My (probably overlong) email to John Conyers

...which BTW I ALSO attempted to send to the email address posted on DU yesterday to Kucinich in response to his request for same.. <impeachment@dennis4president.com> .. BUT it was RETURNED as "undeliverable". WTF's up with that?

Dear Representatives Kucinich and Conyers,

Thank goodness our Founding Fathers had the foresight and wisdom to provide legal means in the US Constitution for holding public officials accountable should they break the law and egregiously abuse their authority. That remedy, of course, is Impeachment. There are no other legal means for dealing with officials in our highest offices who repeatedly behave as though they are "above the law" thereby abusing the powers granted them by the people . There can be little doubt that Vice President Cheney has committed high crimes, by both deliberately manipulating and manufacturing "intelligence" to justify waging an ill-conceived, aggressive and illegal war against Iraq. Plus, as if that were not enough, was it not illegal for Cheney to participate in the "outing" of a key Middle East CIA operative, Valerie Plame Wilson, thus putting her, along with her "assets", at great personal risk, as well as setting back US Intelligence efforts in the ME at a most inopportune moment in history.

Thank goodness too that the American public now recognizes that it has become imperative for the US House of Representatives to use its tools granted under the law of the land to reign in the Vice President's criminal behavior: as far back as July of this year, a solid 54% of the American public favored proceeding with Impeachment proceedings against the Vice President. And here we are 4 months later with a golden opportunity to do just that, thanks to the over-weaned arrogance of the GOP that motivated them to attempt to help a minority of Democrats force a debate on the issue.

Thirdly, thank goodness we have recent historical precedents: "When all is said, the only sure antidote for future Watergates is understanding of fundamental principles and intellectual and moral integrity in the men and women who achieve or are entrusted with government or political power." These are the words of Senator Samuel J. Ervin, Jr. from The Senate Watergate Report. In the "Introduction" to the historic Ervin Committee Report, it notes that one of the critical functions of the Congress is "to inform the public of any wrongdoing or abuses" of power they find the members of the executive office have committed. (see pages 39-42). This congressional duty "should be preferred even to its legislation function," according to President Woodrow Wilson (Congressional Government; page 303). This view, which the Ervin Committee said "cannot be over-emphasized," is also a well-documented part of case law as determined in two USSC cases: {2} Watkins v. United States, 354 US 178, 200 (1957); and {2} United States v. Rumely, 345 US 41, 43 (1953).

There is too much at stake now in America's current struggle to preserve our democratic institutions and constitutional integrity for the House of Representatives to simply decide it has "more important business" than to uphold the laws of the land. In fact to shrink from holding impeachment hearings would be, in effect, to put yourselves "above the law" as "hear no evil, see no evil" enablers of this Vice President's criminal behavior. Please uphold your sworn duty to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States against it's adversaries, both foreign and domestic. Please perform your sworn duty to hold impeachment hearings against the Vice President.

Thank you for hopefully listening to our Watergate-era predecessors, to our founding fathers, and to the American people.