Pelosi's constituents demand impeachment

Pelosi's constituents demand impeachment
Future speaker's district actually voted to remove Bush and Cheney

While future House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted before the election she would not support impeachment hearings, she will actually be rejecting her constituency's demands if she stays true to that campaign promise.

In fact, on Election Day, Pelosi herself had a chance to vote for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney in San Francisco.

On the ballot last Tuesday in San Francisco was Proposition J calling for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. It passed with more than 59 percent of the vote. In neighboring Berkeley, a similar measure passed with nearly 70 percent of the vote.

"Shall it be City policy to call for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney?" was the way Measure J was phrased.

Though Pelosi said she didn't want a Democratic-controlled House to take up impeachment of Bush, she did not take a public position on the local measure and no reporter pushed her on how she voted in her hometown election on the issue.

Actually, according to a Newsweek poll in October, there is more support among U.S. voters for impeachment of Bush than at any point for impeaching Bill Clinton.

The poll 28 percent of respondents thought impeaching Bush should be a top priority of a new Congress, and 23 percent thought it should be a lower priority, while only 44 percent thought it was a bad idea altogether.

Of course, if both Bush and Cheney were impeached, convicted and removed from office the Congress, Pelosi would be next in line for the presidency.

A coalition of groups rallied in Philadelphia yesterday to announce plans for a national movement for impeachment. Former Democratic Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman, a key player in the Watergate investigation, and Pentagon whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg both addressed the rally.

The coalition includes the Progressive Democrats of America, CodePink and Gold Star Families for Peace and Veterans for Peace.

Asked in her first press conference after the election if she had changed her mind about impeachment, Pelosi had this to say: "Democrats are not about getting even. Democrats are about helping the American people get ahead. And that's what our agenda is about. So while some people are excited about prospects that they have, in terms of their priorities, they are not our priorities. I have said, and I say again, that impeachment is off the table."