QUOTE
Olver calls for probe to impeach president
White House dismisses move as political ploy
By Evan Lehmann, Eagle Washington Bureau
Wednesday, February 22
WASHINGTON — Rep. John W. Olver supports an investigation into whether President Bush should face impeachment for possibly manipulating intelligence to support the invasion of Iraq.
Olver, D-Amherst, and Rep. John Tierney, D-Salem, signed onto a bill to create a House select committee to conduct the investigation.
Bush would face impeachment under the long-shot legislation if the panel determines the president "manipulated" intelligence to convince Congress that Saddam Hussein had weapons to attack America and that he intended to sell them to al-Qaida.
"It is an issue that should be examined in total detail," Olver said in a telephone interview yesterday.
Twenty-six Democrats have co-sponsored the measure, which was introduced in December by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.
The select committee — to be composed of 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans — would also investigate whether Bush authorized detainee torture, retaliated against war critics, and had information countering its claim that Saddam was developing nuclear weapons.
White House spokesman Ken Lisaius dismissed the move as an election-year strategy to win votes.
"The facts are that members of Congress had access to the same intelligence that we had before going into Iraq," he said. "Some have chosen to play politics with that."
The bill seems certain to fail unless Democrats seize control of the House during midterm elections in November. It's remote that a Republican-controlled House committee would agree to investigate possible impeachment proceedings.
"I doubt the bill will ever get a hearing," said Rep. James McGovern, D-Worcester.
McGovern is a member of the Committee on Rules, to which the bill was referred last Thursday, following the vote that included Olver and Tierney. McGovern said the committee's chairman, Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., would likely ensure the measure gets squashed.
Conyers, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, is in line to take control of the committee if Democrats orchestrate electoral victories in November. The Judiciary Committee would lead the impeachment process.
Two Massachusetts congressmen are on the Judiciary Committee — Marty Meehan, D-Lowell, and William Delahunt, D-Quincy. Neither congressmen co-sponsored the bill to authorize the impeachment investigation, marking a divide among Democrats on whether a second president in a decade should face the all-consuming process. President Clinton was impeached during his second term for lying to a grand jury regarding his involvement with Monica Lewinsky.
Meehan said in a statement that it's been "shocking to see the lack of accountability in the handling of the war in Iraq," but he expressed distaste for impeaching the president.
"Having been through the Clinton impeachment, I've learned that it's not a legal or a constitutional process; it's a political process," Meehan said.
McGovern said the sharp partisanship in Congress would spoil its ability to assess the president's pre-war actions. He said an independent commission should investigate the facts. Impeachment is something he hopes "we never face." But he added: "The president misled the public. I think some heads should roll over there."
Olver, a sharp critic of the administration and its handling of the Iraq war, said he has "no idea" if the evidence exists to impeach Bush. "That would be answered in the process" of the investigation, Olver said. "The war in Iraq is a disaster."
But he acknowledged that the measure's supporters are "never going to get enough co-sponsors to bring it to action."
Tierney, the only member of the Massachusetts 10-person House delegation to sign the bill with Olver, said in a statement, "The American people deserve an answer to why the Bush administration decided, in the absence of an imminent nuclear threat, the absence of an Iraq-al-Qaida connection and the absence of weapons of mass destruction threatening the U.S., to invade Iraq."
White House dismisses move as political ploy
By Evan Lehmann, Eagle Washington Bureau
Wednesday, February 22
WASHINGTON — Rep. John W. Olver supports an investigation into whether President Bush should face impeachment for possibly manipulating intelligence to support the invasion of Iraq.
Olver, D-Amherst, and Rep. John Tierney, D-Salem, signed onto a bill to create a House select committee to conduct the investigation.
Bush would face impeachment under the long-shot legislation if the panel determines the president "manipulated" intelligence to convince Congress that Saddam Hussein had weapons to attack America and that he intended to sell them to al-Qaida.
"It is an issue that should be examined in total detail," Olver said in a telephone interview yesterday.
Twenty-six Democrats have co-sponsored the measure, which was introduced in December by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.
The select committee — to be composed of 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans — would also investigate whether Bush authorized detainee torture, retaliated against war critics, and had information countering its claim that Saddam was developing nuclear weapons.
White House spokesman Ken Lisaius dismissed the move as an election-year strategy to win votes.
"The facts are that members of Congress had access to the same intelligence that we had before going into Iraq," he said. "Some have chosen to play politics with that."
The bill seems certain to fail unless Democrats seize control of the House during midterm elections in November. It's remote that a Republican-controlled House committee would agree to investigate possible impeachment proceedings.
"I doubt the bill will ever get a hearing," said Rep. James McGovern, D-Worcester.
McGovern is a member of the Committee on Rules, to which the bill was referred last Thursday, following the vote that included Olver and Tierney. McGovern said the committee's chairman, Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., would likely ensure the measure gets squashed.
Conyers, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, is in line to take control of the committee if Democrats orchestrate electoral victories in November. The Judiciary Committee would lead the impeachment process.
Two Massachusetts congressmen are on the Judiciary Committee — Marty Meehan, D-Lowell, and William Delahunt, D-Quincy. Neither congressmen co-sponsored the bill to authorize the impeachment investigation, marking a divide among Democrats on whether a second president in a decade should face the all-consuming process. President Clinton was impeached during his second term for lying to a grand jury regarding his involvement with Monica Lewinsky.
Meehan said in a statement that it's been "shocking to see the lack of accountability in the handling of the war in Iraq," but he expressed distaste for impeaching the president.
"Having been through the Clinton impeachment, I've learned that it's not a legal or a constitutional process; it's a political process," Meehan said.
McGovern said the sharp partisanship in Congress would spoil its ability to assess the president's pre-war actions. He said an independent commission should investigate the facts. Impeachment is something he hopes "we never face." But he added: "The president misled the public. I think some heads should roll over there."
Olver, a sharp critic of the administration and its handling of the Iraq war, said he has "no idea" if the evidence exists to impeach Bush. "That would be answered in the process" of the investigation, Olver said. "The war in Iraq is a disaster."
But he acknowledged that the measure's supporters are "never going to get enough co-sponsors to bring it to action."
Tierney, the only member of the Massachusetts 10-person House delegation to sign the bill with Olver, said in a statement, "The American people deserve an answer to why the Bush administration decided, in the absence of an imminent nuclear threat, the absence of an Iraq-al-Qaida connection and the absence of weapons of mass destruction threatening the U.S., to invade Iraq."