Dear Madam Speaker:
On April 24 of this year, Congressman Kucinich introduced articles of impeachment against Vice President Cheney. I am writing to ask you to put the full weight of the House Democratic Leadership behind this legislation.
Congressman Kucinich has pointed out that the Vice President was at the heart of the drive to take America to war under false pretenses, namely that Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons and other WMD, and that he was an ally of al-Qaeda. Neither of these allegations were true. It has already been documented how Cheney paid visits to CIA headquarters in the pre-war period, and even if he did not directly pressure officers and analysts to give him the answers he wanted to hear, it has become clear that no one who told him the truth would get promoted. The so-called Downing Street Memo -- the minutes of a meeting where the head of British Intelligence told the Prime Minister that the Bush Administration was manipulating intelligence -- was the first smoking gun.
Retired General William Odom, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, and former Vice President Al Gore have all called the war in Iraq the greatest strategic disaster in American history. Over 3500 American soldiers have died in a war that has weakened our nation. Only God knows how many more have come home without limbs or suffering from traumatic stress. That does not even begin to count casualties suffered by our allies or by the Iraqis.
Speaker Pelosi, Congress will never be able to support the troops by ending the war until the Vice President is impeached by the House and removed from office by the Senate.
Moreover, Vice President Cheney has championed the use of torture -- the single most dangerous thing any American official could have done to endanger our troops since Custer's Last Stand. I'm sure I don't have to go into great detail about the immorality of torture. Not only is it against everything America stands for and forbidden by the Eighth Amendment, anyone broken under torture will say anything his captors want him to say, thus producing inaccurate intelligence. Furthermore, if we use torture, our own soldiers will be in greater danger of torture should they be captured by foreign powers. Dick Cheney has grossly distorted the words of the Constitution, insisting that the President's role as commander-in-chief of the armed forces grants him dictatorial powers, placing him above the law, above treaties signed by the United States, and above the Constitution. Cheney's "unitary executive" theory insists that the President can order torture. Cheney's lawyers, including David Addington (his current chief of staff) and Lewis Libby (who has since been convicted of perjury and obstructing justice) helped produce the "torture memos," clear violations of the War Crimes Act. This was the second smoking gun.
The Torture Memos created a legal ambiguity that would have been unthinkable before Cheney became Vice President. Bush Administration lawyers -- including Alberto Gonzales -- actually argued that the President has the power to order torture, and that any law forbidding torture is unconstitutional. Although everyone in the world (except, perhaps, Rush Limbaugh) was sickened by the photos of Abu Ghraib -- where Cheney's ideas on torture were put into practice and made it into the public eye -- Cheney still got exactly what he wanted. Instead of Congress immediately moving to investigate who was responsible for this -- an action that would have led to demands for Cheney's resignation -- Americans have actually been debating how cruelly a prisoner can be abused before it constitutes torture.
There is no question that the methods that Cheney championed -- including kidnapping, waterboarding, rape, beatings, and sleep deprivation -- are criminal acts. Indeed, when Congress passed the McCain Amendment, President Bush wrote in a signing statement -- authored by Cheney and his staff -- that he would break it whenever he saw fit. This was the third smoking gun.
Osama Bin Laden wishes to trick the world into believing that America is a greedy, hypocritical empire. Cheney's ludicrous claim that it-isn't-torture-when-we-do-it has played right into Bin Laden's hands.
Cheney and his staff are likewise directly responsible for the President's claim that he can lock up any American citizen forever, without evidence, charge, counsel, trial, judge, or jury, simply by declaring them an "enemy." This was done in the cases of Yesir Hamdi and Jose Padilla. Cheney and his people do not understand that we must deal with criminals legally, by charging them with crimes and putting them on trial. If the President breaks the law, it creates a precedent of lawlessness -- and will turn the United States into a dictatorship like the Soviet Union. The USSR had laws on the books protecting freedom of speech, for instance, but those laws were a sham. That must not happen here.
Retired Admiral Stansfield Turner said in 2005 that he was "embarrassed the United States has a vice president for torture." How many more smoking guns do we have to find? Madam Speaker, it is imperative that we bring the Bush-Cheney disaster to a halt. I understand that you consider impeachment off the table, and that you believe Bush and Cheney's crimes can be addressed through legislation. This strategy has clearly not worked. It will not work because Cheney considers the President to be above the law. Congress, in his eyes, is nothing more than a vehicle to give him what he wants.
Congress must use its power to investigate and expose Cheney's crimes; the Vice President must then be impeached. How many more of his high crimes and misdemeanors will be allowed to go unchecked?
Concerns about impeachment dividing the public are unrealistic. For the past five years, Cheney has lied to the American public by claiming a link between al-Qaeda and Iraq. Karl Rove has likewise proclaimed that anyone who thinks going to war in Iraq was a mistake must be a traitor. These lies have already divided the public between those who follow Bush and Cheney out of party loyalty and those who understand the truth.
Congress is also divided into two camps: those who support the President, and those who understand that his policies are killing our soldiers and harming our country. It may take decades to repair the damage Cheney has caused, but we can stop him from committing more crimes by removing him from office.
Earlier this week, Senator Richard Lugar finally put the good of the nation above party loyalty, and gave a speech asking Bush and Cheney to get their heads out of the sand and face reality. When Congress fully investigates and exposes Cheney's crimes, the other Republicans will also be forced to choose between upholding our laws and enabling a torturer. If their consciences don't sway them -- if the fact that every member of Congress swears to uphold the Constitution does not sway them -- then an outraged electorate will force them to remove the Vice President from office, or to be voted out themselves.
I have heard that you believe impeaching Cheney would harm the chances of a Democrat being elected to the White House in 2008. History proves otherwise. Each time Congress has made serious moves to impeach a President -- Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton -- the impeaching party has gained the Presidency in the next election.
Madam Speaker, impeaching the Vice President is the only way to stop him from using the powers of his office to commit more crimes. You must put the weight of the House Democratic leadership behind Congressman Kucinich's resolution. If you do not, the Vice President will continue to have people tortured, and chances are the next President will do so as well. Cheney has slowly been accumulating dictatorial powers for the President. If he is not stopped, it will mean the end of our Constitution and our republic.
Yours sincerely,
C. Colvin