If President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney were ever to be impeached, their foes could cite this Independence Day as a milestone -- the day that the nation's first "impeachment headquarters" opened its doors in a storefront near the Beverly Center.
"This is an impeachment 4th of July," Byron De Lear, a Green Party activist, said Wednesday. He called removing Bush and Cheney "a patriotic duty to restore the integrity of the United States."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday July 13, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 75 words Type of Material: Correction
Impeachment organizers: An article in the July 5 California section about the nation's first "impeachment headquarters" said that its organizers could not definitively name a "pro-impeach" representative on the House Judiciary Committee, aside from Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles). Two other members of that key committee, through which an impeachment resolution would pass, are co-sponsors of a bill urging Congress to impeach Vice President Cheney. They are Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Hank Johnson (D-Ga.).
Those assembled cited various Bush actions or policies, including "lies that led the U.S. into war."
They also said that Bush--Cheney policies precipitated torture, illegal spying on American citizens, and the curtailment of privacy and civil rights in the name of fighting terrorism.
The latest irritant was the president's decision to commute the prison sentence of former Cheney aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, whom a jury convicted of obstructing justice.
"Isn't it ironic that Paris Hilton will spend more days in jail than Libby?" said De Lear.
The day's star power was provided by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who had vigorously defended then-President Bill Clinton when he faced impeachment in 1998.
"This is one of the most important efforts this country has ever seen," said Waters, speaking to about 300 gathered for a noon rally at nearby La Cienega Park.
In an interview, she added: "We can make changes through organizing. If the numbers are in the streets, Congress will listen."
Any impeachment motion -- ultimately voted on by the House of Representatives -- would have to pass through the House Judiciary Committee, to which Waters belongs.
Organizers could not definitively name another "pro-impeach" representative on that committee.
In the House at large, they tally 14 like-minded lawmakers, most of whom have signed on to articles of impeachment against Cheney that were introduced by Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio), who is running for president.
When asked who might lead the cause in the Senate, Waters paused, then said she would have to defer that question for now.
In the end, removing Bush or Cheney from office would require a two-thirds vote by the Senate.
In the mid-term elections, many more Democrats -- and some Republicans -- spoke out against the war, including some who had originally voted to permit the Bush administration to invade Iraq.
