Teach to impeach
Events nationwide aim to educate public about impeachment
By Kathryn Casa | Vermont Guardian

Posted July 14, 2006 at http://www.vermontguardian.com/local/072006/TeachImpeach.shtml

Here's an impeachment pop quiz: true or false?

If impeached, a public official is removed from office.
One U.S. president has been impeached.
Impeachment can occur only at the federal level.
The answers are: false, false, and false. Impeachment is the first of two distinct phases to remove a government official. Presidents Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson were impeached. Impeachment can occur at the state and federal levels.

Many in the United States don't know much about the impeachment process, according to organizers of a national day of impeachment teach-ins. So on Wednesday, they are seeking to change that.

Impeachment teach-ins have been organized in more than 100 U.S. communities, including three in Vermont — Waitsfield, Burlington, and Brattleboro — where they are precursors to a month-end impeachment organizing effort featuring anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan.

The July 19 teach-ins will feature the premiere of a short documentary, How to Impeach a President, featuring lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights who have developed a legal case for the impeachment of Pres. George W. Bush.

The New York-based center, along with Melville House Books, has developed an impeachment how-to kit, including the video and a 144-page handbook, Articles of Impeachment Against George. W. Bush.

The pamphlet details four articles of impeachment on four separate charges: warrantless surveillance, misleading Congress on the reasons for the Iraq War, violating laws against torture, and subverting the Constitution's separation of powers.

"We were interested in making a book that would be like a handbook to the legal case for impeachment," said Melville House publisher Dennis Johnson. "We wanted an inexpensive handbook that the average person can buy to understand what's going on, the relevant rules and laws, and that the Constitution has a means in it to deal with exactly this kind of situation."