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http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?pid=79465
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04/22/2006 @ 2:52pm

Impeachment From Below: Legislators Lobby Congress
by John Nichols

   Inside the Beltway, legislators have been slow to support moves to
   censure or impeach President Bush and other members of the
   administration. Only 33 members of the U.S. House of Representatives
   have signed on as cosponsors of Congressman John Conyers' resolution
   calling for the creation of a select committee to investigate the
   administration's preparations for war before receiving congressional
   authorization, manipulation of pre-war intelligence, encouraging and
   countenancing of torture, and retaliation against critics such as
   former Ambassador Joe Wilson, with an eye toward making
   recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment. Only two
   members of the Senate have agreed to cosponsor Senator Russ
   Feingold's proposal to censure the president for illegally ordering
   the warrantless wiretapping of phone conversations of Americans.

   Outside the Beltway, legislators are far more comfortable with
   censure and impeachment -- at least in the state of Vermont. Sixty-
   nine Vermont legislators, 56 members of the state House and 14
   members of the Senate, have signed a letter urging Congress to
   initiate investigations to determine if censure or impeachment of
   members of the administration might be necessary.

   The letter, penned by state Rep. Richard Marek, a Democrat from
   Newfane, where voters made international news in March by calling for
   the impeachment of Bush at their annual town meeting, suggests that
   Bush's manipulations of intelligence prior to the launch of the Iraq
   war, his support of illegal domestic surveillance programs and other
   actions have created a circumstance where Congress needs to determine
   whether the time has come for "setting in motion the constitutional
   process for possible removal from office."

   Noting that Newfane and a half dozen other Vermont communities have
   called for impeachment, as has the state Democratic Party, Marek
   explained to the Rutland Herald, "Vermonters from across the state
   have expressed concerns with the president's actions and have
   displayed that through resolutions, meetings and petitions. I thought
   it was important to put our voices down as supporting an
   investigation and possible censure and impeachment."

   The letter, which will be delivered to members of the state's
   Congressional delegation -- including Congressman Bernie Sanders, a
   cosponsor of the Sanders resolution -- is just one of a number of
   fresh impeachment-related initiatives in Vermont.

   Representative David Zuckerman, a Burlington legislator who is a
   member of Vermont's Progressive Party, plans to introduce a
   resolution next week asking for the state legislature to call on the
   U.S. House to open impeachment hearings.

   Parliamentary procedures developed by then Vice President Thomas
   Jefferson in the early years of the United States, and still used by
   the U.S. House of Representatives as a supplement to that chamber's
   standing rules, have been interpreted as giving state legislatures at
   least some authority to trigger impeachment proceedings, and
   Zuckerman's resolution responds to calls from Vermonters to take the
   dramatic step.

   Several county Democratic parties in Vermont have urged the state
   legislature to take advantage of the opening created by "Jefferson's
   Manual," which suggests that impeachment proceedings can be provoked
   "by charges transmitted from the legislature of a state.

   There's no question that Vermont is in the lead, but legislators in
   other states are also exploring their options for pressuring Congress
   to act on articles of impeachment. A trio of Democratic state
   representatives in Illinois -- Karen A. Yarbrough and Sara
   Feigenholtz from the Chicago area and Eddie Washington from Waukegan
   -- have introduced a measure similar to the one Zuckerman is
   preparing in Vermont.

   The bill urges the Illinois General Assembly to "submit charges to
   the U. S. House of Representatives to initiate impeachment
   proceedings against the President of the United States, George W.
   Bush, for willfully violating his Oath of Office to preserve, protect
   and defend the Constitution of the United States and if found guilty
   urges his removal from office and disqualification to hold any other
   office in the United States."

   In Pennsylvania, State Senator Jim Ferlo, D-Pittsburgh, has launched
   a public campaign urging his constituents to sign petitions calling
   for Congress to launch an impeachment inquiry. Ferlo, a former
   Pittsburgh City Council president, says its entirely appropriate for
   state officials -- and citizens -- to add their voices to the
   impeachment debate.

   "Impeachment proceedings are now the most important issue facing our
   nation," the state senator explains. "The debate and opinions
   expressed should not be limited to the views of journalists, legal
   scholars, intelligence officials and just a few politicians. Every
   American must confront this issue and speak out loudly and clearly.
   This is one opportunity to do so."