WASHINGTON – Voters did not hand Democrats control of Congress two years ago in order to impeach President Bush, said Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean Wednesday.

Dean was responding to questions about the Articles of Impeachment against Bush, introduced this week by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and signed by Rep. Robert Wexler, a Florida Democrat who sits on the House Judiciary Committee.

“I’m not embarrassed by the effort,” Dean said during a breakfast meeting with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.

Dean said he does not make any personal judgment about whether the president “may or may not deserve to be impeached.

But Dean added: “My view is that the American people hired us in 2006 because they did not like the direction that the country was going in and what they wanted to see was someone that was willing to do something positive and get something done in Washington that was for their benefit.”

“They didn’t send us there to impeach the president,” Dean said.

Kucinich has said he wants the House to consider impeachment.

His Articles of Impeachment outline numerous allegations against President Bush, including what is claimed to be the creation of a massive propaganda campaign to mislead the nation into war with Iraq, the illegal use of torture during interrogation, the authorization of a warrantless wiretapping program on American citizens.

“A decision by Congress to pursue impeachment is not an option, it is a sworn duty,” said Wexler, in a statement about why he signed the document.

Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has said he is opposed to impeaching either Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney, which Kucinich and Wexler also have proposed.

Reporter Billy House can be reached at [email protected] or at 1 (202) 662-7673.

(Original Article)