Barbara Jordan & John Conyers on Impeachment

The Resolution to Impeach Vice President Cheney from Rep. Dennis Kucinich is schedled for debate in the House Judiciary Committee. The Chairman, John Conyers, is no fan of Dick "go f*** yourself" Cheney. The day before, he offered the White House one last chance to comply with Committee subpoenas before he files contempt charges against the VP and his Texan sidekick.

Even so, Conyers (D-MI) is treating the issue with the gravity and deliberation that Congress is expected to, as Barbara Jordan (D-Texas) pointedly articulated during Nixon's Judiciary Committee impeachment debate:

(Washington, DC, 11/6/2007)- A spokeswoman for the House Judiciary Committee issued the following statement today in response to floor action on a house resolution to begin impeachment proceedings against Vice President Dick Cheney: "The committee has a very busy agenda - over the next two weeks, we hope to pass a FISA bill, to vote on contempt of Congress citations, pass legislation on prisoner re-entry, court security and a variety of other very important items. We were surprised that the minority was so ready to move forward with consideration of a matter of such complexity as impeaching the Vice President. The Chairman will discuss today's vote with the committee members but it would seem evident that the committee staff should continue to consider, as a preliminary matter, the many abuses of this Administration, including the Vice President."
- House Judiciary Committee Spokeswoman

Here's Barbara Charline Jordan's Statement on the Articles of Impeachment, delivered July 25th, 1974 in the House Judiciary Committee. Click here to listen to the entire Statement. A brilliant reminder that there is such a thing as American legislation in action.

"Today I am an inquisitor. An hyperbole would not be fictional and would not overstate the solemnness that I feel right now. My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total. And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction, of the Constitution.

...Common sense would be revolted if we engaged upon this process for petty reasons. Congress has a lot to do: - Appropriations, Tax Reform, Health Insurance, Campaign Finance Reform, Housing, Environmental Protection, Energy Sufficiency, Mass Transportation.

Pettiness cannot be allowed to stand in the face of such overwhelming problems. So today we are not being petty. We are trying to be big, because the task we have before us is a big one.

...James Madison, again at the Constitutional Convention: "A President is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution."

If the impeachment provision in the Constitution of the United States will not reach the offenses charged here, then perhaps that 18th-century Constitution should be abandoned to a 20th-century paper shredder.

Has the President committed offenses, and planned, and directed, and acquiesced in a course of conduct which the Constitution will not tolerate?

That's the question. We know that. We know the question. We should now forthwith proceed to answer the question.

It is reason, and not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision."



Click here for the LA Times article on what Cheney's being charged with. WARNING: Large, snarly headshot of Tricky Dick Jr.