Town council backs impeaching Bush

CHAPEL HILL -- President Bush should be impeached, Town Council members unanimously decided Monday night.

The vote was the local body's latest foray into national politics. A local Republican dismissed it as a "move of desperation."

Council members supported a petition from the grass-roots Elders for Peace group, which laid out three charges to justify impeachment:

* Bush "lied to Congress and the American people to launch an illegal war of aggression";

* Bush violated human rights by torturing prisoners at home and abroad and detaining suspects with no due process;

* Bush "unleashed a massive unconstitutional wiretap and spying operation against the people of the United States."

"I think this compels us -- you and all thinking people in the United States -- to move for impeachment," said Nancy Elkins, an Elders for Peace member. "If we don't, what are future citizens of our country going to think we were doing when we were allowing all of this?"

With little discussion, the council passed a resolution that said, in part, that Bush "'has acted contrary to law, and violated his oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States."

They had also passed a resolution in October calling for an end to the war in Iraq. And previously they had lodged a protest resolution against the war before it was launched in 2003.

Council member Mark Kleinschmidt thanked the group Monday for "so eloquently distilling what so many people in our community think."

Dan Cote, a Chapel Hill resident and chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, isn't one of the many.

Referring to lobbying investigations involving Rep. Jim Black and others, he said North Carolina Democrats are hoping to distract attention from "corruption in Raleigh."

"Chapel Hill, of course, is leading the charge to do that," Cote said when reached by phone after the meeting.

Cote dismissed the charges made Monday. He thinks the president made the right decision to go to war in Iraq and acted constitutionally in his use of domestic wiretaps.

He also said that the Bush administration does not condone torture.

"I think President Bush has the interest of the nation foremost in his mind at all times," Cote said. "History will look favorably upon this president and record that he did what needed to be done to make this a safe nation."

Robert Gwyn, Elders for Peace chairman, said it was important for local governments to go on record opposing Bush.

"You are the closest government body to the people," he said. "The people are very, very angry."