House Committee considers impeachment today

July 25, 12:10 PMProgressive Politics ExaminerJay McDonough

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Today, Rep. Dennis Kucinich is provided his one time only opportunity to press his case President Bush should be impeached.  The hearing before the House Judiciary Committee and is, as expected, full of partisan shenanigans. 

Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., said the administration has committed "serious abuses, that if proven, would certainly constitute high crimes." Therefore, "The most appropriate response to this unprecedented behavior is to hold hearings for impeachment."

The top-ranked Republican on the committee, Lamar Smith of Texas, dismissed the hearing as a waste of time.

Likening the hearing to "an anger management class," Smith said, "Nothing is going to come out of this hearing with regard to impeachment. ... That's because there is no evidence to support impeachment.

Cracking a joke at his Democratic colleagues' expense, Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., belittled the hearing, saying, "Maybe what we're here for is impeachment light' " -- a "never, never land" where Democrats lay out their accusations, but don't follow up on impeachment.  (Link)

The list of witnesses to be called today include Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., an Iraq war critic; Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C.; former Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman, D-N.Y.; former Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., now the Libertarian Paty presidential candidate; Ross "Rocky" Anderson, founder of High Roads for Human Rights and former mayor of Salt Lake City.

The other witnesses are: Stephen Presser, of the Northwestern University School of Law; Vincent Bugliosi, former L.A. County prosecutor; Jeremy Rabkin, George Mason University School of Law; Elliot Adams, board president of Veterans for Peace; and Frederick A. O. Schwarz Jr., of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.

This, clearly, isn't going to go very far.  The Democratic House leadership has already said impeachment is "off the table" despite a large number of Americans support impeachment proceedings against the President.  But the meeting today does place into record the testimony of these witnesses.  And that's worth something.