By Julia Silverman, Associated Press — Calling for the impeachment of President Bush is catching on among those vying to take over Republican Gordon Smith’s seat in the U.S. Senate.

On Tuesday, Portland lawyer and activist Steve Novick joined the fray, urging the House of Representatives to open impeachment hearings. Novick is vying for the Democratic nomination with Rep. Jeff Merkley, D-Portland, the Speaker of the Oregon House.

Novick follows Independent candidate John Frohnmayer, who made the call for impeachment a centerpiece of his speech announcing his candidacy last week.

Novick is contending that impeachment is merited because of the administration’s “conduct in authorizing the illegal wiretapping of U.S. citizens, and offering faulty intelligence to make the case for the Iraq war,” according to a release from his campaign.

Frohnmayer, also an attorney, says that impeachment is warranted because of Bush’s assertion that he has the authority to set aside any law passed by Congress, should it conflict with his own interpretation of the Constitution.

So far, Merkley has avoided any call for impeachment, though he has repeatedly linked Bush to Smith in speeches, and denounced the administration’s decisions in the Iraq war.

[…]

Smith, of course, has made no calls for impeachment and regularly votes with the Bush administration on GOP priorities. Smith voted to authorize the use of military force in Iraq in 2002 and publicly supported Bush’s war strategy until last December, when he called the Iraq policy “absurd” and possibly criminal.

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