Dear Rep. Conyers: Protect and Defend, Please!

To Representative Conyers of Michigan:

On June 5th, you had a meeting with Code Pink, and laid out five reasons why you felt impeachment was not possible. What I hear in these reasons, as summarized in a number of sources, is “we’re too scared.” But we have men and women dodging bullets right now, because of what many of us believe to be impeachable offenses committed by this President. Those men and women took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. Kinda’ like the oath you took. If our fighting forces in Iraq can take that oath and look death in the face, you can certainly look into the news camera and fulfill your own oath.

So here are my reasons against your reasons against impeachment:

• Reason one: While the majority of people in this country want Bush gone, they don't want impeachment.

Response: Polls don’t excuse you from your constitutional duty. Again, that pesky oath thing. And even though we don't all live in Michigan, every American is your constituent, because the Judiciary Committee, which you chair, is the People’s sole instrument for controlling potential tyranny from the Executive Branch. We cannot hold a recall election. We cannot put up an initiative for vote. We cannot knock on the door of the West Wing and execute a citizen's arrest. But if the President orders me snatched off the street and locked up because he takes exception to what I’ve written here, you and your committee are my only hope. That hasn’t happened to me yet, but the day is young. President Bush has said he has the power to declare me, or anyone within our borders, an enemy combatant. In Presidential Directive 51, he has also said he can declare martial law if he perceives a threat to the homeland - and he gets to define “threat.” It could be anything from another crime like 9/11 to a hurricane. And then he alone gets to decide when, or if, we get our Constitution back. That level of power should not be trusted in any one person, regardless of how popular the polls say he or she is.

Terrorists can blow up buildings, they can murder people, they can burn down our capitol, but that will not destroy the nation. The erosion of our rights and freedoms, however, will destroy us. There may still be a land mass dubbed “USA,” but the nation born in 1776 is slowly disappearing. At this point in time you, and you alone, could stop it.

Please stop it.

• Reason two: The corporate media will slay us.

Response: Once the facts start coming out, the media will be like a dog with a meaty, juicy bone. If it sells cars, computers or video games, they will pounce on the hearings, and the salacious facts coming out of testimony, like flies on honey. A jilted press secretary pouring his heart out over deceptions, lies, and the outing of a spy? If it means higher ratings, the corporate media will eat it up and ask for more.

• Reason three: Not enough time.

Response: Just what is the statute of limitation on mass murder?

• Reason four: Not enough votes.

Response: You’re a lawyer, Mr. Conyers. You know that we don’t decide whether or not to hold a trial by polling the jury before presenting evidence. Until you have hearings, how do you know how many votes there will be? Have hearings, uncover information, and see how many votes you get. Plus, even if you don’t convict anyone, you’d at least get the truth on the record, and maybe prevent this from happening again.

• Reason five: It could cost the Democrats the election if we pursue impeachment.

Response: It could cost my grandchildren their lives if we don’t. Failure to call them out on their offenses leaves the door open to more wars, not to mention more renditions, more secret prisons, more domestic spying, and a constant drumbeat of "be afraid, be afraid."

And historically, though there isn’t that much precident, elections have not always been the price of impeachment. After Nixon, Democrats won new seats. The hearings alone shocked the American public, and Nixon’s crimes were shoplifting compared to Bush’s. And although the Republicans lost seats after they impeached Clinton, consider the fact that Clinton was enormously popular at the time. The majority of the American people saw through the Republican’s sham. (We'll skip the trip in the WABAC Machine to the impeachment of Democrat Andrew Johnson, although that one didn't turn out to badly for the Republicans, either.)

So just have hearings, please? Have a hearing, maybe? Ask some questions. See where the momentum goes. Is that too much to ask to protect and defend our Constitution? PULEEEEEZE?