Impeachment

Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich's single article of impeachment will get a committee hearing -- but not on removing President Bush from office. The House on Tuesday voted 238 to 180 to send his impeachment article -- for Bush's reasoning in taking the country to war in Iraq -- to the Judiciary Committee, which buried Kucinich's previous 35-article effort in June. This time, the panel will open hearings, possibly as soon as next week.

Illinois lawmakers opened impeachment proceedings against indicted Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich on Tuesday, insisting they could fairly investigate him despite years of calling him a terrible leader. Democrats and Republicans struggled to temper their anger over the national embarrassment created by Blagojevich's arrest a week ago on corruption charges. He is accused of seeking to sell favorable government decisions and the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

Federal prosecutors have asked an Illinois House impeachment committee not to delve into the criminal charges against Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich, a request that could hasten a decision on whether to boot the governor from office. In a letter released Tuesday, U.S. Atty. Patrick J. Fitzgerald warned the committee that interviewing witnesses and discussing documents related to the charges against Blagojevich could undermine his criminal investigation.

Some lawmakers who complain that President Bush is flouting Congress and the public with his Iraq policies are considering impeachment an option, a Republican senator said Sunday. Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and a frequent critic of the war, stopped short of calling for Bush's impeachment. But he made clear that some lawmakers viewed that as an option should Bush choose to push ahead despite public sentiment against the war.

Vermont state senators voted Friday to call for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, saying their actions have raised "serious questions of constitutionality." The nonbinding resolution was approved 16-9 without debate -- all six Republicans in the chamber at the time and three Democrats voted against it. Bush and Cheney's actions in the U.S.

Democratic presidential candidate Dennis J. Kucinich filed articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney, saying his action was driven by a desire to defend Americans' right "to have a government that is honest and peaceful." The Ohio congressman said Cheney manipulated and fabricated intelligence on weapons of mass destruction to justify the Iraq war. Kucinich said it was important to introduce the legislation "because the threat of war against Iran is very real."

Romania's president easily survived a referendum on his impeachment, according to exit polls, which showed a victory that he said reflected the popularity of his fight against corruption. Three-quarters of voters said they did not want President Traian Basescu ousted, according to two exit polls. Five parties in Parliament banded together last month to suspend Basescu, saying he had violated the constitution by usurping the role of the prime minister and criticizing the courts.

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."

The White House is more than 2,600 miles from West Hollywood, a distance emblematic of how far left the progressive city is compared with elected leaders running the nation on Pennsylvania Avenue. Last week the distance came into focus as West Hollywood officials made their city the first in Southern California to pass a resolution calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Angered by the soaring cost of defending Georgia's most notorious murder suspect, state lawmakers said Thursday they would explore the possibility of impeaching the judge presiding over the case of Brian Nichols, the rape suspect who escaped from a courthouse in 2005 and allegedly killed a judge and three others. Critics say DeKalb County Senior Judge Hilton Fuller has mismanaged the high-profile death penalty case.