September 12, 2007

Dear Mr. Colvin:

Knowing of your strong concerns regarding the actions of the current Administration, I am writing to update you on this critical issue. I agree that the Administration must be held accountable, and I am working with the Congress to do so.

Impeachment

The new Democratic majority in Congress is working to take the country in a New Direction - change the failed policy in Iraq, make America safer and more secure, raise the minimum wage, promote energy independence, address global warming, make college more affordable, respond to the health care crisis and make government more accountable.

We are continuing to fight for change every day on these and other issues to improve the lives of all Americans. There is no more important task before us than to bring our troops home safely and soon, and we will continue to work to do so. However, I believe impeachment proceedings against the President or the Vice President will not contribute to attaining that goal.

Congressional Oversight

The Constitution gives the Congress a crucial role in overseeing the Executive Branch in order to protect the American people against overreaching, incompetence, and corruption.

For the last six years, under Republican leadership, Congress failed to conduct its proper oversight role and did not take action to address the extent of the mismanagement of our Iraq policy, widespread corruption by contractors in Iraq, and the failed response to Hurricane Katrina.

House Democrats are committed to conducting vigorous oversight, and have already passed
legislation to clean up government contracting abuses and 'no bid' contracts that companies like Halliburton and KBR have made infamous, protect the public's right to know by strengthening
The Freedom of Information Act, and restore "checks and balances" by investigating the military health care crisis, Iraq and Hurricane Katrina reconstruction failures, and the firing of U.S. Attorneys. Since the beginning of the 110th Congress, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has conducted more than 65 oversight hearings to look into allegations of fraud, waste and government corruption throughout the Bush Administration, and to demand changes in policies promoted by special interests and corrupt officials.

In the 110th Congress, Democrats in the House and Senate will continue to hold the Bush administration accountable for its actions. Please be assured that upholding Congress' constitutional responsibility to oversee the activities of the Executive Branch will continue to be among my highest priorities.

Sincerely,

Nancy Pelosi
Member of Congress

Dear Speaker Pelosi:

Thank you for writing about Congress' legal obligation to oversee the President's activities.

Like most Americans, I am very grateful that the Democrat-led Congress has finally implemented the recommendations of the September 11th Commission after the Bush Administration ignored them for over two years.

Bush and his associates have promised to act on urgent issues such as global warming and energy independence, but -- like most of Bush's rhetoric over the last seven years -- his promises have not led to action. It is imperative that Congress act on climate change, and I am grateful for your efforts so far. Pollution and American dependence on oil continue to be major problems, and I am looking forward to continued Congressional leadership on these issues. On these two matters, at least, the Democrat majority Congress must continue to lead, because George W. Bush and Dick Cheney will not. Both Bush and Cheney are both former oil executives. They have spent their political careers using their positions to help big oil companies, often at the expense of the public good. I am glad that you understand that Bush and Cheney are beholden to big oil, and since their political philosophy hinges on helping their friends, they will never change. Bush and Cheney will not lead; therefore, Congress must. As Speaker of the House, you are the most powerful and visible member of Congress. I salute you for your leadership on these issues, and I am looking forward to further progress.

I am also glad that you agree that Bush and Cheney must be held accountable for their failed policies in Iraq. However, it is clear that you do not fully understand Bush's ideology on the Iraq war. On July 12th, you said "what is needed and what the American people are demanding is a new direction... We will repeat that judgment legislatively as often as necessary... until pressure from the American people causes the President to change his mind and his policies."

On August 21, 2006, George W. Bush vowed: "We're not leaving, so long as I'm the president." His philosophy is simple. He honestly believes that if the occupation continues, it means we're winning, and if we leave, we've lost. Because Bush has convinced himself of this -- and will not consider any evidence otherwise -- he is psychologically incapable of facing up to his mistakes and bringing our troops home.

In making the decision to invade Iraq, our intelligence professionals and the weapons inspectors showed Bush mountains of evidence that Iraq had no significant stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. Instead of believing the professionals, Bush chose to believe the claims of convicted embezzler Ahmed Chalabi and the known fabricator codenamed "Curveball." 

In the five years since, Bush has not changed. Instead, he has become entrenched. Virtually all of the experts now agree that Iraq has descended into a three-way civil war between the Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds; that the Iraqi government is hopelessly corrupt and has no ability to govern; and that our continued presence there is only making the situation worse. More to the point, every poll taken of the Iraqi people in the last four years indicates that an overwhelming majority of Iraqis want us to leave. Our troops have done their job, and it is time for them to come home.

Instead of listening to the experts, however, Bush intends to stay in Iraq forever, or at least until he leaves office. All the Republicans running for President (with the exception of Congressman Paul) agree with him. Last year, then-Defense Secretary Rumsfeld estimated the Iraq occupation would continue until 2019. Earlier this week, General Petraeus suggested it will continue until 2017. How many more repeat tours will our troops have to make, with no significant time off? Several retired generals have already stated that, with combat fatigue, keeping our troops in Iraq through the next decade is simply not possible.

Speaker Pelosi, in late May, the Congress bowed to pressure from Bush and gave him another $120 billion to fight his war. Congress' oversight failed. You gave Bush everything he wanted to carry out the same failed policy he has used since the fall of Baghdad. Last year, the Democrats retook control of Congress precisely because the American people had enough of Congress giving blank checks to a President who refuses to face the facts. But instead of terminating war funding and rescinding Bush's authority to use force in Iraq, you did exactly what your Republican predecessors did and gave Bush everything he wanted. Only 33% of Americans approve of Bush, according to the latest polls -- and Congress' approval ratings are even lower. Madam Speaker, you and your colleagues were elected to end this war. End it.

In your letter, you wrote that "I believe impeachment proceedings against the President or the Vice President will not contribute to attaining that goal." Madam Speaker, you are dead wrong. Impeaching Bush and Cheney will not hinder your efforts to end the war. On the contrary, it is the only way you will succeed.

Your statement that impeachment is "off the table" has, in fact, emboldened Bush and Cheney. As they know Congress will not prosecute the crimes they've committed thus far -- or take any serious steps to prevent any crimes in the future -- Bush and Cheney have continued breaking the law with impunity.

One of Bush and Cheney's most blatant crimes has been wiretapping Americans who have no known connection to terrorism without first obtaining a search warrant. Instead of impeaching the President and Vice President and prosecuting those who carried out these illegal wiretaps, Congress passed the so-called Protect America Act last month. Your new law essentially legalizes Bush's crimes -- although the law certainly violates the Fourth Amendment. What if Congress had passed a law in 1974 giving Nixon's Committee to Re-Elect the President blanket authority to burglarize any building in America? The so-called Protect America Act is the moral equivalent of legalizing Watergate.

Bush and Cheney have bet their careers and their legacy on our troops staying in Iraq forever. Since Bush and Cheney will never change their minds, our nation is stuck on the course they have plotted. Unfortunately, their ship of state is the Titanic, and their war in Iraq has already crashed into the iceberg of reality. The Bush Presidency is sinking, but it is our troops who don't have enough lifeboats. As of this writing, nearly 4,000 of our soldiers have already died -- because our President sent them into the middle of someone else's civil war, a war that he had no idea how to win. Indeed, five years of fighting a war without any realistic military strategy has meant disaster. Even though there's nothing more our troops can do, George W. Bush has ordered them to stay in Iraq and die because he refuses to face the facts.

Bush believes that staying in Iraq means victory. In fact, the opposite is true: staying in Iraq equals defeat. Bush's incompetence has guaranteed that.

Madam Speaker, since President Bush and Vice President Cheney refuse to face reality, the only recourse is for Congress to act. Impeaching Bush and Cheney is the only way to end the war, for Bush will keep his vow. We're not leaving, so long as he's President. There is nothing anyone can say or do to change Bush's mind or his policies. Moreover, Bush and Cheney have violated all ten articles of the Bill of Rights and many other Constitutional mandates. In addition, Bush has used signing statements to violate over a thousand other laws. (My enclosed essay "George W. Bush Versus the Bill of Rights" is a full accounting of Bush's betrayal of the Constitution.)

Speaker Pelosi, when taking office, every member of Congress swears an oath to uphold the Constitution. Impeaching Bush and Cheney is not only your moral duty, but is your legal obligation. If you will not carry out your responsibility as the Constitution mandates -- your responsibility to impeach and remove from office a President and Vice President who have committed high crimes and misdemeanors -- then you should resign.

I salute your efforts to carry out another Constitution-mandated responsibility of Congress, that of oversight. However, if Congress chooses to remain impotent, oversight in and of itself will not be enough. For instance: in May, Deputy Attorney General James Comey testified that then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales had visited then Attorney General Ashcroft in the hospital. Gonzales demanded that Ashcroft approve Bush's wiretapping without search warrants -- an act so blatantly illegal that even Ashcroft, a champion of Presidential power, refused to go along with it. Congress' oversight revealed this, but the House Democratic Leadership did nothing. For two months it was public knowledge that the current Attorney General of the United States had been at the center of a conspiracy to violate the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Finally, after two months of having an unrepentant criminal as the top law enforcement officer of this nation, Congressman Inslee finally introduced a measure to impeach him. Gonzales resigned a month later. This in and of itself proves that impeachment is the only way to deal with criminal wrongdoing in the executive branch.

Speaker Pelosi, you wrote that "Democrats in the House and Senate will continue to hold the Bush administration accountable for its actions." How have Bush and Cheney been held accountable so far? One of their greatest crimes has been to wiretap Americans without first obtaining search warrants, as is forbidden by the Fourth Amendment and the FISA act. Instead of holding them accountable, you legalized their behavior. (A number of columnists wrote that the Democrats gave into Bush for fear of being labeled "soft on terror." Madam Speaker, the Republicans are going to call the Democrats "soft on terror" no matter what you do. Of course, it was the Democrats, not the Republicans, who implemented the September 11th Commission's recommendations -- but to the Republicans, the Democrats will always be "soft on terror," regardless of the facts.)

You also wrote that "upholding Congress' constitutional responsibility to oversee the activities of the Executive Branch will continue to be among my highest priorities." Madam Speaker, so far, you have overseen the President and Vice President breaking the law, and have done nothing about it. Bush and Cheney will continue to use the great power of their offices to commit more crimes until they are removed from office.

Madam Speaker, it is true that Bush and Cheney are Constitutionally required to leave office in January 2009. The question is: how many more signing statements will you allow the President to use between now and then, claiming to be above the law? How many more people will you allow Bush and Cheney to kidnap with no charge, send to Guantanamo with no access to a lawyer, and then tried under the Military Commissions Act where coerced "confessions" can be admitted as evidence? How many more people will suffer inhuman abuse under the Bush Administration's position that beating and waterboarding do not constitute torture? How many more American troops will die in Iraq because the President and Vice President have staked their careers on denying the facts? Bush and Cheney may be able to get away with denying reality in the pristine surroundings of the White House, but our soldiers stuck in Iraq have no such luxury.

Speaker Pelosi, all of the Republican presidential candidates -- with the exception of Congressman Paul -- agree with Bush's contention that the President is above the law, that the Constitution does not apply to him, and that he has the authority to violate the Geneva Conventions and to order wiretaps without search warrants. All the Republicans except Paul and Senator McCain agree with Bush's sociopathic claim that when the President orders that detainees be waterboarded it isn't really "torture." If Congress will not impeach Bush and Cheney when they break the law, then Congress will not impeach the next President if he or she commits the same crimes, and it means the end of freedom in our nation.

Moreover, only one Democratic presidential candidate -- Congressman Kucinich -- has stated that Cheney should be impeached and removed from office for lying to Congress. Since no other candidate will protest Bush's and Cheney's violations of the law and the Constitution, it is only reasonable to assume that the Democratic candidates, too, would use the Presidency to kidnap and torture people abroad and to spy on innocent Americans without search warrants. If the Democratic Congress will not stop a Republican President and Vice President from breaking the law, then the Democratic Congress certainly would not stop a Democratic President from breaking the law. Frankly, the American people will not elect a Democratic president in 2008 to run amok with a subservient Congress of the same party the same way George W. Bush and Dick Cheney did from 2001-2006.

Speaker Pelosi, the only reason the Democrats were able to regain control of Congress last year was because Bush and Cheney bungled the occupation of Iraq. Bush and Cheney invaded Iraq under false pretenses -- namely, that Saddam Hussein was going to give weapons he didn't have to terrorists who wanted to kill him. Had Bush and Cheney had a competent and realistic plan for pacifying and rebuilding Iraq after Saddam's regime fell, it's possible the American public would not have realized the entire war was based on lies and would not have returned the opposition party to power. As it is, the Democrats gained control of Congress because the public was sick of a President who kept sending more and more troops into Iraq with no way to win.

You were elected to end the war and stop the President and Vice President from committing crimes, including illegal wiretaps. Instead, the Democratic Congress has enabled the President's war and legalized his warrantless eavesdropping. As a result, the Democrat-controlled Congress now has a lower approval rating than the President. Madam Speaker, if the Democrats will not defend the Constitution, then who will?

Speaker Pelosi, in our history, there have been three serious efforts to impeach a President. On each occasion, the impeaching party has won the White House in the next election. If the Democrats do not uphold the Constitution by impeaching Bush and Cheney, than it's more than likely that a Republican President and Congress will be elected in 2008. The philosophy of Bush, Cheney, and Gonzales -- the philosophy of Giuliani, Brownback, Huckabee, Hunter, Romney, Tancredo, and Thompson -- is that the President is above the law.

Madam Speaker, Bush and Cheney must be impeached. If you do not, then the Democrats will be voted out of power within four years. The only way to end the war is to impeach the President and the Vice President. Throughout their presidency, Bush and Cheney have used all of their strength to attack the Constitution. If the Democrats do not uphold the Constitution with all of your strength, it will mean the end of the Democratic party.

Yours sincerely,

C. Colvin

CC: Congressman George Miller; Congressman Steny H. Hoyer; Congressman John Conyers, Jr.