PDHblog
This is a place for members of Progressive Democrats of Hawai‘i to express their thoughts
and exasperations about political happenings. The opinions and views are not necessarily
those of PDH's steering committee or membership as a whole.

1. Before proceeding, we need to review what the word “impeachment” means. Impeachment occurs so rarely that the term is often misunderstood. Impeachment is not like a trial; its more like a grand jury investigation that considers whether to produce an indictment in criminal law. This pre-trial gathering of evidence is what the U.S. House can do. If the House conducts hearings and approves “articles of impeachment,” the trial takes place in the Senate. In other words, the job of impeachment is merely to gather evidence and determine if there are sufficient grounds to charge the defendant with articles of impeachment. Unlike a grand jury, however, which is conducted in secret, an impeachment is a public event. The investigation by the U.S. House in the Watergate scandal was heavily publicized and was a wonderful exercise in civics for the entire country.

2. One of the five planks of the platform of Progressive Democrats of Hawaii is “Impeach Bush and Cheney.” PD-H has a blogspot for impeachment right here.

The purpose of this message to you is to ask you to join us in this effort! There is a lot going on, and this message will summarize a bit about the efforts that are building around impeachment.

3. At this year’s Hawaii State Democratic Convention, a resolution was passed

CALLING ON CONGRESS TO CONDUCT HEARINGS ON VIOLATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION BY PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH AND VICE-PRESIDENT RICHARD CHENEY

This resolution asks the Democratic Party of Hawai’i to “call upon the members of Congress to rise to their responsibilities, to conduct hearings into the allegations of constitutional abuse by George W. Bush and Richard Cheney to establish if the charges rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors, and if they so find, to bring charges of impeachment against both men and others as may be appropriate; and that copies of this resolution be transmitted to Hawai`i’s Congressional delegation, and to all Hawai’i Democratic Party candidates for Congress and the U. S. Senate.

4. The Progressive Democrats of America have established an Impeachment Working Group. You can sign up there, or just stay tuned to our PD-H blogspot!

5. On November 8 this month, the day after the elections, the Hawaii Reporter breathlessly predicted that

“The House Judiciary Committee, Chaired by John Conyers, (D-MI) will vote to send articles of impeachment for both Bush and Cheney to the full House. . . .”

6. Speaker-elect Pelosi declared recently that “Impeachment is off the table.” We think that she needs a remedial class in Civics: She is, after all, a Representative, not a Duchess, so it is not up to her to tell us what is on the table, but for us to tell our representatives what is on the table. And that is what we intend to do. On November 15, Conyers, BTW, started to sing Pelosi’s tune on this matter. We hope to change his mind back to where it was when he wrote George W. Bush Versus the U.S. Constitution.

This is not about bashing Bush, or taking revenge. This is about defending our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the rule of law.

7. Last Saturday, ImpeachForChange and their progressive allies launched a nationwide grassroots mobilization for impeachment in Philadelphia near Independence Hall, where the Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787. It’s been just one week since they announced ImpeachForChange in Philadelphia and the response has been tremendous! I recommend following their national plan set forth at http://democrats.com/impeachforchange-plan. “Our plan is simple: we will form Impeachment Committees in all 435 Congressional Districts to persuade all of our Representatives to support impeachment. Their goal is impeachment by Spring! We’re organizing from the bottom up in pure grassroots style. Remember, our Representatives are supposed to represent us!”

8. One of the first steps ImpeachForChange suggests is to “Join (or create) an Impeachment Committee in your Congressional District.” One for Hawaii is now available at http://www.democrats.com/taxonomy/term/4776.

9. Stay tuned at our blogspot for new developments!

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