State Senate panel endorses Bush impeachment

A resolution calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney was approved by a New Mexico Senate committee this morning after some 200 people showed up to support the proposal.

Senate Joint Resolution 5, sponsored by Sens. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, and John Grubesic, D-Santa Fe, would force the U.S. House of Representatives to debate the issue of whether to impeach Bush and Cheney. That’s because House rules allow state legislatures to initiate impeachment hearings.

The committee’s five Democrats voted in favor of the resolution. Its four Republican members did not attend the hearing. The resolution must be approved in two additional committees before the Senate will schedule a hearing.

Several of the committee’s Democrats said they were disappointed that they wouldn’t have the chance to debate the issue with Republican members and learn about both sides of the issue.

“It is a choice that they have made to not join us today,” said Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque and the committee’s chair.

Ortiz y Pino said the resolution is more than symbolic because the House allows state legislators to initiate impeachment proceedings.

“This is not wild-eyed stuff,” he said. “… We have to do something about this, or we become implicated. … Then we’re part of the problem.”

Grubesic agreed, but said even the bill’s symbolism would give momentum to the impeachment movement.

“I would respectfully argue that dumping tea into Boston Harbor was symbolic. Rosa Parks refusing to move was symbolic,” he said. “Symbols have power because of the people who are behind them. The life of this document comes from the voices you hear today, and in this nation, and around the world.”

The resolution accuses the president and vice president of intentionally misleading Congress about the war in Iraq, violating Americans’ civil liberties through illegal wiretapping and torturing prisoners of war. It’s one of several being considered by state legislatures around the nation.

An ambitious and emotional group of people packed the committee room and spoke in favor of the resolution. With the room full, many more stood in the hall outside awaiting the vote.

Former state Judge Anne Cass was one who spoke in support of the resolution.

“If the New Mexico Legislature hopes to maintain its moral authority… then the New Mexico Legislature must insist that there be a full and formal investigation,” she said. “That there is compelling evidence that crimes have been committed is unquestionable.”

Barbara Hatfield of Taos agreed.

“I don’t fear any Muslim. I don’t fear any Arab,” she said. “I am afraid to death of the government of my own country.”

Larry Lopez of Taos, whose son leaves to fight in Iraq on Monday, said the proposed resolution creates “a lot of hope and a lot of anticipation.”

Sen. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque, said her vote in favor of the resolution was “a step toward holding the president and vice president accountable.”

“I take impeachment very seriously,” she said. “I lived through Watergate, and I saw what happened when we held a president accountable for wiretapping, and isn’t that what we’re talking about here?”

Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, agreed. He said when Saddam Hussein was executed, Bush said that the former Iraqi leader received more due process than he ever gave anyone else.

“I thought that was interesting, because we have a man, Mr. Padilla, who has sat in one of our jails without due process,” McSorley said.