July 25, 2008 – 1:08 p.m.
Ohio Democratic Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich on Friday called on the House Judiciary Committee to impeach President Bush.
In prepared testimony for a committee hearing, Kucinich said Bush should be held accountable for leading the nation into an unwarranted invasion of Iraq.
“The war was totally unnecessary, unprovoked and unjustified,” said Kucinich, a former presidential candidate. “The question for Congress is this: What responsibility do the president and members of his administration have for that unnecessary, unprovoked and unjustified war? The rules of the House prevent me or any witness from utilizing familiar terms. But we can put two and two together in our minds. We can draw inferences about culpability.”
Lamar Smith , the top Republican on the panel, said “Nothing is going to come out of this hearing with regard to impeachment of the president. I know it, the media knows it, even the Speaker knows it.” Smith added that the hearing “will only serve to impeach our own credibility.”
The House voted 238-180 on July 16 to send the latest in a series of Kucinich impeachment resolutions to the committee. Friday’s hearing, billed as an examination of “Executive Power and Its Constitutional Limitations,” was not explicitly an impeachment hearing.
Kucinich has said he would file articles of impeachment in the House every month until there was an impeachment hearing. It was unclear whether Friday’s proceedings, with testimony by other lawmakers and expert witnesses, would satisfy Kucinich.
In any case, there is no chance the House is actually going to move to impeach the president. Democratic congressional leaders, fearing a potential political backlash, foreswore any effort to do so after regaining a House majority in 2006.
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