Olver, Neal won't impeach Cheney

By Mary Carey
Staff Writer

Published on August 10, 2007

Democratic activist Tim Carpenter, of Northampton, was in Washington, D.C., recently to hand presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich a petition signed by 100,000 people asking Congress to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney.

Fifteen of 435 members of Congress have signed onto Kucinich's bill, House Resolution 333, outlining reasons for impeaching Cheney.

Western Massachusetts congressional representatives Richard Neal and John Olver aren't among them.

Olver and Neal are out of touch with their constituents on the subject, Carpenter said, noting that 54 percent of Americans are in favor of impeaching Cheney and 48 percent want to impeach Bush, according to recent polls by the American Research Group.

Carpenter said he is still working to secure Olver's support. Olver met with 20 activists on July 5 and told them he thinks the president and vice president should be impeached, but there are not enough votes to accomplish it. He said the 110th Congress needs to focus on other issues.

Neal, so far, has not shown a willingness to meet with constituents to discuss the subject, said Carpenter.

Carpenter is the national director of Progressive Democrats of America, which has been advocating impeachment for more than a year.

Les Patlove, of Shelburne Falls, who was among the activists who met with Olver, said the congressman seemed to be locked into the position that impeachment is "off the table," as U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, and U.S. Rep. John Conyers, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, have declared.

Patlove shares Carpenter's optimism that Olver can be convinced. "I think he does listen and he can be moved," Patlove said.

The activists do not buy the argument that Congress cannot impeach Cheney and Bush and get other things done as well.

"During Nixon's impeachment, Congress succeeded in passing the Environmental Protection Act and significant civil rights legislation," Carpenter said. "To say that Congress can't chew gum and walk at the same time is a disservice to Congress."

Olver, in 2005, was one of 38 members of Congress to sign House Resolution 635, calling for an investigation of the Bush administration's war and to make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment.

Some area activists were disappointed, therefore, that Olver has not signed on to House Resolution 333 to impeach Cheney, despite saying at the meeting with constituents that he could envision the United States attacking Iran and Bush declaring martial law, suspending the 2008 elections.

"It was just astounding," said Emily West, of Amherst, an impeachment activist who was not at the meeting but heard about it.

Like Olver, members of the Amherst Democratic Town Committee have been torn about whether to press for impeachment or focus on getting American military forces out of Iraq.

West was the only member of the Democratic Town Committee's subcommittee on impeachment to vote against disbanding earlier this year.

Recently, though, people who said they weren't in favor of pressing for impeachment then, have told her they have come around to thinking it's necessary, West said.

"The momentum has picked up. I'm seeing more information out there. People are talking more about it," West said.

"Impeachment activists are focusing on Cheney rather than Bush because it will be easier to make a case against him, West said. Kucinich's House Resolution 333 lays out three Articles of Impeachment for Cheney - that he fabricated a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, that he manipulated intelligence in claiming a link between al-Qaida and Iraq and that he is threatening to wage war against Iran.

Patlove said he can't see backing down from the push to impeach now. "We feel like it's a real crisis situation," he said. "These are extraordinary times."

Mary Carey can be reached at mary.carey@att.net.