Impeachment on The Cross of Procedure

By Leland Lehrman

If I were a suspicious man, I might conclude from recent events at the New Mexico State Capitol that the powers that be in the Senate were trying to kill the Impeachment Resolution against President Bush and Vice-President Cheney through procedural manipulation. As Steve Terrell, political reporter for the New Mexican pointed out, assigning a resolution three committees is considered the "kiss of death." Although the Chairperson of every one of those Committees has already signed the bill - Senator Lopez of Rules, Senator Feldman of Public Affairs, and Senator McSorley of Judiciary - we will still lose at least a week on that extra committee. In the endurance race that is the New Mexico Legislature, the greatest danger of all is that our resolution will die waiting its turn to be heard.

As if getting three committees wasn't enough, when Senator Leonard Tsosie, the Navajo leader recently resigned, the impeachment sponsor, Senator Ortiz y Pino accepted the vice-Chairmanship of Corporations. However, in doing so, he left the Rules Committee on which he formerly served with four Republicans and four Democrats, a tie which would kill the Resolution. According to the Senate leadership, the new Senator should be appointed within the week and our hearing in Rules should go forward on schedule and with a complete Rules Committee. Let’s hold them to it.

A resolution as long overdue as impeachment cannot be allowed to die on the cross of procedure. Although the politicians in the Roundhouse are also Citizens, and of course entitled to their views, a great mass of Americans from both parties are rapidly moving toward consensus that impeachment is the Constitutional remedy for tyrants interested only in eternal war for profit and a domestic police state. Through "signing statements" which he feels allow him to disobey the law, directly unconstitutional behavior as at Guantanamo, and the deceptive and ultimately murderous policies of the illegitimate and manufactured "War on Terror", this President has earned his place in history as the President most abusive of the Constitution and the people of all time.

In the face of such an attack on the people, it is incumbent upon all officeholders sworn to uphold the Constitution that they engage every means necessary to remove the "source of pollution," as Jefferson once said. Jefferson's Rules of the House, which have been ratified every year since they were introduced over two hundred years ago, state clearly that Impeachment can be initiated by "charges transmitted from the legislature of a State." More than a hundred citizens showed up at the press conference to introduce the impeachment resolution and clearly see this impeachment process as necessary to the survival of the Republic. As every politician knows, for every one person who shows up, thousands more feel the same way. The most recent poll from Newsweek on impeachment shows that 51% of Americans favor impeachment as either a high or medium priority.

But the issues are much more important than the polls. American public opinion is now largely controlled by the mainstream media which has been hijacked by the corporate elite and their warmongering controllers. It is a testament to the good sense of the majority that in the face of ongoing efforts to keep impeachment "off the table," both in the media and in the Congress, the American people still recognize it as a necessity.

Given the severity of the crisis and the efforts of the New Mexico Legislature to kill the resolution by procedure, it will be necessary for citizens to redouble their efforts to get the attention of Legislators on the subject. The leadership in the Roundhouse can expect a "surge" of citizen participation this season. And for the Republicans so indignant at the presence of this resolution in their midst, I have this quote from one of their own, Paul Craig Roberts, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under their icon, President Ronald Reagan:

"When are the American people and their representatives in Congress and the military going to wake up and realize that the US has an insane war criminal in the White House who is destroying all chances for peace in the world and establishing a police state in the US?"

The good Senator Rod Adair from Roswell, in the pages of the New Mexican declined to "dignify" the impeachment resolution with a comment, but I wonder, what will he say to Mr. Roberts?

Leland Lehrman is the Editor of the Sun News and the Publisher of Mother Media: mothermedia.org. He can be reached at (505) 982-3609 or leland.lehrman@gmail.com