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SPRINGFIELD, ILL---A resolution calling for the impeachment of President Bush for willfully violating his oath of office is in the Democratic-controlled state Legislature of Illinois and if passed, Illinois could be the first state legislature to pass such a resolution.
With dissatisfaction of the President running high, State Rep. Karen Yarbrough, Illinois' 7th District (D-Maywood) is relying upon an obscure rule of the U.S. House of Representatives in her sponsorship of the resolution which asks the General Assembly to submit charges to the Republican-controlled House to begin impeachment proceedings of the President.
Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature and on this, Yarbrough formulated Illinois House Joint Resolution 125. The Manual is a procedural handbook written by Thomas Jefferson as a supplement to U.S. House rules.
The resolution details five specific charges against Bush. Should the bill be passed by the Illinois General Assembly, the U.S. House would reportedly be forced by House Rules to take up the impeachment issue as a privileged bill which has precedence over other House business.
Bush has "willfully violated his oath of office" by manipulating intelligence to start the war in Iraq, leaking classified national secrets and authorizing illegal spying on American citizens, the resolution charges.
If the resolution passes the General Assembly, it would move to the U.S. House where it would probably go to the Judiciary Committee.
State Democratic committees in Vermont, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Nevada and North Caroline have already called for the censure or impeachment of Bush. According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted April 6-9, 33% of Americans currently support impeaching the President, virtually the same number which supported impeaching President Richard Nixon at the start of Watergate.
The Illinois Joint Resolution reads as follows:
WHEREAS, Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature; and
WHEREAS, President Bush has publicly admitted to ordering the National Security Agency to violate provisions of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a felony, specifically authorizing the Agency to spy on American citizens without
warrant; and
WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that President Bush authorized violation of the Torture Convention of the Geneva Conventions, a treaty regarded a supreme law by the United States Constitution; and
WHEREAS, The Bush Administration has held American citizens and citizens of other nations as prisoners of war without charge or trial; and
WHEREAS, Evidence suggests that the Bush Administration has manipulated intelligence for the purpose of initiating a war against the sovereign nation of Iraq, resulting in the deaths of large numbers of Iraqi civilians and causing the United States to incur loss of life, diminished security and billions of dollars in unnecessary expenses; and
WHEREAS, The Bush Administration leaked classified national secrets to further a political agenda, exposing an unknown number of covert U. S. intelligence agents to potential harm and retribution while simultaneously refusing to investigate the matter; and
WHEREAS, The Republican-controlled Congress has declined to fully investigate these charges to date; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE
SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that the General Assembly of the State of Illinois has good cause to submit charges to the U. S. House of Representatives under Section 603 that the President of the United States has willfully violated his Oath of Office
to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States; and be it further RESOLVED, That George W. Bush, if found guilty of the
charges contained herein, should be removed from office and disqualified to hold any other office in the United States".
4-25-06
© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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