Searching for the case for impeachment

Dozens come to Warwick as part of grassroots political action, By Linda Smith Hancharick Warwick - Tula Tsalis wasn’t sure what to expect Tuesday evening when she was setting up the 60 rented chairs at the Wisner Barn on Wisner Road. Her group, Citizens for Impeachment, was hosting a public meeting and workshop on effective lobbying in the hope of impeaching President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. “I was very excited about what happened for several reasons,” said Tsalis. “Most people were new - people who called and asked for directions. Just ordinary people coming out of the woodwork.” And there were lots of them. Few chairs were empty at the barn, and several people stood around the perimeter. “It was very revealing,” Tsalis noted. “I think more people are concerned than we realize.” The moderator of the night’s meeting was Rev. Jim Bridges of the Unitarian Universalist Church. Bridges has a long history of activism toward peace and human rights. He first took a poll amongst the crowd. “How many people here believe this administration should be impeached?” he asked. Most raised their hands. “How many think there should be further discussion?” Two people raised their hands. “How many think they should not be impeached?” No one raised a hand. Bridges and others said they believe the president and vice president should be impeached for leading this county into an illegal war. “The principle reasons to go to war were weapons of mass destruction,” said Bridges. “The U.S. intelligence officials had information saying there were no WMDs. It was propaganda. They were determined to go to war.” Ellen Remore, also a member of Citizens for Impeachment, said she is concerned with all that has been done by the Bush administration to “fabricate” the reasons for this war. “Their first rationale was that Iraq was responsible for 9/11,” said Remore. “They insinuated, they danced around it. They never said Saddam did it in so many words but you couldn’t help but get that message.” Remore talked about the president asking former Attorney General Ramsey Clark to find out if Iraq was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. The report never mentioned Iraq, Remore noted. “Bush said wrong answer. Do it again.” Remore knows loss because of war. She lost her husband in Vietnam. “I never thought I would see that repeated,” Remore said. “Everything this administration has done with the Iraq war is a lie. I do not want to see my country’s honor sacrificed on the altar of personal greed.” Which seemed to be one of the main reasons people came out for this meeting. The group Citizens for Impeachment started in March 2006 when about a dozen Orange County residents, who believed the administration had committed impeachable offenses, started meeting and discussing what they could do to get the action in motion. They took out a full-page ad in the Times-Herald Record in July 2006 listing the charges for impeachment and asking why our government is above the law. Now a year later, the group has grown, tripling in size. Tsalis believes that number will grow even more, given the crowd on Tuesday night. The eventual goal of the group is just what the name says - impeachment. One way to achieve that is to reach the local municipalities by getting them to pass impeachment resolutions, which would be sent to Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, as a petition. The crowd broke into three groups after the speakers finished. One group talked about lobbying Congressman John Hall. Another will lobby Congressman Maurice Hinchey. Both Democrats are outspoken critics of the Administration. Hinchey, however, has said he believes impeachment may be impractical, given that there remains less than 17 months in Bush’s final term. He plans to file a censure resolution in the House of Representatives that would parallel one already filed in the Senate by Sen. Russ Fiengold, the Democrat from Wisconsin. The third focused on letter writing and starting petitions in local communities encouraging municipalities to pass impeachment resolutions. Howard Garrett, the founder of the Orange County chapter of Amnesty International, said the country is in the biggest crisis since the Civil War. “Our constitution and Bill of Rights are systematically being torn apart,” said Garrett. “If we can survive the next year and a half, we can survive anything.” Anyone wishing additional information from Citizens for Impeachment can e-mail them at Citizens_for_impeachment@yahoo.com, or call 845-987-2321.