California activists inaugurate Impeachment Center on Independence Day Michael Roston

Published: Wednesday July 4, 2007 Print This Email This Enjoy this story? Get headlines instantly in Firefox . A group of progressive and Democratic activists in California will be using the July 4 holiday to inaugurate a nerve center that will work to bring more Congress members around to supporting the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. The Impeachment Center's opening comes as one House Democrat took aim at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's statement that impeachment remained 'off the table.' Wednesday afternoon in Los Angeles, members of local Green and Progressive Democratic party organizations will be joined by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) to inaugurate an 'Impeachment Center.' The Center will serve as "a [Los Angeles] countywide resource for advancing the impeachment of George W. Bush & Richard Cheney," with "phonebanking, letterwriting and other Impeachment related resources available for distribution." The facility will be open on a weekly basis. Matthew Gerbasi, the Impeachment Working Group Coordinator of the Progressive Democrats of America, described the Impeachment Center's mission to RAW STORY on Tuesday. "The center's mission will be to get the LA City Council, and Santa Monica to pass pro-impeachment resolutions, and also to get all of the Congressional representatives in the Los Angeles-area to either sign on to Rep. Dennis Kucinich's [Cheney impeachment] bill or to introduce Articles of Impeachment on their own," the California-based activist said. Gerbasi wasn't sure that the funding existed to support similar resource center in any other locations in the country. But he didn't rule out the possibility that progressive activists might devise similar strategies of their own. "We don't have nation-wide reach to make anyone do anything like this, but we've been hearing about impeachment from a lot of Progressive Democrat chapters," he told RAW STORY . "A lot of chapter meetings turn into impeachment meetings after 15 or 20 minutes, and everyone there wants to impeach these guys, to hold them accountable, and they don't feel that the House is doing their jobs." The launch of the Impeachment Center comes on the heels of the commutation of the sentence of convicted former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) is the latest House member to contemplate impeachment, and has taken aim at one of his party's top leader's unwillingness to consider the possibility. "I certainly hope Nancy Pelosi will withdraw her initial remarks that impeachment is completely off the table," Jackson said, according to a Tuesday report from CBS News in Chicago. However, it is not yet known if Jackson will become a co-sponsor of H. Res. 333, the Articles of Impeachment for Cheney that Rep. Kucinich introduced in April. To date, 12 House Democrats have signed on to the Ohio Democrat's bill according to the website After Downing Street. More information about the Impeachment Center can be found at its website.



