his top advisors, most of whom were lawyers, to discuss and debate immediately putting into the House of Representatives Bills of Impeachment against President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, and Attorney General Ashcroft in order to head off the impending war." Conyers is the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee , which would have jurisdiction over any Bill of Impeachment. In May, 2005 , Conyers began collecting signatures on a letter to President Bush requesting answers to the questions raised by the Downing Street Memo. Conyers delivered a letter with over 540,000 signatures to the President on June 16 , 2005 . Also on June 16 , 2005 , Conyers assembled an unofficial meeting to receive evidence related to the Downing Street Memo and to consider grounds for impeachment. Dozens of Members of Congress attended. Witnesses included Ambassador Wilson , constitutional attorney John Bonifaz , and CIA analyst Ray McGovern . {Link without Title} {Link without Title} In July, Conyers along with Representative Frank (see below) asked for research into the impeachability of Karl Rove with regard to the disclosure of CIA Operative Valerie Plame 's identity to reporters. On December 20 , the House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff, at Conyers' request, filed its 273-page report, The Constitution in Crisis; The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, and Coverups in the Iraq War . The report included copies of house resolutions to establish a bi-partisan Select Committee in the House - H.Res. 635; to censure the President - H.Res.636; and to censure the Vice President - H.Res. 637. In comments on the report, Conyers said: The report finds there is substantial evidence the President, the Vice-President and other high ranking members of the Bush Administration misled Congress and the American people regarding the decision to go to war in Iraq; misstated and manipulated intelligence information regarding the justification for such war; countenanced torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in Iraq; and permitted inappropriate retaliation against critics of their Administration. The Report concludes that a number of these actions amount to '' Prima Facie '' evidence (evidence sufficiently strong to presume the allegations are true) that federal criminal laws have been violated. Legal violations span from false statements to Congress to whistleblower laws. The Report also concludes that these charges clearly rise to the level of impeachable conduct. However, because the Administration has failed to respond to requests for information about these charges, it is not yet possible to conclude that an impeachment inquiry or articles of impeachment are warranted. {Link without Title} Conyers wrote a letter to President Bush advising him of his intent and invited citizens to join him in signing it {Link without Title} . Conyers filed the legislation on December 18, where it was referred to the House Committee on Rules. According to the Library of Congress' legislative information site, as of April 28, 2006 there were 35 co-sponsors of H. Res. 635, "Creating 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." {Link without Title} The cosponsors are: Abercrombie (D-HI), Baldwin (D-WI), Capps (D-CA), Capuano (D-MA), Clay (D-MO), Davis (D-IL), Farr (D-CA), Chaka (D-PA), Filner (D-CA), Hinchey (D-NY), Honda (D-CA), Jackson (D-IL), Jackson Lee (D-TX), Lee (D-CA), Lewis (D-GA), Maloney (D-NY), McCollum (D-MN), McDermott (D-WA), McKinney (D-GA), Moore (D-WI), Nadler (D-NY), Oberstar (D-MN), Olver (D-MA), Owens (D-NY), Payne (D-NJ), Rangel (D-NY), Sabo (D-MN), Sanders (I-VT), Schakowsky (D-IL), Stark (D-CA), Tierney (D-MA), Velázquez (D-NY), Waters (D-CA), Woolsey (D-CA), and Wu (D-OR). In addition, Lofgren (D-CA) signed on as a co-sponsor on December 22 , 2005 , but withdrew support on January 31 , 2006 . Senator Boxer On , 2005 New York Times disclosure of Bush's authorization of the National Security Agency (NSA) to monitor Americans without Warrant s and Nixon counsel John Dean 's comments on December 18 , 2005 that this constituted an impeachable offense. In a December 20, 2005 CNN interview Wolf Blitzer asked "So you're not ready at this point to say that he should be impeached." Boxer: "Oh, no, but I do have tremendous respect for John Dean." Former Nixon White House counsel John Dean spent four years in jail for his role in the Watergate cover-up. Representative Lewis An Associated Press report on , 2005 posted on John Lewis' official United States House of Representatives website says, "In my opinion, the President has violated the law, and the House and Senate must pursue their inquiries into this illegal program. The President must stop using the threat of terrorism and the tactics of fear to invade the privacy of American citizens. George W. Bush is the president. He is not a king. He is not above the law," and concludes, "There is no question that the U.S. Congress has impeached presidents for lesser offenses." Representative Nadler On January 21 , the '' Detroit Free Press '' reported in a story, "Call is Out to Impeach Bush," that the previous day, at an unofficial hearing of Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee called by Conyers, Scott and Van Hollen, Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), called for the committee to explore whether Bush should face impeachment for alleged high crimes and misdemeanors stemming from his decision to authorize domestic surveillance without court review. The proceedings had no legal authority, as committee chairman, Rep. James Sensenbrenner , (R-WI), rejected Democrats' requests for an inquiry. Nadler is a senior Democrat on the committee's panel on the Constitution. {Link without Title} Vermont Democrats One unusual approach that is being considered by prominent Democrats in Vermont is based on parliamentary guidelines from " Jefferson's Manual ", a supplement to U.S. House of Representatives rules. Its section on impeachment specifically allows a state legislature to transmit charges to initiate impeachment proceedings. 1 § 603: "In the House of Representatives there are various methods of setting an impeachment in motion: '' {Link without Title} '' by charges transmitted from the legislature of a State (III, 2469) or Territory (III, 2487) or from a grand jury (III, 2488)…" The state Democratic committee has called a special meeting for April 8 to decide whether to pursue this possibility. Gaye Symington, a Democrat, and Speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives, which would have to act on any such resolution, has said that the state legislature should keep its attention focused on matters concerning the state of Vermont. Vermont State Legislature Vermont impeachment resolution Twelve Vermont state representatives (Democrats, Progressives, 1 Independent) have endorsed a resolution to ask Congress to impeach President George W. Bush and to investigate alleged "high crimes and misdemeanors" in violation of the U.S. Constitution. The resolution was introduced by Rep. David Zuckerman, P-Burlington, on Tuesday, 2006-04-25. Illinois State Legislature On April 20,2006, the Illinois state legislature, citing the same rule used by Vermont Democrats (Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives), began to consider Resolution 125 (HJR0125), which brought five specific charges against President Bush. The synopsis of the bill reads: Among the charges in HJR0125 is that "President Bush authorized violation of the Torture Convention of the Geneva Conventions, a treaty regarded a supreme law by the United States Constitution". Per US Code Title 18,2441 (the War Crimes Act of 1996): " US national who commits a war crime any 'grave breach in any of the international conventions signed at Geneva 12 August 1949, or any protcol to such convention to which the United states is a party' ... if the victim dies, shall ... be subject to the penalty of death." If the bill passed it would request the U.S. House of Representatives to begin impeachment hearings. On April 25 over a dozen members of the Illinois house co-sponsored the bill, and referred it to the Rules Committee. California Joining Illinois, California has become the second state in which a proposal to impeach President Bush has been introduced in the state legislature. The resolution: :"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." {Link without Title} Others There are many other individual towns, cities and organizations across the United States which have resolutions supporting impeachment which have either passed, failed or are pending. WHITE HOUSE REACTION The as "a prelude to the impeachment process." The article quotes an anonymous source as saying, "Our arithmetic shows that a majority of the committee could vote against the president. If we work hard, there could be a tie." An anonymous source also criticized Congress, saying, "We will tell the American people that while we have done everything we can to protect them, our policies are being endangered by a hypocritical Congress." {Link without Title} PUBLIC OPINION Polling results Opinion Poll results show that many Americans support the hypothetical impeachment of Bush. These polls show greater support for the possibility of impeaching Bush than ever seen for the 1998 Impeachment Of Clinton , though the numbers are comparable to the early Clinton polls that used similar hypothetical wording as in the Bush polls. In October Of 2005 , After Downing Street commissioned a poll by the independent Ipsos Public Affairs Research which found [http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3528 that by a margin of 50% to 44% Americans say that President Bush should be impeached if he lied about the war in Iraq. 39% strongly agreed and 30% strongly disagreed with the statement, "If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable by impeaching him." 72% of Democrats favored impeachment, compared to 56% of Independents and 20% of Republicans. A Zogby International poll from October 29 to November 2 , 2005 found that by a margin of 53% to 42% (+/-2.9%) Americans say that "If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable through impeachment." This was supported by 76% of Democrats , 50% of Independents , and 29% of Republicans . A November 2 , 2005 '' Washington Post ''- ABC News poll found 55% of Americans believe the Bush administration "intentionally misled the public" in making its case for war. {Link without Title} December 15 , 2005 , Rasmussen Reports released a poll that showed that 32% of the 1,000 Americans polled would support an impeachment of Bush and 35% would support an impeachment of Cheney. This survey was also commissioned by After Downing Street.[http://www.rasmussenreports.com/2005/Impeachment.htm A showed that 42% of Americans favored impeaching Bush. The same poll showed that a plurality of Americans favored the Senate censuring Bush regarding his authorization of wiretaps without court orders. {Link without Title} An informal website poll MSNBC (April 14, 2006) asked whether there was justification to hold a formal impeachment trial, insufficient justification, nothing done wrong, or don't know. Roughly 250,000 votes were reported, 86% voting yes for impeachment. {Link without Title} (note that web polls are not scientifically conducted, and can be criticized on the grounds they may be unrepresentative of popular opinion) Media response to polls The major media have largely ignored these opinion polls and protests. Several columnists have Endorsed Impeachment . Eleanor Clift on '' The McLaughlin Group '' predicted on 6 November 2005 that "if the country, according to the polls, believes by a margin of 55 percent that President Bush misled us into war, the next logical step is impeachment and I think you’re going to hear that word come up and if the Democrats ever capture either house of Congress there are going to be serious proceedings against this administration." {Link without Title} When the '' Washington Post '' Public demonstrations Rallies and marches The rally held in Crawford, Texas , by Cindy Sheehan and her supporters in late summer of 2005 featured frequent calls for impeachment. A March in Washington, DC on 24 September 2005 attracted over 100,000 people. The march included calls for impeachment and for investigations leading to impeachment. {Link without Title} On November 2 , 2005 , The World Can't Wait mobilized marches across the country that called for the ousting of Bush. News reports cited thousands of protesters in each of New York , Los Angeles , and San Francisco and 500 in each of Washington, DC , Chicago , Atlanta and Seattle . {Link without Title} {Link without Title} {Link without Title} {Link without Title} {Link without Title} Rep. Maxine Waters founded the Out of Iraq Caucus in the House of Representatives. It has 66 members (as of August 31 , 2005 ). An Out of Iraq event hosted by Rep. Waters in Inglewood, California , attracted 1200 supporters who loudly chanted "Impeach Bush" in response to a speaker explaining High Crimes And Misdemeanors . Response to groups formed to support impeachment Numerous groups have been created to support impeachment. The VoteToImpeach.org website claims to have collected half a million signatures on a petition to impeach Bush. None are known to have been created to oppose it (as MoveOn had been created to oppose the impeachment of Clinton). See also PledgeBank's webpage on impeaching President Bush . On December 20 , 2005 , The AfterDowningStreet.org website mounted an effort {Link without Title} to support Representative Conyers' legislation to censure Bush and Cheney and to investigate the administration's lead-up to the Iraq war, in possible preparation to impeachment. Within the first three days, the site reported that over 17,000 people had used the site to write to their congressional representatives requesting that they support Conyers' measures. ENDORSEMENTS OF IMPEACHMENT Politicians and government officials
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