During a recent appearance on The View (video can be found here from The Democratic Underground), when asked by Joy Behar why she was refusing to hold impeachment hearings, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded by saying “If somebody had a crime that the president had committed, that would be a different story” — apparently the articles of impeachment introduced by Senator Kucinich, the summary of crimes (PDF) listed by Senator Conyers, the report (PDF) from the Government Accountability Office detailing numerous abuses of signing statements by President Bush or the repeated illegal use of propaganda to lie the country to war don’t represent crimes that Bush committed. More information on Pelosi’s appearance on The View is also available from ImpeachPAC.org and The Daily Kos.
Why is Pelosi lying and trying to keep Bush’s crimes covered up? Pelosi’s blatant disregard for the law and the citizens she is allegedly serving are effectively giving the president imperial powers while doing away with any oversight or accountability. Refusing to comply with subpoenas and contempt citations, illegally spying on citizens before September 11, 2001, meaning he committed numerous felonies, not to mention war crimes…the list goes on and on.
There is more than ample evidence of crimes committed by Bush and his administration. There is more than ample evidence that his crimes have been covered up by leadership from both parties in Congress who would end up being indicted for some of the same crimes. Instead of doing the right thing by the people and the Constitution, they prefer to end up going down in flames as many in the Bush administration eventually will.
Since before becoming House Speaker, impeachment has been “off the table.” First they had to “build the case,” then they “didn’t have the votes,” then there “wasn’t enough time.” Now Pelosi has the audacity to go on national television and claim that Bush and Cheney haven’t committed any crimes — after a dozen people testified before the House Judiciary Committee about blatantly obvious crimes committed by the Bush administration. Impeachment would put an end to Bush’s crimes. After all this country has been through under the genocidal dictatorship of an appointed President, this country deserves to know the truth.