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Bush foes explore impeachment road
By Ben Broeren
"The British called impeachment 'the most powerful weapon in the political armory, short of civil war,'" said Buzz Davis, a member of Veterans for Peace. "But I do not want civil war."

Davis, along with David Schwartz, a UW law professor and member of the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Ben Manski, a fellow with the Liberty Tree Foundation, presented arguments for impeachment of President Bush to a crowd of nearly 120 people Wednesday at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The event was part of a national network of teach-ins organized by the center.

"Impeachment is the most patriotic thing we can do," said Manski. "It's a debate over executive power versus popular power. We are struggling over the soul of a nation."

In a video, the Center for Constitutional Rights proposed four articles of impeachment: warrantless surveillance and wiretaps, using torture and denying due process to detainees at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, misleading Congress into the Iraq war, and violating the separation of powers.

Schwartz said impeachment would begin if the U.S. House of Representatives found the articles adequate reason to investigate the president.

Sam Johnson, one of several supporters of President Bush in the audience, countered that impeachment posed a threat to the two-party system.

"It is a conspiratorial action that is not helping our democracy," he said this morning.

He added that he thought impeachment is unnecessary because such things as the Abu Ghraib abuses and wiretaps are being addressed.

With regard to the lead up to Iraq, Johnson, who is vice president of Vote No to Cut and Run, said there are always problems weighing intelligence.

John Nichols, associate editor of The Capital Times, said war is not a reason to withhold judgment.

Manski told the crowd that they must take action by writing to their representatives and putting impeachment on the ballot.

Davis has contacted Democrats across Wisconsin to push for local votes in November to support impeachment.

The referendums will send a message to state legislators, he said. They can adopt a joint resolution requesting the U.S. Congress impeach Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

"All it takes is one state to demand it," Davis said.

(Madison, Wisconsin)