Open Letter to Chairman Conyers

By Daniel Roesler

Chairman Conyers,

I am sure you have received a lot of correspondence about impeachment.
However, two things have changed in recent events that directly affect
you.

First, if Senator Obama is elected President, he will not pardon
President Bush. In fact, he will have his "Attorney General
immediately review"[1] the Bush Administration to see if there were
any crimes committed. You already know where that road leads.
President Bush and Vice President Cheney have obviously committed
serious criminal offenses (you have even written about them), and the
only thing preventing their prosecution is political will. Therefore,
an Obama Presidency results in President Bush and Vice President
Cheney being brought to justice. This helps the nation return to a
rule of law, and Senator Obama will be celebrated as the savior of the
Constitution.

However, this will be a disaster for you and your legacy. An Obama
Administration will hold the Bush Administration accountable, and all
of the horrible illegal acts of the last eight years will come to
light. The public will ask why this did not happen sooner, and you
will be the recipient of their blame. You will be widely regarded as
complicit in the face of overwhelming evidence of illegal wiretapping,
torture, fraud, contempt, and destruction of records (among others).
You will be remembered as a politician who cherished party loyalty
over loyalty to his country. Many of the Democrats elected in 2006
will also be receive the same blame, as they were elected to stand up
to the Bush Administration. But, you will be remembered as the single
official who could have stopped the injustice but did not.

As I said, Senator Obama's remarks directly affect you, as he is the
likely nominee to your own party and future President. The Bush
Administration will be brought to justice sooner or later. Why
sacrifice your legacy because of political hesitation? You have the
power to save your legacy (not to mention your country), which you are
giving up simply to prevent a Republican tantrum. Remember what
happened the last time the Republicans blasted the Democrats for not
including telecom immunity in wiretapping legislation: not much. They
ranted and raved and threatened disaster, but the public saw through
this and supported the Democrats in preserving the rule of law. This
will happen again if you begin impeachment hearings. It is finally
time for you to stop political games and follow your oath. After all,
your personal legacy is at stake.

Second, Scott McClellan is coming out with a book about propaganda and
deception in the Bush Administration[2]. With the Bush Administration
coming to an end, this is the first of many defectors that will be
speaking out.

The main reason President Bush's and Vice President Cheney's crimes
have remained out of the public forum is because the Bush
Administration knows how to control information and intimidate
subordinates. That control is beginning to unravel and the whole truth
will begin to take shape to the American people. White House insiders
know that the Bush Administration will no longer have power to
retaliate against whistleblowers, so key people will begin to come
forth with information of criminal activity. For example, the FBI
recently released information about a "War Crimes File"[3] that was
created for Guantanamo Bay.

Please do not have any illusion that the secrets of the Bush
Administration will remain secret. The truth is leaking out, and there
is nothing they can do to stop it. You know where the truth about the
Bush Administration leads. You also know that when the public is
educated on the crimes of the Bush Administration, they will be
outraged that you knew about them and stood idly by.

And for what? You worry that the Republicans will label this as a
"partisan witch hunt" that might hurt Senator Obama's chances for the
general election? Unfortunately, this reasoning is not supported by
any evidence. In fact, an entirely opposite outcome is likely.
Republicans will essentially be defending torture, fraud, illegal
wiretapping, and destruction of evidence. They might even realize that
in order to not be destroyed as a party, they must distance themselves
from President Bush and Vice President Cheney. I haven't found one
piece of evidence that would indicate a Republican defense of the Bush
Administration being successful or improving the chances of Senator
Obama losing to Senator McCain. The only reason Senator Obama is
opposed to impeachment is because he knows he can absolve himself
later. You do not have that luxury.

Please note, the decision to remain complicit in the Bush
Administration's crimes comes at the expense of several things. You
are willingly giving up your oath of office. You are putting your
party above your country. Your legacy will be ruined, and all
accomplishments during your tenure will be overshadowed by blame. All
for ill-advised, unsupported campaign logic?

I have written the letter to make clear that you understand the
personal consequence of your decision to not begin impeachment
hearings. Fortunately, you still have the opportunity to save your
legacy. You can begin impeachment hearings for Vice President Cheney,
then President Bush. You already have many supportive members of your
committee (Wexler, Baldwin, Cohen, Gutierrez, Ellison), and a
resolution already exists for impeaching Vice President Cheney (HR
799). Please consider the consequences to your actions carefully, and
consider whether it is worth your career and legacy.

"When in doubt, do the right thing" -Roy Ash

Sincerely,
Daniel Roesler
daniel.h.roesler@gmail.com
(512)769-1164

[1]"What I would want to do is to have my Justice Department and my
Attorney General immediately review the information that's already
there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued. I
can't prejudge that because we don't have access to all the material
right now. I think that you are right, if crimes have been committed,
they should be investigated. You're also right that I would not want
my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of
Republicans as a partisan witch hunt because I think we've got too
many problems we've got to solve.
"So this is an area where I would want to exercise judgment -- I would
want to find out directly from my Attorney General -- having pursued,
having looked at what's out there right now -- are there possibilities
of genuine crimes as opposed to really bad policies. And I think it's
important-- one of the things we've got to figure out in our political
culture generally is distinguishing betyween really dumb policies and
policies that rise to the level of criminal activity. You know, I
often get questions about impeachment at town hall meetings and I've
said that is not something I think would be fruitful to pursue because
I think that impeachment is something that should be reserved for
exceptional circumstances. Now, if I found out that there were high
officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in
coverups of those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a
basic principle of our Constitution is nobody above the law -- and I
think that's roughly how I would look at it."
'Barack on Torture' Philadelphia Daily News 4/14/08

Video:

[2]'Exclusive: McClellan whacks Bush, White House' Politico 5/27/08

[3]'Report Details Dissent on Guantanamo Tactics' New York Times
5/21/08