Conyers: There’s not enough time.
Kucinich: George Bush has enough time to bomb Iran on another pretext. He has enough time to continue policies of torture. He has enough time to continue policies of eavesdropping and wiretapping. He has enough time to continue to ignore critical science with respect to global climate change. He has enough time to help facilitate more violations of election law for the 2008 election.
We don’t have enough time. We can’t spend any more time temporizing, while the Constitution, the United States laws, international laws, are being shredded.
Conyers: There are not enough votes.
Kucinich: We have to realize our responsibility here to protect this country from corruption. And it’s being—the Constitution and the nation, the national governance, is being corrupted by Congress’s unwillingness to look into this. Why are—what are we afraid of, that we’re afraid to look into violations of law by this president?
Conyers: If Bush attacks Iran, we’ll impeach.
Kucinich: Well, you know, this isn’t golf. You don’t get a do-over. We can’t let this president wage war and kill more people in violation of international law, in violation of the Geneva Convention. His conduct has been totally in alignment with violating the Nuremberg Principles. We need to hold him to account. And if we do that, there won’t be an attack on Iran. We must not wait for more carnage and for more jeopardy to the peace of the world.
Conyers: It will most likely cost the Democrats the election.
Kucinich: This is not—you know, our whole government rests on moral principles, not just on political principles. And so, we need to evaluate what Congress’s rightful role is here. You know, one of the founders of our nation made it very clear that Congress had a role that was not simply to pass laws, but to ask questions of the executive. This is what helped to create a powerful three-branches-of-government concept that was imbued in the Constitution, co-equality, so that we wouldn’t have a monarch. George Bush has acted in a way that has separated him from the rule of law. Congress must hold him accountable. And to say, “Well, we have more important things to do”—what could be more important than finding out whether or not the President of the United States has committed war crimes, whether or not he’s violated United States law and repeatedly violated the Constitution?
The political posturing would be funny if it weren’t so hazardous to the future of our nation, which Lewis Seiler and Dan Hamburg recently sounded off on making the case that we are in a “state of emergency.”
Conyers and Kucinich represent two sides of a coin. One congressman exhibits a disconnection from reality while another shows a connection with a reality that he deeply wishes existed.
Those who wish a reality existed that could allow impeachment hearings to blossom are behind Kucinich. Those who are disconnected from reality and wish to focus on elections and getting “business” done are behind Conyers.
And Barack Obama.
Barack Obama has expressed his dismay at the thought of impeaching the president. His remarks were published in the Associated Press Worldstream on June 28, 2007, just six months into the presidential race for the 2008 election.
"I believe if we began impeachment proceedings we will be engulfed in more of the politics that has made Washington dysfunction…We would once again, rather than attending to the people's business, be engaged in a tit-for-tat, back-and-forth, nonstop circus."
