Carl Cannon writes of impeachment talk and the House lawsuit against the president:
... Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee called the lawsuit resolution “a veiled attempt for impeachment [that] undermines the law that allows a president to do his job.”
It’s unclear what “law” she had in mind, but the Texas congresswoman was just getting going: “A historical fact that President Bush pushed this nation into a war that had little to do with apprehending terrorists,” she added. “We did not seek impeachment of President Bush, because as an executive, he had his authority. President Obama has the authority.”
Historical confusion, constitutional illiteracy, and mangled syntax aside, this statement wasn’t merely inaccurate. It was peculiar. That’s because on June 10, 2008, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat, introduced a measure titled “Impeaching George W. Bush, president of the United States, of high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Eleven of Kucinich’s fellow progressives signed on as co-signatories. These weren’t talk radio or cable TV entertainers—or marginalized members on their way out of Congress, like Steve Stockman. The sponsors of the Bush impeachment bill were congressional liberals in good standing with the Democratic leadership in the House, and most of them are still there, including—yes, you guessed it—Sheila Jackson Lee.
“She misspoke,” her press secretary Mike McQuerry told inquiring reporters.
The other cosponsors were:
- Lee, Barbara [D-CA]
- Wexler, Robert [D-FL]
- Woolsey, Lynn [D-CA]
- Baldwin, Tammy [D-WI]
- Hinchey, Maurice [D-NY]
- Farr, Sam [D-CA]
- Towns, Edolphus “Ed” [D-NY]
- McDermott, Jim [D-WA]
- Ellison, Keith [D-MN]
- Filner, Bob [D-CA]
