Rocky is calling for uprooting of Bush
He's joining Washington state on a resolution
The Salt Lake mayor has spoken against President Bush and the war in Iraq at two Salt Lake protests and one in Washington, D.C. But this week, he isn't just calling for an end to the war: He's calling for an end to the Bush presidency.
Anderson has been invited to Olympia, Wash., by first-term Washington state Sen. Eric Oemig, D-Kirkland, to testify Thursday before state lawmakers on a resolution calling on Congress to investigate and possibly impeach Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
"It's been obvious, I'm sure, that I've wanted to see an end to the disastrous and immoral policies of the Bush administration, but never before was I so absolutely convinced as I am now that impeachment and removal from office is not only appropriate, but morally and legally compelled," Anderson said Tuesday. "I firmly believe that our nation is at its lowest point ever — morally, legally and in terms of its relations with the rest of the world."
Several other state legislatures — including those in California, Illinois, Minnesota and New Mexico — have considered similar impeachment resolutions in the past year. Oemig's resolution cites the now-discredited reasons Bush gave for invading Iraq, warrantless electronic surveillance of U.S. citizens, and accusations of illegal imprisonment and torture of Americans designated as "enemy combatants" as reasons impeachment may be in order.
And if those things don't justify impeachment, Anderson said, "I don't know under what circumstances impeachment would ever be appropriate."
Meanwhile, Enid Greene, chairwoman of the Utah Republican Party, called Anderson's trip to Olympia "embarrassing on many, many levels," and she accused him of political grandstanding.
"He wouldn't be getting attention if he was mayor of, say, somewhere in Vermont," Greene said. "Rocky uses the fact that he is mayor of Salt Lake City to gain personal attention for his personal political agenda."
She said that, as a lawyer, Anderson should recognize that Bush hasn't been accused of "anything approaching" high crimes and misdemeanors, for which the U.S. Constitution prescribes impeachment.
But Anderson disagrees.
"Any review of what the founders had in mind when they drafted the impeachment clause of the Constitution would make it abundantly clear that the outrageous abuses of power, the violations of our Constitution and of sacred treaty obligations, the dictatorial assumption of powers and derogation of the balance of power between the three branches of government implicit in our democracy and the disgraceful human rights abuses are far beyond anything that would have to be established to demonstrate a high crime or misdemeanor," he said.
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