Sheila Jackson Lee denies Bush impeachment efforts of 2008 during Obama lawsuit debate
The House Republicans continue to pressure the White House with a lawsuit and during the floor debate over authorizing the lawsuit against Obama, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, suggested that Democrats had the moral high ground.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee during debate of the impeachment of President Bush in 2008 photo/YouTube
Even though some Democrats had thought that President George W. Bush had abused his authority when he initiated the Iraq War, the House, while under Democratic control in 2007 and 2008, did not impeach him.
The current resolution to authorize a lawsuit, Jackson Lee said in a floor speech on July 30, 2014, “smacks against the Constitution, which says there are three equal branches of government. Therefore, the executive has the right to perform his duties. I ask my colleagues to oppose this resolution for it is, in fact, a veiled attempt for impeachment, and it undermines the law that allows the president to do his job. It is a historical fact that President Bush pushed this nation into a war that had little to do with apprehending terrorists. We did not seek an impeachment of President Bush because as an executive, he had his authority. President Obama has the authority.”
A reader asked us to check whether it’s accurate for Jackson Lee to say, “We did not seek an impeachment of President Bush.”
A dozen House Democrats in 2008 did introduce a resolution seeking the impeachment of Bush. And Jackson Lee was one of the measure’s 11 co-sponsors. (Emphasis added, the Dispatch)
The measure in question was H. Res. 1258, introduced by then-Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, on June 10, 2008. The resolution — a 167-page laundry list of criticisms — accused Bush of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” citing numerous “abuses of power” related to his prosecution of the war in Iraq and the fight against global terrorism, among other topics.
The Daily Caller linked to a YouTube video of Jackson Lee speaking during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in 2008, explaining her support for impeaching the then-president.
“I do believe we have a very firm basis of suggesting high crimes and misdemeanors because the impeachment inquiry made in this body – the Judiciary Committee – is what it is,” she said at the time.
