http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20576809-2703,00.htmlBush's mid-term meltdownDemocrats are holding their breath and Republicans are issuing warnings of ideological change in pre-election manoeuvrings, writes Washington correspondent Geoff Elliott--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 14, 2006
LAST December, Democratic congressman John Conyers issued a press release citing President George W. Bush for possible impeachable offences relating to his administration's conduct of the Iraq war.
Few took the missive that seriously and it received little attention. But in a little more than three weeks Conyers, who serves as the most senior Democrat on the House of Representatives judiciary committee, could be the leader of that committee if the Democrats win back the house after the mid-term elections on November 7.
And the judiciary committee is where any impeachment starts. Is it going to be payback time? Are the likes of Conyers going to start prosecuting the Bush administration from Congress, the so-called first branch of US government, designed for an oversight role of the White House? Will Conyers lead the push to impeach the President?
First, Democrats have to win. The polls this week were disastrous for the Republicans...
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"What we were struck by during the Bush presidency was how supine the first branch of government was in responding to the President's aggressive denial of information that Congress thought was essential to its work," they write in their book, The Broken Branch.
"Members of both parties were quite open with us about the utterly dismissive attitude, indeed the contempt, with which Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney greeted such requests from Congress."
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