Rules Committee Recommends Impeachment of Bush and Cheney

by Ken Werner, Trinity Plaza Tenants Association (TPTA), 2006-02-21

Correction: In the previous articles I noted that Supervisor Chris Daly’s proposed Resolution to Investigate/Impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney would follow the 30-day rule before it could be heard in committee. My apologies for the confusion.

On Thursday, February 16, the Rules Committee heard testimony and recommended and voted to send the proposed resolution to the full board for a vote, but not without controversy. Rules Chair Ross Mirkarimi has already spoken for impeachment on more than one occasion; and Tom Ammiano has been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration. It was the conservative Sean Elsbernd who voted against the resolution thereby in effect choosing to take the side of the President and Vice President.


Sup. Daly started off the hearing on Agenda Item 2 by thanking Robert Haaland, member of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, for bringing to the supervisor’s attention the SFDCCC vote calling for impeachment. Sup. Daly then proceeded to define how the potential process works, with the U.S. House of Representatives presenting the case with a simple majority vote but the U.S. Senate would need a two-thirds vote to impeach.

Sup. Daly reminded San Franciscans of the 63% who voted Yes on Prop N in November 2004 ("Withdrawing U.S. Military Personnel from Iraq") that while this may be an issue that would appear in the national section of newspapers, it’s an issue that starts at the grassroots level, and that local discussions provide state and national politicians with how their local constituents feel.

Sup. Daly then proceeded to outline recent history of the administration’s actions as documentation for the impeachment call including the decision for the preemptive attack of Iraq based on faulty intelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction, the scandal revolving around the leak of Valerie Plame’s name to the press for which Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has been indicted, the warrantless and illegal wiretapping of U.S. citizens, and the lack of response from the administration during Hurricane Katrina. (Recent testimony by Michael D. "Brownie" Brown shows that the Bush administration lied regarding the levee breaks and that, in fact, Bush knew the day Katrina made landfall that the levees had failed.)

Sup. Daly also cited the administration’s use of torture either by ordering or condoning the human rights violations as a clear example of an impeachable offense as well as the indefinite detentions of "suspected terrorists" to which the supervisor mentioned Abu Ghraib as the most notable. (In other news, the United Nations recently issued a report calling for the closure of Guantanamo while Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has continually stated that Gitmo will not be closed.)

Sup. Daly cited the human costs with last week’s Defense Department death toll of U.S. military men and women now at 2,260 (and more in the past few days), 109 British military deaths, and 103 coalition military deaths, as well as the cost to San Franciscans because of the funneling of money to fund the war that has a direct impact on the lack of funding for local programs to protect the lives of the most vulnerable. The supervisor put the loss to The City at $807-million.

With that lost funding in mind, Sup. Daly noted that for 10 years we could have paid for 155 new schoolteachers, provided daily meals for more than 7,000 senior citizens, provided free preschool for 775 low-income children, provided supportive housing for 4,650 chronically-homeless individuals, and provided health coverage for 1,550 uninsured young people.

As I pointed out last week and as Sup. Daly also noted, the City and County of San Francisco will not be the first municipality to call for impeachment; however, since The City is probably more widely known by vacationers than Arcada and Santa Cruz, California or the State of Vermont (a broad-based coalition calling itself "Vermont Says No to War" has campaigned throughout the state), all of which have already called for impeachment, it is San Francisco’s fame that could catapult possible impeachment proceedings to the forefront of public exposure to the concept. Indeed, in brief research I conducted last week, my previous articles have received coverage at AfterDowningStreet.org bringing Beyond Chron untold benefits as well as benefits to our City as a leader to impeach.

Sup. Ross Mirkarimi added that he absolutely agrees that Bush and Cheney "have acted with impunity" and that there exists an "immense amount of evidence" for impeachment. Sup. Mirkarimi referred to the "misguided buckshot" from the administration that portrays those calling for accountability as unpatriotic, and the supervisor is mystified why there has not been a more organized approach to the call for impeachment. Referring to the attempted impeachment of President Bill Clinton as "petty," Sup. Mirkarimi classified the Bush-Cheney administration’s actions as "heinous" and pointed out that it now falls on municipalities to sound the call to impeach.

In public comment, Robert Haaland (LeftInSF.com) of the SFDCCC stated "I genuinely believe that it is our civic duty when the President is breaking the law to speak out, and to that end I ask that you support this resolution. It’s also supported by the San Francisco Labor Council." Robert referred to the Katrina disaster and accused the Bush administration of criminal negligence for the 1,300+ deaths of the predominantly African-American victims but also pointed to the torture of political prisoners, including children, as "heart wrenching" and that these acts demanded accountability.

Sup. Ammiano also pointed out that it is our civic duty to take action and that the responsibility falls on municipalities.

However, these sound arguments were not enough for Sup. Sean Elsbernd who, apparently acting in retaliation to anything introduced by Sup. Daly, voted NO. However, also of special interest is that Sup. Elsbernd appears to be voting NOT as the representative of District 7 constituents, but as an individual. In the 2004 election, District 7 voters, in a 79.68% turnout, cast 35,896 votes for president/vice president, of which 27,016 (75.26%) were for Kerry/Edwards but only 7,917 (22.05%) were for Bush/Cheney. On Prop N (mentioned above), D7 voters were 16,228 Yes and 14,547 No.

Sup. Chris Daly’s "Resolution calling for a full investigation, impeachment or resignation of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney" now goes to the full board with recommendation and will likely be heard on Tuesday, February 28 (there is no full board meeting scheduled for February 21).

I suspect Sup. Elsbernd, even after reading this article, will still vote no at the full board -- let him stand alone in his support of Bush and Cheney; his vote will be remembered by his constituents the next time he runs for election.

This is the opportunity for the other 10 members of the Board of Supervisors to take a firm stand and demand that George Bush and Dick Cheney be brought to justice for their ‘alleged’ crimes against humanity. I urge the other supervisors to vote YES for Chris Daly’s Resolution.