Message from Andy W

Hello NY-9ers,

I've been working with Bob Fertik and John Ullman on trying to get impeachment moving in the Judiciary Committee. We've drafted a letter thanking Cong. Weiner for supporting impeachment, but urging him to sign Cong. Wexler's letter to Cong. Conyers encouraging Conyers to take up impeachment as soon as possible. In case any of you still need to be convinced of the importance of this issue, here is a good answer to all of the usual "concerns" of Pelosi et al: www.impeachbush.tv/args/points_pol.html.

Anyway this message is a bit urgent because apparently Wexler will be sending his letter over to Conyers TOMORROW, Friday 2/15. So at this point I think anyone getting this email can do two things:

1) Call Cong. Weiner's office:

Washington: (202) 225-6616

Kew Gardens: (718) 520-9001

Brooklyn: (718) 743-0441

Rockaway: (718) 743-0441

2) I am new at democrats.com, so I'm not sure how quickly the communications work here, but if possible, send me your name & zip code to me at aw2040<at>columbia.edu in order to sign onto the letter below by 4:30 today and I'll put your name on the letter and fax it off to Weiner's office.

If you can't do #2 by today, which I assume is most of you, I'll change the letter if necessary and keep gathering names from you all, and send out another one in a week or two (I'll take out the part about urging him to sign on to Wexler's letter - though this may still be relevant if we think it would still be valuable to have him sign it later). Anyway I'll run the updated text by you to make sure you still want to sign it later.

Okay, that should do it! Thanks so much and PLEASE call his office at least, maybe we can make this happen.

Cheers,

Andy

P.S. I don't think I can attach anything on this message so here's the text of the letter:

Congressman Anthony Weiner

80-02 Kew Gardens Rd.

Suite 5000

Kew Gardens, NY 11415

Dear Representative Weiner,

Thank you for supporting Congressman Wexler's call for hearings in the House Judiciary Committee on the impeachment of Vice President Richard Cheney. Please sign Congressman Wexler’s letter and otherwise encourage your colleagues on the Judiciary Committee to carry out their constitutional duties to defend the Constitution of the United States by supporting impeachment hearings.

I am especially frustrated by Representative Nadler’s stance on this issue. He speaks eloquently about the Administration’s shredding of the Constitution, their ability to declare Americans “enemy combatants”, etc., but he simply refuses to support impeachment hearings.

In Naomi Wolf’s article “Fascist America in 10 Easy Steps,” published in the Guardian newspaper, she illustrates how the Bush Administration is systematically employing all of the usual steps that dictatorships use to subvert democracy: invoking a terrifying internal and external enemy; creating a gulag which employs torture (Guantanamo); setting up an internal surveillance system; harassing citizens’ groups; targeting key individuals; declaring dissent equal to treason; and finally, suspending the rule of law. To which other authors have added the following: indefinite detention; the denial of habeas corpus; the claimed unilateral nullification of enacted legislation; dictation of the terms of legislation by the president to Congress; the declaration that federal judges are incompetent to rule on questions touching on "national security"; the refusal of the "unitary executive" to permit the other branches to test its claims of "executive privilege"; the refusal of the Justice Department to prosecute contempt of Congress charges against executive branch officials; and the staggering increase in the frequency of use of the "state secrets" privilege to block access to the courts.

It is time to fight against these dictatorial maneuvers. I cannot believe there has been no official Congressional response against these blatant undemocratic transgressions.

But even if all of these reasons somehow weren’t enough, we now have the specter of Cheney and Bush spoiling for an attack on Iran, a modern, sophisticated country of over 65 million people. As you know, just last month Bush labeled harmless moves by Iranian speedboats near their own coast as “provocative”. An attack on Iran would be a truly catastrophic action, provoking unpredictable consequences. Whatever is left of America’s reputation as a fair broker in this critically important region would be completely demolished, and we would experience blowback for generations. As HR 799 notes, threatening to attack a country without evidence of a threat from this country is itself an impeachable offense. We must heed this Constitutional mandate and impeach Cheney to stop this insane rush toward a third disastrous war.

Thank you for being on the right side of history on this issue. Please sign Wexler’s letter and try to convince Rep. Nadler, Rep. Conyers and the rest of your colleagues to commence hearings on the impeachment of Richard Cheney.

Respectfully, we, the undersigned constituents of the Ninth Congressional District, ask that you take all measures necessary to hear testimony, take depositions, perform investigations, subpoena evidence and refer the matter for trial in the Senate, per H.Res.799, for the Impeachment of Richard Bruce Cheney, Vice President of the United States.

Sincerely,