I am not sure about how other representatives in New Jersey stand on this issue. Perhaps it is somewhat telling that Rothman was the only Democrat present who mentioned impeachment, at least according to
this account from the local daily newspaper of a DFA meeting in northern New Jersey.
Speaking before an audience of Iraq war dissenters and presidential critics, Rep. Steve Rothman, D-Fair Lawn, pledged to support an inquiry into the possible impeachment of President Bush over the war in Iraq.
(more)
That offers a critical reason, Rothman told his applauding audience in Edgewater on Wednesday night, to elect Democrats in November.
"The only body that has the power to impeach the president is the House of Representatives," Rothman said Wednesday. "The effort, if I may be so bold, is to take back the House."
Rothman was part of a panel convened by Democracy for America -- a political action committee founded by Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean -- to discuss strategies for disengaging U.S troops from Iraq.
The group, gathered in a gymnasium, included Rep. Rush Holt, D-Hopewell, and Paul Aronsohn, who is seeking to unseat Republican Rep. Scott Garrett in the 5th District.
...
"This November," Rothman said, "you can get a new prosecutor and a new police force and charge with a crime and have a trial."
He added later: "We will hold all those hearings, including one in which we look at whether an impeachable offense occurred."
Aronsohn, who is running in a district where 57 percent of voters supported President Bush's reelection in 2004, did not go so far as to call for such an inquiry, but said that a Democratic Congress would ensure a better check on the Republican president.
"There is nothing more egregious that a commander-in-chief can do than to mislead a nation into war," Aronsohn said.
He said Thursday that he would support a thorough public review and analysis of U.S. operations in Iraq.
"The Republican leadership has quashed any real debate on the issue," he said.
Rothman is one of New Jersey's reliably liberal Democrats. I expect nothing less from him, but still, it was a welcome surprise to see this headline. The readers of this newspaper are, as are the readers of many local dailies, older. Also, judging from the Letters to the Editor page, are from some of the more conservative communities in northern New Jersey, particularly because Bergen County is one of the wealthiest counties in the country and also because this newspaper has long been trying to push its circulation into northwestern New Jersey, home to many Bush supporters. This region of New Jersey is where conservative Rep. Scott Garrett is from, and I believe they are the reason his district voted almost 60 percent for Bush in 20002004.
However, Bush's approval ratings in New Jersey are hovering somewhere around the 30 percent mark. Perhaps this has led to Rothman to feel more comfortable uttering the "I" word. Of course he was in a friendly audience, which helps.
What's the funniest is the Republicans' responses, both locally and nationally:
"My opponent has never been to Iraq. He prefers to criticize from his lofty perch in his air-conditioned office in Capitol Hill," said Vince Micco, Rothman's GOP challenger. Micco served in Iraq as an Army sergeant between April 2003 and April 2004.
Micco said he would have liked to present his side of the Iraq war story, to talk about his counterintelligence work and his interaction with what he described as grate- ful Iraqi families.
"The younger the people are, the more they embrace America and democracy," he said "The Iraqi children love us like we're celebrities, and when they run the country in 10 to 15 years we're going to have a great ally."
Micco said of the forum: "They're not looking for objective commentary. ... They're just a bunch of people who want to get together to toe the liberal, left-wing line of cut and run. I think it's wrong for our national security."
They just don't get it, or they deliberately change the focus of the debate. It could be both, I mean many of them ARE idiots but many are also obfuscators and liars. I'm through trying to figure them out individually. Anyway, it's not about how much the Iraqi children love us (which I bet outside of the Kurdish regions is very little), it's about how we got to Iraq in the first place.
Then a genius from the NRCC pipes in:
John Randall, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, dismissed Democratic talk of impeachment and Iraq withdrawal as a weak election platform.
"They're devoid of ideas," he said. "But they're big on slogans"
Cut-and-run? Sounds like a slogan to me. So does "devoid of ideas." I think they are devoid of new slogans.