Rep. Peter DeFazio Calls Bush-Cheney Impeachment Efforts "Misguided" - But, Go for the Gonzo!

Impeachment debates
JOHN SOWELL

SUTHERLIN — Efforts to impeach President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are misguided, U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio said Monday. Such efforts would be better served, he said, going after Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

While the Springfield Democrat said he shares “a lot of the anger that people have about what this administration has done and is doing,” DeFazio said that the actions most frequently mentioned as possible grounds for impeachment were items approved by Congress.

He told an audience of about 50 people at the Sutherlin Community Center and about double that later at the Seven Feathers Convention Center in Canyonville that the administration has been criticized over the war in Iraq. However, that was an action authorized by Congress, said DeFazio, who voted against the war.

The use of torture by government agents has also been mentioned as a possible impeachable offense. DeFazio said the Republican-led Congress approved legislation late last year that retroactively allowed torture and allowed pardons for anyone engaged in that activity.

He said impeachment proceedings against former President Bill Clinton for lying about his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky tied up Congress for five months and virtually shut down all other business.

“You would see something similar if not a longer paralysis,” DeFazio said.

An impeachment of Cheney would actually provide Bush and the Republicans with an advantage, DeFazio said. If he were removed from office, Bush could appoint Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney or Condoleezza Rice, who would “continue his legacy” and give that person an advantage for the 2008 presidential campaign.

DeFazio said Gonzales “perjured himself before the Congress and committed other offenses” and should be impeached. The attorney general has been embattled over his role in the firing of nine U.S. attorneys.

Gonzales has also provided legal advice that says the president can basically do whatever he wants, without congressional approval. That, DeFazio said, is a “severe misreading of the Constitution.”

“If we could bring it up, we might even pass that. Better still, he might resign. If he resigns, then we get the Justice Department back. That means that the subpoenas that Congress issues would then be enforced. Alberto Gonzales is refusing to enforce our subpoenas.”

With Gonzales gone, Congress would also have a better chance of appointing a special prosecutor to look into the actions of the administration and determine whether anything illegal has gone on, he said.

DeFazio speaks with audience members following his Town Hall meeting in Sutherlin Monday. The Democratic Congressman also spoke in Canyonville Monday and will appear in Roseburg tonight.

DeFazio bemoaned the continued presence of huge campaign war chests compiled by members of Congress fueled largely by the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. DeFazio told the audience at both the Sutherlin and Canyonville gatherings that private money should be banned from congressional campaigns and a modest amount of money be provided to the candidates by the government itself.

He criticized the insurance industry for refusing to make good on claims filed by homeowners after Hurricane Katrina. He said Congress should look at revoking the exemption to antitrust laws given to the insurance industry. The only other entity with the same exemption is Major League Baseball, he said.

In answer to a question about the oil industry, DeFazio said the oil companies should be broken up the same way they were a century ago. He said the industry is controlled by too few companies — with only three distributors in Oregon where there used to be 11 — and that has led to price gouging.

He disagreed with a questioner who felt that imposition of a royalty or a windfall profits tax would just get passed on to consumers, raising the price of gasoline even further.

With a reasonable royalty, maybe Exxon would have given retiring chairman Lee Raymond only a $10 million retirement package rather than the $400 million one they gave him, including the continued use of a corporate jet, DeFazio said.

“If you hit them, they might not be able to pass that on if you make it into a truly competitive industry,” he said.