First Step Towards Impeachment? Conyers Introduces Bills to Censure Bush and Cheney

The "I" word has returned to Washington. Seven years to the week after the House of Representatives impeached President Clinton, discussion of the possible impeachment of President Bush has reached a new high.

In recent days, Senator Barbara Boxer, Congressmen John Lewis and John Conyers, Nixon's former White House Counsel John Dean as well as numerous legal scholars have suggested Bush has committed impeachable offenses by illegally ordering the National Security Agency to eavesdrop inside the country without a court warrant.

Even conservative legal scholars have admitted the severity of Bush's actions. Norm Ornstein, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said "I think if we're going to be intellectually honest here, this really is the kind of thing that Alexander Hamilton was referring to when impeachment was discussed."

Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California said she had written to several constitutional scholars to ask whether Bush had committed an impeachable offense by ordering the warrant-less domestic spying.

Boxer's request came after former White House John Dean said Bush had become "the first President to admit to an impeachable offense."

Earlier this week Democratic Congressman John Conyers introduced measures to censure President Bush and Vice President Cheney - not for the domestic spying case but for misleading lawmakers on the decision to go to war in Iraq.

Conyers is also seeking the creation of a select committee to investigate the Administration's possible crimes and make recommendations regarding grounds for impeachment.

To back up his case Conyers has just released a reported titled "The Constitution in Crisis: The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution and Coverups in the Iraq War."

To support Conyers" efforts activists have also launched a website this week titled censurebush.org.

* Rep. John Conyers (D - MI), second longest serving member of the House of Representatives and the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. In the 1970s he played a prominent role in the recent impeachment process of Richard Nixon.

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