Rep. Jan Schakowsky endorses Bybee impeachment hearings: ‘I think that is a proper response.’
Rep. Jan Schakowsky endorses Bybee impeachment hearings: ‘I think that is a proper response.’
Over 5,000 of you have taken action in calling for Congress to commence impeachment hearings against Jay Bybee. This afternoon, ThinkProgress spoke with Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) about the campaign. She told us:
I would support impeachment hearings for Judge Bybee. … We’ve already seen that he’s willing to interpret the laws in ways that are counter to the fundamental values of our country. I think that is a proper response.
We also asked Schakowsky, who is Chairwoman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, for her reaction to Obama’s suggestion that he would be open to a bipartisan truth commission. She told us that she is currently in conversations this week with her staff about how to proceed, but emphasized that her interest would be in holding “open public hearings” on the issue.
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I am all set to get excited here…but my well-honed cynicism is preventing an all out Whoot fest…how about lower case whoot!
April 21st, 2009 at 2:30 pmHow about putting your process where your mouth is. From the Congressional Research Service [snip]
Impeachment proceedings may be commenced in the House of Representatives by a Member declaring a charge of impeachment on his or her own initiative,… [end]
http://www.llsdc.org/attachments/wysiwyg/544/CRS-98-806.pdf
April 21st, 2009 at 2:35 pmHow about a twofer?
Can we include judge Lawrence Silberman? He was involved with Reagan/Bush campaign with Bill Casey to promise Iran weapons and spare parts if they’d hold the hostages long enough for Carter to lose the election.
April 21st, 2009 at 2:37 pmMaybe we should offer her Obama’s job in 2012 ?
April 21st, 2009 at 2:40 pmGreat! Now Schakowsky can give Feinstein a nudge. I hope this starts an avalanche of movement in Congress towards impeachment of Bybee and the prosecution of Bush officials involved with torture.
April 21st, 2009 at 2:44 pmOnly problem I have with this talk of a “truth commission” is that, in the past, teh description of a truth commission stopped with a report. No prosecutions.
Hope that all of this has the potential of having some teeth in it at the end.
April 21st, 2009 at 3:02 pmAnd don’t forget about the UN. The Bush White house broke an international convention (against torture). Wonder if the United Nations pursue that and against who?!?
http://www.hrweb.org/legal/undocs.html
April 21st, 2009 at 3:02 pmI’ve had Rep. Schakowsky in mind from almost day one to eventually fill (now win election to) President Obama’s old senate seat.
April 21st, 2009 at 3:16 pmBybee should have never been confirmed in the first place.
Fcuk the Republicans
April 21st, 2009 at 3:18 pm“Rep. Jan Schakowsky endorses Bybee impeachment hearings”
Thank you Jan let the beheading begin.
April 21st, 2009 at 3:26 pmIt is highly unlikely that they’ll get the 67 Senate votes ultimately required to go through with it. However, that should deter no one. One should not fail to do what is right just because it seems impossible. Control of the news cycle and putting Republicans on record as being the pro-torture policy may be all the reward we get, but it’s definitely something. At the usual rate these things go, this should come to a peak around 2010.
April 21st, 2009 at 3:28 pmI started to cheer until I realized she was a Polish Democrat from IL. Where’s Blago?
April 21st, 2009 at 3:32 pmAbsolutely. Impeach Bybee. Try him. Convict him. Once convicted, he would be disqualified from holding any “any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States.”
That’ll work for me. But don’t stop with Jay Bybee. He had partners in crime, so impeach all of them, too. Once convicted, we will never have to worry about any of them being in our government again. I don’t care of the only job they can get is pumping gas or flipping burgers. They would have brought it upon themselves by their own actions.
April 21st, 2009 at 3:34 pmWayne Ant Schneider Says: “But don’t stop with Jay Bybee. He had partners in crime, so impeach all of them, too…”
Bybee’s head will roll.
And it will knock John Yoo’s off as well.
And on down the line all the way to Cheney and Boosch.
It’s gonna look like a truckload of marbles upended on the interstate.
April 21st, 2009 at 3:46 pmBybee, Addington, Gonzalez, and the rest of their ilk need to be heald accountable.
April 21st, 2009 at 3:54 pm“Rep. Jan Schakowsky endorses Bybee impeachment hearings: ‘I think that is a proper response.’”
So does, democratcly speaking, everybody else!
April 21st, 2009 at 4:20 pmIMPEACH BYBEE! ARREST BYBEE! ARREST YOO TOO!
I liked the line about:
Can anyone say Federalist Society.
The Federalist Society is governed by the same philosophy and ideals held by the Tory party in the days of the American Revolution. They wanted a king, and a “landed gentry”/aristocracy, because they believed they were entitled to rule over the “little people.” In other words, they were greedy SOB’s who were willing to shed the blood belonging to those same little people, IF they didn’t have to risk shedding their own AND it put them into positions of power once the smoke of battle had cleared away.
This is the same greed and lust for power we saw in tom delay, newt gingrich, dennis hastert, the wall street derivatives barons, and the CEO’s of American Corporations, and little dweebie pre-law college campus republicans looking to become members of the Federalist Society.
April 21st, 2009 at 4:37 pmThis is a good place to begin! Go Jan!!!
April 21st, 2009 at 8:23 pm