CONCORD – The House debated, then declined to take a final vote yesterday on a resolution that called for impeachment of President George Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney.
After 45 minutes of debate, the House tabled the resolution on a vote of 227-95.
The resolution's author, Rep. Betty Hall, D-Brookline, said impeachment would uncover the facts behind secrets the Bush Administration has fought to protect. She said impeachment would bring out the truth about the decisions to wage the war in Iraq, use of the Justice Department for political purposes, details of domestic surveillance and the torture of prisoners.
Hall, 87, drew support from both political parties during public hearings on the bill, but it emerged from a House committee with a 10-5 vote recommending it be killed.
Rep. Kris Roberts, D-Keene, chair of the House State Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs Committee, said the resolution expects too much from a Congress that has little time to handle other affairs, including the run-up to November elections.
He said part of the blame for events stemming from Iraq should be laid with Congress.
"If Congress had done its job, the president would have had to ask for a declaration of war," he said. After the first Iraq war in 1991, Americans believed victory would be quick and easy, "so members of Congress abrogated their responsibility," Roberts said.
Deputy Minority Leader Rep. David Hess, R-Hooksett, argued that the petition was too general, and needed to be as specific as a criminal indictment.
He said an impeachment proceeding is for criminal conduct, "not behavior that pushes to the edge some of our laws, but for high crimes and misdemeanors . . . We have to deal with facts." A rally for the resolution this week included speakers Daniel Ellsberg, Vietnam War critic who leaked the Pentagon Papers, and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark.
Had the resolution passed, it would have not had any binding authority on Congress.
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