Rep. Bill Pascrell called for hearings today into revelations in an upcoming book by former White House press secretary Scott McClellan. In excerpts that were widely reported today, McClellan says the reason he told the press -- and the nation -- that the White House was not involved in leaking CIA agent Valerie Plame's name was because he'd been told that by "five of the highest-ranking officials in the administration," including President Bush and Vice President Cheney. McClellan's publisher today issued a clarification that the former spokesman was not saying Bush lied to him, but that Bush said what he believed to be true at the time. Cheney's chief of staff, Scooter Libby, was later convicted of lying about telling reporters about Plame, then was pardoned by Bush.
Pascrell has frequently criticized the Republican-run Congress for not carrying out its duty to be a check on the power of the executive branch, and called today for hearings on the issue. Here's his statement:
“Scott McClellan’s admission that President Bush and the administration’s highest-ranking advisors directly provided him with false information to mislead America is a disturbing violation of the public trust. It is also a legitimate constitutional concern. The President’s premeditated plot to defraud America of the truth about weapons of mass destruction is no longer questionable. It is the absolute truth according to too many former administration insiders.
The abuse of executive power in this White House has set a dangerous precedent that I believe can only be duly addressed through formal congressional hearings. It is one thing to share the troubling antics of the Bush Administration in a book; it is another to share them under oath and under the scrutiny of America’s public."
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Thank you to Stuart "Hutch" Hutchison (New Jersey Impeach Groups) for his report on the October 5 meeting with Congressman Bill Pascrell:
Following a raucous town meeting held by Rep. Bill Pascrell (Democrat, 8th NJ Congressional District) in Wayne during the congressional recess in August, at which about a dozen people peppered the congressman with questions about impeaching Bush-Cheney, we requested a meeting with him at his Paterson NJ office. We were told we would get 90 minutes with Mr. Pascrell and his District Director Jacky Grindrod. We requested that his chief of staff, Ben Rich, attend by speaker phone from Pascrell's Washington office, and we were told he would "sit in" if possible. We got our meeting Friday, October 5th. Our delegation was composed of Elsie Pilgrim from Peoples' Organization for Progress in Newark, Joan Hervey from Plainfield Area Equality and NJ Stonewall Democrats, John Heuer from Troops Out Now, Chapel Hill, North Carolina — John was raised in Bergen County; and Stuart Hutchison from New Jersey Impeach Groups in Wayne. The tone of the meeting was set when Mr. Pascrell entered the conference room and his first words to us were, "I have about 40 minutes, so let's move this along." Ben Rich was not on the phone with us, another bad sign.
Although all of us practiced restraint and civility throughout the meeting, and each member of our delegation offered compelling arguments in favor of impeachment backed up with legal and political citations, Pascrell did not acknowledge even one of our points was valid. He stated that "only 15% of the people want impeachment," and when we gave him evidence of polling results that indicate strong and substantial support for impeachment across the country, Pascrell continued to insist that 15% of Americans want Bush-Cheney impeached. He repeated what he said at the August town meeting, that if impeachment is initiated, congress would be paralyzed and nothing would get done, "and the country can't afford that." Pascrell denied there is evidence of criminal actions by Bush, Cheney and their administration! We referred him to Sydney Blumenthal's bombshell article in Salon.com with its details of proof that Bush knew Saddam Hussein had no WMD — weapons of mass destruction before Bush ordered his attack on Iraq. Pascrell dismissed the importance of this article he had not read, saying the only proof that can provoke impeachment is a recording of the meeting George Tenet and some officers of the CIA had to tell Bush there were no WMD.
The representative was combative and defensive. At one point he accused Ms. Pilgrim of insulting him with a disparaging remark when she said nothing personally critical of him. This was altogether worse than disappointing. It's clear that as with too many congress members, even the facts cannot move an honest consideration of the merits of impeachment.
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