Thanks for posting your letter. Recc'd cause I can!!

The 35 articles are posted just below your diary, courtesy of moi.

Thanks for the diary!  This really does matter!

Congressman Maurice D. Hinchey
United States House of Representatives
New York, 22nd District

Dear David:

Thank you for contacting me regarding impeachment. I apologize for the delay in my response, but the hundreds of phone calls, letters, and emails I receive each week sometimes makes it difficult for me to respond in a timely manner.  I do, however, appreciate hearing from you and welcome the opportunity to respond.

I thoroughly agree with you.  For the past five years, I have repeatedly stated that this is the most impeachable administration in the history of the United States.  However, I am only one member of the U.S. House of Representatives and I do not have the power to single-handedly impeach this president and vice president.

In order to remove President Bush and Vice President Cheney from office, articles of impeachment would have to pass two-thirds of the House, and the Senate would have to vote to convict them.  The likelihood of a measure to impeach either the president or the vice president passing the House is slim.  Even if impeachment articles were somehow able to pass the House and be up for consideration in the Senate, it would be impossible to get 67 senators to convict them given the current makeup of that chamber.  If impeachment articles were to be taken under consideration and then stalled in either the House or the Senate, the Bush administration would consider that failure to act by Congress to be a vindication.  It is likely that the administration would use that failure to advertise the fact that they have not been convicted of any violations of law and have not committed any impeachable offenses. We cannot afford to give them that opportunity because the truth is that this administration has disgraced the Constitution and betrayed the rule of law.

So as frustrated as I am with these circumstances, I do not think pushing for impeachment, under the present set of circumstances here in the Congress, is the right solution.  However, I will support any impeachment resolution that comes to the House floor as I did on November 6, 2007 when Congressman Kucinich brought his impeachment bill up for a vote under a privileged resolution.  I assure you, I have been working hard to expose the wrongs of this administration.

In case you are interested, at the end of this letter, I have included a short list of some of the ways in which I have stood up to the administration to expose its injustices.  I assure you that I will continue to fight against the egregious abuses of this administration.

Thank you again for contacting me.  Your comments and concerns are always welcome.  I also encourage you to visit my website, www.house.gov/hinchey, where you can learn more about my latest efforts in Congress on your behalf.

Best regards.

                                                           Sincerely,

Maurice D. Hinchey

Please do not reply to this e-mail, it is an unattended email address.  If you wish to send a response to Congressman Hinchey, please go to www.house.gov/hinchey/contact/.

The information contained in this message is the property of the United States Congress, confidential and intended only for the use of the addressee.  If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any unauthorized dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited.

Congressman Maurice Hinchey

Holding the Bush Administration Accountable

October 2002-- I voted against giving the president authority to use military force against Iraq, because I did not believe that Iraq presented an imminent threat to our national security.  The Bush administration's handling of the invasion and subsequent military occupation has been one of the great travesties in modern U.S. foreign policy.

August 17, 2005, Along with the Ranking Member Conyers (now Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee),  I called on United States Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn A. Fine to launch an investigation into whether former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft violated explicit conflict of interest rules by not immediately recusing himself from the C.I.A. leak investigation involving Valerie Plame.

September 15, 2005, I led a broad congressional coalition requesting that U.S. Department of Justice Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald expand his investigation of who in the Bush administration revealed to the news media that Valerie Plame, the wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson, was a covert agent for the Central Intelligence Agency.  I urged Fitzgerald, who was designated as special counsel for the case, to examine the causes behind the exposure of Plame's identity --specifically, the Bush administration's false and fraudulent claims in January 2003 that Iraq had sought uranium for a nuclear weapon, which the administration used as one of its key grounds to justify the invasion of Iraq.  

November 3, 2005, Along with the Ranking Member Henry Waxman (now Chairman of the House Government Reform Committee) and Ranking Member John Conyers (now Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee), I called on Vice President Cheney to appear before Congress to discuss his involvement in the disclosure of CIA operative Valerie Wilson's identity.  

November 10, 2005, I introduced a House resolution that would require the White House to present Congress with all drafts and documents related to the crafting of President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address in which he falsely stated Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger.  

The first session of the 110th Congress, I voted nine times to change course in Iraq.  I will continue to speak out against the occupation of Iraq and demand that President Bush be held responsible for his actions.  If we fail to do so, we will continue to leave the door open for further violations of law and constitutional principles by this administration.  I will fight to bring the full truth out regarding the motives for going into Iraq, our behavior in Iraq post-invasion, and our plans for the future in the Middle East.

January 9, 2006, I led a group of three other House members requesting that the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) investigate how the NSA's warrantless surveillance program came about and what the Department of Justice's role was in the program.  

January 20, 2006, On the eve of President Bush's State of the Union address, I led a group of ten other members calling for the president to fact check his speech  in order to avoid making false claims like he did in his 2003 address.  

February 2, 2006, The Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility informed me that it agreed to open an investigation of the agency's role in the NSA warrantless surveillance program.

May 11, 2006, After learning that the OPR investigation regarding the Department of Justice's role in the illegal wiretapping program was halted, I wrote a letter to OPR seeking to uncover who stopped this investigation.  

June 15, 2006, I renewed my effort to investigate the possible criminal violations behind the Bush administration's false uranium claims to Congress by writing another letter to Special Counsel Fitzgerald, asking him to once again expand his investigation concerning the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity.

November 26, 2007, In response to my requests, the U.S Department of Justice Inspector General opens an investigation into the agency's involvement with the NSA warrantless surveillance program.  

January 25, 2007, I led a congressional effort calling on the U.S. Department of Justice Inspector General to expand his investigation of the NSA warrantless spy program to help determine why the Bush administration suddenly reversed its policy and allowed the NSA spy program to be subject to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approval. The letter also asked the Inspector General to examine a series of specific questions related to the creation and evolution of the warrantless surveillance program.  

March 6, 2007, In response to the guilty verdicts handed down in the I. Lewis Scooter Libby case, I called for a federal investigation to pursue possible criminal charges against Vice President Cheney.  

March 15, 2007, I demanded answers from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales after a National Journal article revealed that he worked to block an internal Department of Justice investigation regarding the department's role in the NSA warrantless wiretapping program after realizing he was a subject of the investigation.  

August 4, 2007, I voted against the so called "Protect America Act," which was written in a way that would allow the warrantless surveillance of Americans.

August 6, 2007, I introduced resolutions censuring the President Bush, Vice President Cheney and then Attorney General Gonzales for their misconduct leading up to and during military involvement in Iraq, and for undermining the rule of law.  

November 11, 2007, I supported Congressman Kucinich's impeachment bill when it came up for a vote on the House floor under a privileged resolution.

February 14, 2008, I voted to hold White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolton in contempt for refusing to provide materials and testify before Congress regarding the U.S. Attorney scandal.  

May 15, 2008, I voted against spending another $162.5 billion for military operations primarily in Iraq, and voted in favor of setting a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.