Protesters picket Giffords’ office to get her to sign on

Alana Swoyer was there because she received an e-mail from a friend who had received it from a friend who had received it from a friend.

So Swoyer, an office manager at a local church, was carrying a sign reading, “No one is above the law.”

Jean-Paul Bierny, a Belgian-born physician who has lived in Tucson since 1972, said he’s not part of any organized group.

But he was there also, carrying a sign: “Impeach Bush and Cheney for crimes against the U.S. Constitution and humanity.”

Kim Mathews also was there with a sign she made: “Stop funding war, start supporting impeachment.”

The three, along with another dozen people, were at North Swan Road and East Pima Street, outside the local office of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, demanding that she support a move to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney.

That effort hasn’t received much attention because it has little chance of success. But Dennis Kucinich, the quixotic Democratic congressman from Ohio, is working to have Cheney impeached and removed from office for allegedly engineering false information that led to the war in Iraq.

The impeachment move has divided Giffords and the other Democrat representing southern Arizona in the House.

Rep. Raúl Grijalva is one of 23 Democrats who have signed onto the impeachment attempt. He has called it a “statement” designed to bring some accountability to those who launched the war.

Giffords has not signed onto the bill. She says the House Judiciary Committee should hold hearings and decide whether to send it to the full House. If that happens, she’ll decide whether to support it, Giffords said.

That’s not enough for the Tucsonans who gather outside Giffords’ office every Monday, spending two hours during the evening rush hour demanding that she join the impeachment movement. Frequent honks from drivers last week seemed to indicate a fair degree of support.

It puts Giffords in an interesting position. In her first re-election race this fall, she is being criticized from the right by her opponent, state Senate President Tim Bee. And she is being criticized from the left by members of her own party who want her to join the impeach-Cheney movement.

Michael Bryan, a local lawyer who is one of the protest leaders, acknowledged that Democrats who don’t like Giffords because of this issue don’t have a lot of other choices in November. “It’s not a case of are we going to support Tim Bee,” Bryan said. “Clearly we won’t.”

He accused Giffords of “a failure to uphold your constitutional duties.”

“In Iraq, there is the lack of any conditions whatsoever,” Bryan said. “There’s no timetable, no oversight. They’ve basically given the president everything he wants.”

“I know that some of my constituents differ with me,” Giffords responded. She’s aware of the protesters outside her office and said she applauds their exercise of the First Amendment to make their position known.

Giffords said she did support sending the Articles of Impeachment to the Judiciary Committee. “I don’t take impeachment lightly,” she said. “But without the proper hearing process, it’s something that I cannot support.”

Giffords rejects accusations that Congress is giving the Bush administration a free ride. “I do believe we are holding this administration to a much higher standard than past administrations,” she said.

That’s not enough for some of those carrying signs outside her office. “I’ve pretty much written off the Democrats in Congress, including her,” Mathews said. “I’ll vote for a third-party candidate, if there is one. Otherwise I’ll sit it out.

“I did support her, but I won’t do it again.”

Mark Kimble appears at 6:30 p.m. and midnight Fridays on the Roundtable segment of “Arizona Illustrated” on KUAT-TV (Channel 6). He may be reached at mkimble@tucsoncitizen.com or 573-4662.

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ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT
There are three articles in House Resolution 799, Impeaching Richard B. Cheney, vice president of the United States, of high crimes and misdemeanors. Those articles allege Cheney:

• Purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United States by fabricating a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify the use of the United States Armed Forces against the nation of Iraq in a manner damaging to our national security interests.

• Purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United States about an alleged relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda in order to justify the use of the United States Armed Forces against the nation of Iraq in a manner damaging to our national security interests.

• Has openly threatened aggression against the Republic of Iran absent any real threat to the United States, and done so with the United States proven capability to carry out such threats, thus undermining the national security of the United States.

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TO READ MORE
Read the complete text of the impeachment resolution

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