U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she’s drawing heat from fellow Democratic lawmakers as well as people across the nation for refusing to move to impeach President George W. Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney.
“I go through airports, and people have buttons as if they knew I was coming,” Pelosi said with a smile, mimicking a protester pointing to an “Impeach” button on their chest.
But the California Democrat said she is sticking to her position that trying to remove Bush or Cheney would be divisive, and she added, most likely unsuccessful. If the House voted to impeach Bush and Cheney, a two-thirds vote would be needed in the closely divided Senate to oust them.
Many Democrats and civil liberties groups have accused the Bush administration of misleading the United States into the Iraq war and violating the rights of U.S. citizens with its warrantless surveillance program. The White House denies the charges.
In helping Democrats win back control of Congress in 2006 from 
Republicans, Pelosi said she would not push for impeachment despite a number of calls to do so.
Speaking with reporters, she recalled that she wanted to focus on unifying the nation, passing the Democrats’ legislative agenda — not picking an impeachment fight with the White House.
“It was my belief that an impeachment of the Vice President or the President … would be very divisive in our country, and that is what I believed then,” Pelosi said. “It should have come to no surprise when I became Speaker I said it again, and I continue to hold that view.”
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.
- Photo credits: Reuters/Jim Young (Bush and Cheney talking about the economy in the White House Roosevelt Room on Friday); Larry Downing (Pelosi takes control of the House as Speaker on Jan. 4, 2007)
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>>>Hopefully Hillary will do something…
LOL, are you serious???
- Posted by jsSpeaker of the house say dose’nt want to cause trouble would be divisive? Now here are two men lied about iraq,has caused the death of thousands of our men and women, trillions of our tax dollars ,100,000’s of thousands of innocent women children in iraq, sold our country down the tubes,spied on its own people without cause,just to name a few crimes and PELOSKI does’nt want to be devisive PLEASE LOL. She is as bad as bush and cheney!
- Posted by josephPelosi says it would be too “Divisive.” Practically everything Cheney (Bush) does is horribly divisive. I stand full of outrage today at the very low standard of US governance that Pelosi now endorses. Martin Luther King didn’t worry about “Divisive” or “Enough Votes” before he courageously did the right thing.
If the Democrats had the integrity and morality to push for impeachment, the hearings would be so revealing we might just get enough votes.
I have been a Democrat all my life, and after Clinton and now Pelosi, I am out shopping and I urge all other Democrats to jump ship. The Democratic party has not courage to do the right thing.
Nancy Pelosi is NICE and NICE does not work with the Cheney (BUSH) regime.
All Democracy-Loving people here in the US and much of Europe is waiting for impeachment of Cheney.
Nancy Pelosi, what a disappointment!!!! You betray our country each day you refuse to hold Cheney accountable for his horrendous abuses of our once proud nation.
Pelosi has been asking us to swallow this nasty hedghog for a year now. Good Lord when will she come to her senses. We need a massive demonstration. We’ve had enough from Washington.
- Posted by JanetIs it any wonder that the 110th Congress’s approval ratings are EVEN LOWER than BUSH’s?
Its time for spineless Democratic “leaders” like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to step down and let TRULY PROGRESSIVE Democrats take over the reins of power. More Americans agree with us than most people think, and they would follow us, BECAUSE WE STAND FOR SOMETHING OTHER THAN GETTING RE-ELECTED!
“Impeach. Prosecute. Save America.” - Naomi Wolf
- Posted by KrashkopfNancy Pelosi should quit calling Repulicans “obstructionist” since when it comes to getting Congress to do the right thing and impeach the crimes of this administration she is the obstructionist. So much for doing the right thing that must be done.
- Posted by DavolDon’t people realize you can’t impeach a president just because you don’t like him and think that he’s a bad person? Ethical investigations are more than called for, surely, but impeachment proceedings that drag the entire federal government through the mud are hardly the best way to inspire bipartisan cooperation, as Ms. Pelosi so astutely assesses.
- Posted by GWstudentThe real problem is the dems are like the repubs. They have a system in place that requires a person to subscribe to system that rewards them for obaying a set of values that is business orented and not in the best intrest of the the working person. I do not vote dem any more and I do not give money to them. I vote progressive and I encourage all to donate to progressive causes, vote progressive, and remove this mess called our two party system from runing our lives.
- Posted by Rodney Nelson“Would be devisive”. How the hell MORE divided can our country be than it is, now? What about our moral obligation to seek justice for the wrongs done to our people and those of Iraq and Afghanistan? If Pelosi can’t do her job, then her resignation and/or impeachment for deriliction of duty should be sought.
- Posted by willymackI’m sure if she would say Yes, the rest of the House would follow and the proceedings could start. Quite a few Senators are already getting petitions, Kucinich, Wexler, Conyer, even Murtha wouldn’t back down. She needs to say yes and other COngresspersons will follow her. BUT she just isn’t the leader we thought she would be!
- Posted by Dominick JHopefully Hillary will do something once she gets the position of President. Even though he can’t be impeached from the presidency once he leaves he can be tried fo high crimes and treason once he leaves. (I hope)…
P.S.: Put a T-shirt on her that says, “I sold out the Constitution and the American people, and all I got was this lousy noose around my neck.”
- Posted by Big MWell, for Christ’s sake — of course impeachment would be divisive! You wouldn’t want these “two” parties, which are actually just two heads of one huge, crooked, traitorous, fascist corporate party, to fight among themselves now, would you? Why, that botoxed beatch might actually have her hair move. Edwards might suffer the same fate! The man spends $400 on haircuts — have a little compassion, would ‘ya?
But seriously, folks: somebody should grab her and make her the star of a necktie party, and then ask the rest of them if they got the message. If not, just go right on down the line. We have plenty of rope in this country; might as well use it.
- Posted by Big M[...] by leftofdayton on January 21, 2008 Reuters January 18th, 2008, filed by Thomas [...]
- Posted by Whose Side Is She On?? Pelosi greeted with “Impeach” Bush and Cheney buttons « LEFT OF DAYTONIt would be divisive to impeach them? Like it isn’t that now? Why do they forget who they are working for when we elect them?
- Posted by missmarpleThe Declaration of Independence
July 4, 1776,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security…
- Posted by angelIf Nancy Pelosi won’t follow the law on her own accord then we will just have to force her to begin Impeachment Hearings. She works for us!
- Posted by angelIMPEACH! and DEFUND THE WAR! both would be no less divisive to AMERICA than the current tyranny of the right wing war mongers.
DEMS like PELOSI deserve to get beat by GREENS like CINDY SHEEHAN!
- Posted by upchuckOh..but she managed to pass a bill in the House that gives Bush and his entire administration immunity for war crimes..who is the real enemy…?
- Posted by chabukaNancy Pelosi is running a scam on the American people. She always frames the Bush/Cheney missdeeds as “impeachment” because it is a negative, loaded, word. She is complicit in committing a crime because what she is really doing is stopping the TRUE action, HEARINGS. Lets gather the facts and then decide if there were crimes and who were involved in them. Pelosi isn’t preventing an impeachment, she’s preventing fact gathering hearings.
- Posted by Bob AlicoThe tragic message to future Republican presidents is that you can ignore the Constitution, start needless wars, and harm our world leadership ability, and the Democrats will be too timid to impeach you because it might be “divisive”.
Remember what one of Orwell’s evil characters said in “Animal Farm” - “All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others”. Us ordinary folks don’t get to play the “divisive” card if we run afoul of the law. But some folks do.
- Posted by DougSad that Nancy Pelosi will be remembered as the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives instead of the courageous first female Speaker of the House of Representaives.
If the first King George only had the likes of Pelosi and Reid to worry about, we’d still be part of the British Empire.
- Posted by john papandrea