Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, On Foot

Vermonter Who Walks 480 Miles to Deliver Message Of Impeachment Finds Dismay In D.C.

(CBS)  An early experience should have been a portent of things to come: Visiting the National Archives building, which houses the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, he and a group of like-minded supporters were blocked from entering by security guards, who demanded they remove articles of clothing - hats, T-shirts, ponchos - carrying impeachment messages.

While trying to arrange a meeting with Pelosi, whose office repeatedly said she was unavailable, Nirenberg held a press conference, gave interviews, and visited other Congressional offices to bend the ears of lawmakers (or at least their staffers) about their positions on impeachment.

He got up to a speed of visiting 15 offices per hour. In most every case, Congress members were not available. Nirenberg delivered his talking points, and perhaps the names of constituents who wanted their views passed on; staff members noted his interest, and that was that.

At the office of Rep. Wally Herger, R-Calif., he asked the young staffers, “The Congressman does defend the Constitution, doesn’t he?”

“Well, yes, I suppose,” was the response.

Republican staffers seemed particularly surprised at his entreaties, as if they thought Nirenberg was lost and was aiming for the Democrat next door.

But it is hard to convince many that impeachment is a non-partisan issue.

"Maybe I'm crazy, I've been spending time now in Washington, and everyone is going about their business like nothing's happened, there is no threat to the Constitution."

The fact that impeachment was not apparently on staffers' radar is not for lack of trying on the part of advocates. An op-ed co-authored by three members of the House Judiciary Committee published in the Philadelphia Inquirer last month called for hearings. Former Sen. George McGovern wrote a Washington Post op-ed calling for impeachment; and last week a committee in the Washington State Senate approved an impeachment resolution (though it is unclear when or if it will be brought to the full chamber).

There was also a great deal of media attention last week for a study released by the Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Independence in Journalism, which enumerated 935 false statements made by Mr. Bush, Cheney and other high government officials over two years about Iraq's weapons capabilities and alleged ties to al Qaeda, leading up to the 2003 invasion.

But Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have offered the rationale that, were Congress to delve into hearings, it would divert time and resources away from other pressing matters which they believe voters hold more dear; and by raising the specter of impeachment, they would be painted (they fear) as obstructionists, or as merely seeking payback for the 1998 impeachment and near-removal from office of President Bill Clinton.

Nirenberg thinks that view is misguided, especially given that in the past parties that pursued impeachment hearings improved their public approval ratings and scored in subsequent elections, because "People want the truth."

Nirenberg finally got a call from Pelosi's office arranging for him to see not the Speaker but two senior staffers. So on Wednesday Nirenberg went to the Cannon House Office Building to meet with Joe Odek, Pelosi's senior counsel (whose areas include civil liberties and constitutional law), and Michael Techlenburg, the Speaker’s legislative assistant (who in addition to being a Columbia University Law graduate also happens to be deaf).

Nirenberg did not miss the terrible, poetic irony that, while failing to meet Pelosi in person, he was invited to deliver his message of impeachment to a deaf man. "Unbelievable, it was just amazing, actually."

Nirenberg did come away with hints of what can be expected from Congress in the coming months: a vote on contempt citations for Harriet Miers and Joshua Bolton, probable hearings in February on the President's signing statements (in which he declares his intent not to enforce certain laws enacted by Congress), and ongoing investigations into no-bid contracts, CIA tapes, FISA spying, and possibly the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison.

But on impeachment, views were unchanged on both sides, with the staffers speaking to the importance of "unity," a quality in scarce supply in Washington.

"It's because they still think politically and not historically, and they're not willing to lose a battle," Nirenberg said of the majority party. "So the question I have for Pelosi if I should ever in the future get in to talk to her is: If this isn’t important enough to fight for, and possibly lose your own seat for, what issue would be important enough?"

Rep. Dennis Kucinich met with considerable resistance from leaders of his own party when he introduced a resolution calling for impeachment hearings on Cheney last November. Democrats wanted to table the resolution, fearing a backlash; Republicans called their bluff, voting to keep it alive, if only to embarrass Democrats. The spectacle put the lie to President Bush's quip, ironically spoken that very day, that C-Span was a boring channel.

The resolution was sent to the Judiciary Committee, where it has lain dormant. [Kucinich has vowed to introduce a similar resolution aimed at the president on Monday, the day of his State of the Union address.]

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., had even written a book calling for impeachment of the president. But that was before the 2006 election, when he was in the minority; now he is the Judiciary Committee Chairman, and he has squelched talk of moving ahead on the issue, including Kucinich's resolution.

"Frankly, he can draw a line in the sand and say, 'The public is demanding this and we need to start,'" said Nirenberg. "He's getting a lot of pressure that might push him that he could allow a subcommittee to open hearings."

On January 15, Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., spoke on the House floor, where he delivered a petition with more than 189,000 signatures calling for hearings. "A growing chorus of American citizens are calling for this Administration and this Vice President to be held accountable. The response from Congress thus far has been silence and denial."

"[Wexler] was a doubter for a long time and he bought the party line, and I have yet to find out what it was that switched him," Nirenberg said. "But now he is a very strong advocate for impeachment.

"I think what he's found - and this is what I'm trying to get through to Pelosi - is that once you take a forceful position on this and illuminate the truth, then good things come to you. In this case he's got a bump; his home district seems to be more favorable to him now. He is the darling now of the impeachment movement."

Not that there are THAT many darlings to go around. Kucinich's Cheney resolution has 24 co-sponsors (out of 435 representatives). There were twice as many co-sponsors on a resolution honoring the late winemaker Ernest Gallo.

[gunownerdan]

"Today we need a nation of minute men; citizens who are not only prepared to take up arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as a basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom.
The cause of liberty, the cause of American, cannot succeed with any lesser effort."
- President John F. Kennedy, January 29, 1961

www.A-HUMAN-RIGHT.com

[ov442]

Not that there are THAT many darlings to go around. Kucinich''s Cheney resolution has 24 co-sponsors (out of 435 representatives). There were twice as many co-sponsors on a resolution honoring the late winemaker Ernest Gallo....

hahaaa, thats cuz these congressional boozers drink gallo like breathing air.

[brianbwb-2009]

"TERM LIMITS are the ONLY way to stop this slide to self-destruction. Vote them in while they''''re idealistic and fired up - and get them the H3LL out when they become cynical and self-serving." Posted by oleander8

This might backfire, and cause these people to grab all they can, they know they only have a certain alloted time to do so, and those who are doing actual good will be cut off from continuing to do good.

I posit that hard prison time and fines totaling more than the amounts stolen, (steal 10, will cost you 20) even including capital punishment for the worst offenders, without judges'' discretion, as well as the impeachment and legal sanction, according to the crimes committed, of the current administration as an example and precedent, would do more to put the fear of the people into our elected officials.

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by STDdating

You will learn, as others have, not to spam these threads with off topic spam to your porn sites.

You have been reported.

[popstom1]

The Sentate and The House of Representatives are forgetting what there job is. It is to uphold. The Constitution of The United States Of America and it''s Laws and when thay do not do the job thay were hired too do. We the People who vote have to fire them. and find some who will do the job there hired to do.

[oleander8]

The only thing the career politicians think about is the next election - not the people and certainly not the country.

TERM LIMITS are the ONLY way to stop this slide to self-destruction. Vote them in while they''re idealistic and fired up - and get them the H3LL out when they become cynical and self-serving.

[walt1944-2009]

We may as well all face the inescapable fact that there will be no impeachment of the Great Emperor Bush II, Darth Vader VP Cheney, or anyone else in the Great Emperor''s court.

Impeachment is "off the table", and won''t go back on the table, even if the Great Emperor Bush II physically tore up the Constitution as a part of his State of the Union speech tomorrow in front of Congress and the TV networks.

The only hope anyone has of having these Nazis criminals answer to any court is to have them up in front of an international tribunal being tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Rumsfeld is already on the run he can''t travel in Europe anymore, we can only hope that will extend to Bush and Cheney too.

SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!

[crick1452]

Yep. The Grapes of Wrath. Fahrenheit 451. Brave New World. Heck, Moby ***!

[slim1h2o]

Many of the greatest novels and poems are written about the hardships man endures.

Posted by crick1452 at 06:56 PM : Jan 27, 2008

Yup, like death,, poverty,,war,,,injustice, the list can go on. All hardships that we endure everyday, in these times. About like the "Great Depression" and WWII.

[crick1452]

Many of the greatest novels and poems are written about the hardships man endures.

[crick1452]

I never said that poetry was going to save anybody. And also, I''''m not a defeatist, either. The only thing I said was, "When times are hard, some of the best poets come out of those times". And not exclude anybody, some of the best novelists come from hard times.
=================
True. Hemingway wrote some of his best in times of war.

[slim1h2o]

slim 1h20 your defeatist attitude that everything is bad and will also be and that poetry can save us is... well what is it...nothing!

Do something stand behind Dr. Nirenberg and support impeachment. The death of all we stand for is occurring before our eyes.

Posted by tonic1661 at 03:42 PM : Jan 27, 2008

I never said that poetry was going to save anybody. And also, I''m not a defeatist, either. The only thing I said was, "When times are hard, some of the best poets come out of those times". And not exclude anybody, some of the best novelists come from hard times.

[cdfoxtrot]

The fact that Americans have put up with Bush all these years is pathetic. There should have been a major revolt years ago.

Posted by erasmus6

Yup, and there was an opportunity to do that at the ballot box four years ago. Knowing the moron-in-chief had dragged us into an illegal war and all for no good reason, people still voted for him. I can''t fault people for voting for him the first time round -- no one knew what a disaster he was going to be. But second time round, there''s no excuse. Anyone who voted Bush in ''04 is partially to blame for the low standing we have in the world today.

[toolmangler-2009]

Posted by george2221 at 01:35 PM : Jan 27, 2008



And this ''amazing'' discovery means what?????
I bought the yard beside me also so no one could build without my permission

[feelfree1]

Re: "But John Nirenberg, who has called for hearings into the conduct of President George W. Bush and Vice President *** Cheney, with the possibility of impeachment, says rescuing America''s standing in the world demands it."

Thank you so much, Mr. Nirenberg!

(Ironic that his name is so similar to Nuremberg, as in the "Nuremberg Trials". How appropriate.)

This demonstrates that one determined individual really can make a difference.

[rowdytexan2]

Posted by MainClown at 03:09 PM : Jan 27, 2008

Men that wish to defend their families while killing other peoples families is a disgusting ideology.

Our march off to an illegal war has done nothing but brew more hatred against our country. Is this what your demand to protect your family is all about? You would go over and kill the families of of thousands of other people who were ABSOLUTELY no threat to yours?

[ssm9451]

Finally someone who has the guts and b*a*l*l*s to go to Washington and raise some h*e*l*l. Hope he gets some followers along the way. If I could, I''d go with him.

[erasmus6]

My question is, why did John Nirenberg have to go to Washington by himself? Who is going to listen to one man, petition or no petition? Are they going to take it seriously when only one person could be bothered to come? There must be millions of Americans who are against Bush, yet nobody got off their fat a-s-s to go with him. Everyday on this site, people are whimping and whining about Bush. It is time to put up or shut up!

The fact that Americans have put up with Bush all these years is pathetic. There should have been a major revolt years ago.

[tonic1661]

slim 1h20 your defeatist attitude that everything is bad and will also be and that poetry can save us is... well what is it...nothing!

Do something stand behind Dr. Nirenberg and support impeachment. The death of all we stand for is occurring before our eyes.

[mainclown]

This article and the comments are the sad last gasps of the New Deal. The alternative new media are rendering this sort of juvenile world view irrelevant and self damning. The fool who would impeach George Bush (no successful terorist attacks since inital sucker punch) is a de facto straw man for the liberal who gave the go-ahead to this article. This guy or gals worldview is so embarassing to those of us who actually have to work and endure our childrens childhood flirtation with socialism. Your philosophy requires the rejection of logic- the most powerful mental tool created by western thought. The thought that becoming in-offensive to our enemys is the way to protect American lives scares the hell out of serious men that wish to protect their families.