Guest Blog: Support NM Impeachment Effort

Submitted by guest blogger Terry Riley:
I am mad as hell and I am going to do something. I just got an e-mail from a friend of mine in Santa Fe. Leland Lehrman worked with me on the paper ballot / election reform legislation in the 2005 and 2006 legislative sessions. He is proposing that we get out state legislature to bring impeachment proceedings against President Bush. Please read his message. He is right, the states can initiate the action and then the "Democrats" will have to deal with it. Please read, and contact your legislator.

It looks like Bush is going to put another 30,000 soldiers into Iraq after the first of the year and hold the troop strength at 185,000 for two years. Think about our soldiers. In order to maintain this troop level the Pentagon will have to put every soldier and EVERY reservist into a tight rotation, much more than any individual can be expected to survive.

Save our Soldiers! Impeach Bush
Terry Riley
Veterans for Peace
Son of a Veteran
Veteran
Brother of a Veteran
Father of a Veteran
Father or a combat Veteran

Leland Lehrman's Email:

Friends and Legislators,
We're working on a resolution that will impeach President Bush at the NM State Level. According to Jefferson's Rules of the Federal House, if an impeachment resolution passes at the State Level, the Federal Government is required to stop all business and hear impeachment proceedings immediately.

Quoting from ImpeachFor Peace.org:
"In the House of Representatives there are various methods of setting an impeachment in motion: by charges made on the floor on the responsibility of a Member or Delegate (II, 1303; III, 2342, 2400, 2469; VI, 525, 526, 528, 535, 536); by charges preferred by a memorial, which is usually referred to a committee for examination (III, 2364, 2491, 2494, 2496, 2499, 2515; VI, 552); or by a resolution dropped in the hopper by a Member and referred to a committee (April 15, 1970, p. 11941- 2); by a message from the President (III, 2294, 2319; VI, 498); by charges transmitted from the legislature of a State (III, 2469) or Territory (III, 2487) or from a grand jury (III, 2488); or from facts developed and reported by an investigating committee of the House (III, 2399, 2444)."

According to Section 604 of the Manual, "direct proposition to impeach is a question of high privilege in the House and at once supersedes business otherwise in order under the rules governing the order of business." It does not lose its privilege just because "a similar proposition has been made at a previous time during the same session of Congress." On the other hand, "a resolution simply proposing an investigation, even though impeachment may be a possible consequence, is not privileged." Where, however, "a resolution of investigation positively proposes impeachment or suggests that end, it has been admitted as of privilege."

It is also possible to impeach through the submission of a memorial by any private citizen, given a Congressional Committee picks it up and acts on it. This type of initiative has been organized by Impeach for Peace here.

Furthermore, Impeachment of the President was passed with overwhelming support by the NM Democratic Party when it held its most recent statewide Platform hearings. It is an official policy of the NM Democratic Party to impeach President Bush.

We will have to repeat that over and over because it is not common knowledge.

Also, Georgia Dem. Rep. Cynthia McKinney has written articles of impeachment during the last few weeks of her term and we can use those at the State Level. I need everyone to call Senators John Grubesic and Gerry Ortiz y Pino (Santa Fe and Albuquerque) and ask them to support an impeachment resolution and to help us get it drafted before the January session. Rep. Peter Wirth is my target for the House, although we may have better luck with someone else. Please call your Legislators now, and email, mail or fax this information to them.

Grubesic and Wirth are Santa Fe's own, we can hopefully count on them. Ortiz y Pino is one of  the best legislators in the NM House overall; he is associated with the NM PACE and the Albuquerque Peace and Justice social fabric. A social worker by profession.

Grubesic: 820-1825
Ortiz y Pino: 505.250.1280
Wirth: 988-1668

Also, essential to success with be Speaker of the House Ben Lujan, Majority Leader Ken Martinez, Sen Majority Leader Michael Sanchez and President Pro Tem Ben Altamirano. Get familiar with them at the NM Legislature website. All are Democrats. The Governor will have to be invoved as well. With Democratic control of every governmental body in the State, NM has a good chance to make history here.

Please forward to all interested. I have yet to hear from anyone, but will be in their offices or on the phone again with them this week coming. Once we get the OK to draft, we will proceed to incorporate McKinney's articles of impeachment and those in the book, "The Case for Impeachment." Also, below, I include information compiled by of the Green Party, much of which is at the website ArticlesOfImpeachment.net where you can get completely sorted out about the legal methods and more.

Leland Lehrman (505) 982-3609

Editor's Note: This is a guest blog by Terry Riley. If you'd like to submit a post for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link at the upper left-hand corner of our main page.