From NATIONAL IMPEACHMENT NETWORK

A delegation of National Impeachment Network (NIN) activists began lobbying Congress for impeachment on July 8. The delegation included: Tobi Dragert, Los Angeles Area Impeachment Center; Sandra Marshall, San Luis Obispo Impeachment Action; Janine Boneparth, Marin County Impeachment Group; and Cynthia Papermaster, California Impeachment Coalition.

We focused as a team on meeting with Representatives who publicly support impeachment, as evidenced, for example, by cosponsorship of H. Res. 333(799) or 1258, or Wexler’s letter to Conyers. Below are reports on face-to-face meetings with Representatives Dennis Kucinich D-OH, Robert Wexler D-FL, John Conyers D-IL, Lynn Woolsey D-CA, Walter Jones (a Republican!) R-NC, and Maurice Hinchey D-NY. We will follow up these meetings with "thank you" letters and reiterations of our requests.

A second team of NIN lobbyists starts work in DC July 15: Stuart Hutchison and Keith Armonaitis of New Jersey Impeach Groups, Susan Serpa of Northeast Impeachment Coalition and Cynthia Papermaster of California Impeachment Coalition.

Please contact Cynthia if lobbying is your calling and you can lobby this month or in September when we will resume the lobbying campaign [if hearings haven't started]. What if our efforts get the hearings started! Don't you want to be a part of this campaign?

cynthia_papermaster@yahoo.com; 510-333-6097

Your thoughts on how to improve this campaign are welcome. We can't think of everything, so if you have any brilliant ideas, please send them.

The strategy and message

We decided on a positive approach: thanking them, reminding them that we're on the same side, showing them how it will benefit them politically to impeach, giving them assurances of support.

We had two lobbying goals and requests for Representatives:

1. Introduce your own resolutions for impeachment
2. Lobby the Judiciary Committee to start hearings

It’s important to know the mood in Congress right now. Every Representative is running for re-election. They need money, and they need votes. Our strategy and message takes this into account. These are our talking points:

* We aren’t bringing them money and votes in the usual sense, but we are assuring them of abundant money and votes not only from grateful constituents but citizens nationwide if they start impeachment hearings. They will receive tremendous support.
* Hearings establishing that Cheney/Bush are guilty of impeachable offenses will help them and Obama tremendously in the elections, not create political blowback. McCain and many Republications will go down in defeat. This is a fantastic political opportunity for them.
* They will be considered national heroes for their part in this episode of U.S. history. They want to be heroes. We can help them feel the excitement and move them further.
* We thank them for their commitment to impeachment and emphasize once again that our numbers in the NIN and in the general population mean that their patriotic and energetic work for impeachment will be appreciated and supported nationwide.
* We ask them to tell Conyers to start hearings and to take the next step-- introducing their own resolutions for impeachment.
* We suggested selecting one of the impeachable offenses that resonates; perhaps the signing statements issue, or the one about the administration's refusal to honor subpoenas.

We give them a professional, polished velobound piece (attached) containing supporting materials, including sample resolutions for impeachment, a one-page list of the 35 articles for Bush, and "Starting Impeachment Hearings Via Congress' Nixon Impeachment Plan".

John Conyers, Chair of the Judiciary Committee [cynthia]

Conyers met with us for an hour. He talked about his love of jazz for the first 15 minutes.

He said he wanted to impeach. He said he wanted to personally serve Karl Rove with an inherent contempt citation. He said he would like to send the House Sergeant of Arms to arrest Rove. He said the decision to start hearings was up to him alone. He said he hasn't decided to start hearings or when he would decide. He said he wants us to invite him to come and speak at an event. (this could be significant) At one point I got down on my knees and beseeched him to start hearings. He asked his staff to take pictures of us with him, and he put his arm around me for one picture. He admired my "Impeach Bush and Cheney" button so I asked him if he would like to have it. He asked me to pin it on his lapel (see attached photo). He walked out of the meeting wearing it and was seen by a PDA (Progressive Democrats of America) leader who reported to PDA and democrats.com that he saw Conyers wearing the button. He arranged for reserved seats at the Judiciary Committee hearing where Rove didn't show up to give testimony on Justice Department irregularities re. the firing of U.S. Attorneys. The Committee voted to express their disapproval of Rove for not showing up, but they did NOT cite him for contempt and they did NOT arrest him.

Dennis Kucinich [sandra and cynthia]

Dennis met briefly with us. He said he wants support, cosponsors, and money for his re-election. He is facing a serious challenge for his seat.

He was very busy working on the impeachment resolution charging Bush with deliberately lying to Congress about Iraq-- the WMDs, connection with Al Qaeda, and the threat Iraq posed to us. We went to his press conference on Thursday announcing his new resolution to impeach Bush. Due to Sandra's special relationship with Dennis (she was on his campaign team in California] we were given special passes to sit in the House members' gallery section. We listened to his presentation of the resolution and afterwards had our picture taken with him in front of the capital.

Robert Wexler [cynthia]

Wexler met with us for about 20 minutes. He said he was considering introducing his own article of impeachment based on charge re. the administration's refusal to honor subpoenas. He said he was going to "huddle with his staff" on this. I pointed out that he could also introduce one or more resolutions simply directing the Judiciary Committee to start hearings and to ask other representatives to do the same, per the "Nixon Flooding Plan." He remembered meeting with the "We The People" impeachment group who presented the "Nixon Flooding Plan" idea to him. His Legislative Director Ellen was in the meeting and I spoke to her afterward. She is completely on top of this issue and told me that they are trying to get Congress members to stop thinking of the hurdles and start viewing impeachment as a simple one-two-three process. We were elated after this meeting; Wexler could introduce an impeachment resolution himself and didn't dismiss the idea out of hand. We'll follow up with his staff mid-week.

Lynn Woolsey [janine]

Jason Feld, Legislative Assistant (LA) in charge of impeachment (yes, she does have one!) in attendance. Jason received an overview of NIN and packet while waiting for Congresswoman to return for meeting. He did mention the volume of calls they get daily from the district on impeachment and how the trend is growing. Congresswoman seemed curious while non-committal on the idea, as Co-Chair of the Progressive Caucus, of her heading up a very real delegation of Congressional Progressive Caucus members calling for and proposing impeachment. She said that was a possibility. Same response on the idea of her writing her own resolution. She gave me her word she would read fully the NIN Impeachment Lobbying packet on the flight she was about to catch to California. Woolsey’s main point was that there is so little time left, and to that end she referenced the proposed adjournment date for 110thCongress of September 26, 2008. The time period from September 8, 2008 to September 26, 2008 will be intense with the push to address unfinished business, but those dates they have resolved to work 5-day weeks as opposed to the ongoing 3 l/2, so these will be important times.

Walter Jones, Republican [janine]

Congressman Jones mentioned before we even sat down that Dennis was about to introduce his resolution that evening and expressed regret that he would not be able to go down for Dennis’ press conference at 2:00. He is 100% supportive of Kucinich’s actions on impeachment. Most importantly, on May 8, 2008, Jones introduced HR 5993 “to promote congressional and public awareness, understanding and political accountability of presidential signing statements”. The bill awaits action in the Judiciary Committee.

Maurice Hinchey, D NY-22 [tobi]

We all four sat down with Congressman Hinchey's senior legislative assistant, Terra Sabag, and as we were beginning the meeting, the congressman himself joined us. He and the others we met with seemed very receptive to our visit. Congressman Hinchey stated he's been working on impeachment for several years, and was not certain why it had not gone forward yet. Hinchey is a recent cosponsor of H. Res. 1258, Dennis Kucinich's 35 Articles of Impeachment. We asked how our group of over 100,000 activists could help impeachment, and he replied that if even a small percentage of those 100,000 would lobby hard, it could likely be done. He and other congress members have indicated they do not feel there is sufficient public support, and without that, the members are reluctant to act. He does not want to introduce his own resolution to impeach and doesn't think other members will do this either.

Take Action:

Please call John Conyers and Nancy Pelosi to thank them for holding a hearing and insist that it be held VERY SOON.

House Judiciary Committee staff at 202-225-3951.

Chairman John Conyers (202) 225-5126 John.Conyers@mail.house.gov or JohnConyersJr@gmail.com fax 202-225-0072

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (202) 225-0100 sf.nancy@mail.house.gov or AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov



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