Lisa Moscatiello of md8impeach sent the following message: “Van Hollen actually met with us for an hour, going over the time after which he had said he was scheduled to rush off to a meeting with the Speaker. I hope he told her why he was late!” So do we Lisa!]



A town hall meeting on Capitol Hill

Maryland Congressional District 8 for Impeaching Bush and Cheney



On the morning of Thursday, September 20, over two dozen impeachment supporters from Takoma Park, Garrett Park, and elsewhere in Maryland’s 8th Congressional District crowded into a meeting room in Longworth House Office Building for a wide ranging discussion with Rep. Chris Van Hollen.



State Senator and constitutional expert Jamie Raskin and Takoma Park Mayor Kathy Porter were among the delegates, who also included Lisa Moscatiello, Thomas Nephew, and Hank Prensky from Takoma Park, Warren Kornberg and Jim Agenbroad from Garrett Park, and Alan McConnell from Silver Spring, to name but a few.



Rep. Van Hollen was presented with a folder containing the Takoma Park City Council impeachment resolution, a list of signatories for the Garrett Park referendum, the agenda and attendance list for the meeting, prepared statements by several of the delegates, books on impeachment by Elizabeth Holtzman and John Conyers and his Judiciary Committee staff — and, in a small gesture he appreciated, a small box of “Impeachmints” candy bought at “Now and Then.”



What came next was basically a town hall meeting on Capitol Hill. In prepared statements by Lisa Moscatiello and others, as well as in frank give and take, we told Rep. Van Hollen that impeachment must be tried and can succeed. While we regret he doesn’t agree with us (yet!) we’re encouraged by the fact that he really listened to us at length — the meeting was scheduled to last just half an hour, but went to nearly twice as long — and that he promised continued dialogue with us about this issue.

Van Hollen said he agreed on the merits of the issues Lisa and others raised such as torture, warrantless wiretapping, and indefinite detentions, but felt that between the courts and congressional oversight, these issues were being addressed. He didn’t agree that Congress had been “silenced,” and argued that a failed, “botched” impeachment attempt would be worse than none at all. He thinks that impeachment might not get a majority in the House at this time — although he did say it could get a majority of Democrats.

The congressman ““ who is head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ““ observed that by January the primaries would be underway. Warning about the effect on the elections, he asserted that the political benefit was questionable ““ impeachment appeals to the base, but not the general electorate.

(Original Article)

(Additional Reports regularly updated from md8impeach.wordpress.com)