Impeachment is coming
Do you know much about Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives? If you are like me, you know very little about this text that governs the movements of our Representatives. However, Illinois State Rep. Karen Yarbrough (D-Marrywood) knows quite a bit about this manual. She has introduced a bill to the state legislature, House Joint Resolution 125, that falls under Jefferson's rules, Section 603, titled "Inception of Impeachment Proceedings in the House. "
That section reads (quoting here) ...
ยง603 Inception of Impeachment Proceeding in the HouseSo you see my friends, if the Illinois state legislature, controlled by Democrats, pass this bill, the United States House of Representatives will be forced to take up the measure as a privileged bill which takes precedent over other House duties.
In the House of Representatives there are various methods of setting an impeachment in motion: by charges made on the floor on the responsibility of a Member or Delegate (II, 1303; III, 2342, 2400, 2469; VI, 525, 526, 528, 535, 536); by charges preferred by a memorial, which is usually referred to a committee for examination (III, 2364, 2491, 2494, 249G, 2499, 2515; VI, 552); or by a resolution dropped in the hopper by a Member and referred to a committee (April 15, 1970, p. 11941-2); by a message from the President (III, 2294, 2319; VI, 498); by charges transmitted from the legislature of a State (III, 2469) or Territory (III, 2487) or from a grand jury (III, 2488); or from facts developed and reported by an investigating committee of the House (III, 2399, 2444).
As soon as news of this measure in the Illinois Legislature broke, California Assemblyman Paul Koretz of Los Angeles introduced Assembly Joint Resolution No. 39, which calls for the impeachment of the president under Jefferson's Manual. AJR39, first introduced in January, called for the hault of the use of Depleted Uranium weapons in Iraq. The Congressman has now gutted the bill and ammended it to support the impeachment of Bush and Cheney.
If either of these measures pass, we could be seeing the House of Representatives being forced into impeachment proceedings. The Chicago Sun Times takes on the matter, but lends a skeptical ear to Republicans. Said the paper ...
In closing, the battle is far from over. But impeachment activists have just won a resounding victory by getting these measures into state legislatures. Sounds like some Democrats still have spine. I say: good for them. You can't expect true progressive voters to support you unless you are, yourself, a progressive. And impeachment is what I call progress.Jefferson wrote that there are various methods of setting an impeachment in motion, including "charges transmitted from the legislature of a State."
If Yarbrough's resolution passes the General Assembly, it would go to the U.S. House, where it likely would be referred to the Judiciary Committee, said a spokesman for the Committee on U.S. House Administration.
"It's up to that committee to decide what action it will take, if any," committee spokesman Jon Brandt said. "[The resolution] does not, in and of itself, start a process."
The text of the Illinois bill ...
We will march on a road of bones.WHEREAS, Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature; and
WHEREAS, President Bush has publicly admitted to ordering the National Security Agency to violate provisions of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a felony, specifically authorizing the Agency to spy on American citizens without warrant; and
WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that President Bush authorized violation of the Torture Convention of the Geneva Conventions, a treaty regarded a supreme law by the United States Constitution; and
WHEREAS, The Bush Administration has held American citizens and citizens of other nations as prisoners of war without charge or trial; and
WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that the Bush Administration has manipulated intelligence for the purpose of initiating a war against the sovereign nation of Iraq, resulting in the deaths of large numbers of Iraqi civilians and causing the United States to incur loss of life, diminished security and billions of dollars in unnecessary expenses; and
WHEREAS, The Bush Administration leaked classified national secrets to further a political agenda, exposing an unknown number of covert U. S. intelligence agents to potential harm and retribution while simultaneously refusing to investigate the matter; and
WHEREAS, the Republican-controlled Congress has decline to fully investigate these charges to date; therefore be it
RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that the General Assembly of the State of Illinois has good cause to submit charges to the U. S. House of Representatives under Section 603 that the President of the United States has willfully violated his Oath of Office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States; and be it further
RESOLVED, That George W. Bush, if found guilty of the charges contained herein, should be removed from office and disqualified to hold any other office in the United States.
Mahalo.
Additional resources ...
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-impeach24.html
http://www.impeachpac.org/
http://impeachpac.org/node/889
http://impeachpac.org/node/824
