Statement calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney

OLYMPIA -- Today, the Senate Government & Operations Committee heard Substitute Senate Memorial 8016 petitioning Congress to conduct a full investigation and trial of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

The memorial’s prime sponsor Sen. Oemig, D-Kirkland, made the following statement at the hearing:

In the course of democracy, there may come a time when an elected representative completely betrays and abuses his office that the people must remove him.

Unfortunately, for America, that time is now.

All of us took an oath to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States.

Our oath obligates us in a time when the President and Vice-President routinely arrogate the powers of Congress, the Courts, and even of the States.  In just 10 months since we first heard this bill, alarming new revelations have surfaced about this administration’s abuse of the Constitution.

We are at a crossroad. We can act, or we can rely on hopes and prayers.  We can hope that no future President will so disdain the Congress and the judiciary.  We can pray that a future Congress will work harder to stop misconduct and to rein in an aggressive power grab.

We can hope and pray that we, unlike the Romans, have not forgotten the tyranny of kings.  We can hope and pray that this administration is an aberration and NOT a portent of things to come.  Recall, it was not Pompey who ended the Republic; it was his rival and successor, Caesar.

Do we wish to risk any future President, from any party, to assume this lawlessness as their starting point and then reach further?

My constituents have spoken.  At this crossroad, they want action. They want us to exercise all means to honor our oaths and protect the Constitution.  The means provided to a state legislature is a joint memorial. This joint memorial exhorts Congress to invoke the means that the Constitution provided to them to preserve the Republic.

My great fear is that if we fail to pass this memorial, we will tell the citizens of Washington State that we are as unwilling as Congress to draw a line and take a stand.

It is never too late to do right. But some opportunities can be lost. When this President leaves office, a window closes, and his stain will bleed deeper into the pages of our history.

Remember, we are not trying to get rid of a president. That will happen naturally. We are defending the Constitution. And, defending the Constitution will become monumentally harder if we do not impeach.

Arresting global warming is hard. Impeaching a corrupt and overreaching president should not be.

This memorial is how we tell history, and the rest of the world, that we do not sanction illegal war, we do not sanction unlawful spying, and we do not sanction torture.

This memorial is how we honor our oath and protect our great country.

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