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November 23, 2009 CNN

SANCHEZ: I want to start with some breaking news, Mark Sanford, embattled governor of South Carolina, accused today of breaking state laws, not one time, not two times, 37 times, according to the finding by the state ethics commission, 37 counts of law-breaking, which means Sanford's problems may transcend the political now, even as an impeachment committee is set to convene tomorrow.

You're going to recall the governor's problems began when he disappeared from view for something like five days last summer. It was a big story then, still is. Aides said that Sanford was -- quote -- "trying to clear his head" hiking along the Appalachian Trail.

But he was spotted then by a reporter getting off a flight from Argentina and then was forced to admit what we all now remember he ended up saying in a news conference, forced to admit to having a South American mistress at the time.

Since then, his wife has left him. She says the couple's separated. She is also writing a book about him. Any talk of a presidential run, forget about it, and now, on top of potential impeachment, 37 counts of breaking state law, much of it stemming from Sanford's frequent travels. Joining me now from Washington, CNN's Peter Hamby, who spent a lot of time chasing this story in South Carolina.

Look, we get the ethics thing. What I think you need to explain to us is how this becomes a criminal issue and specifically what crimes are we talking about.

PETER HAMBY: Well, what we're talking about here. And the ethics commission is not saying that he's actually broken a law yet. What they have found are 37 counts in this complaint that he may have violated state law by using his office for personal gain.

They list three different kinds of charges against him that they will argue in a hearing. They haven't set a hearing date yet, but they will soon. Many of those counts say that he upgraded from business class to coach on flights going back to 2005.

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I want to congratulate d-day, the Courage Campaign, John Podesta and everyone who signed all the many petitions put there because the California Democratic Party heard you loud and clear. (C&L joined with the Courage Campaign.)

d-day explains:

Thanks again to all of you who signed petitions and made phone calls and helped push the resolution to open a Congressional inquiry into Torture Judge Jay Bybee, which the California Democratic Party adopted at its convention yesterday. I have been told by the authors of the resolution that the pressure from the outside really aided their efforts.

The passage of the resolution was a beginning, not an ending. I view the impeachment of Jay Bybee from the 9th Circuit Court as a moral and legal imperative, but also an entryway into the larger fight for justice and accountability for those who authorized and directed torture in our name.

UPDATE: Ryan Grim of The Huffington Post has the full story of the passage of the resolution at the convention.
So what do we do next? Keep the heat on.

So what do we do now? Members of the California Democratic Party include 34 members of Congress, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and six men and women who sit on the House Judiciary Committee, where an impeachment inquiry would be remanded. They need to hear that their party just recommended that they open an immediate Congressional inquiry into Judge Bybee, with all appropriate remedies and punishments available. In fact, the entire House Judiciary Committee needs to hear this.

You can contact all the members through d-days site, the tools were provided for by Jane, and you can call you can call your members of Congress and tell them that they must support an immediate inquiry into the actions of Jay Bybee, federal judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Congressional switchboard at 1-866-220-0044 can connect you to your member of Congress as well.

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Saturday Night Live took the GOP leadership to task in this parody for everything from hoping that the stimulus bill and the economy would fail for political gain, to their great leaders in Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, to planning on impeachment hearings already, to an attack on the Obama daughters.

When SNL is using phrases like "politically tone deaf" in their skits and mocking you, all I can say is ruuhh-roohh. Maybe your grand plans aren't working out so well with being the party of "NO" Republicans.

I'm still trying to figure out who was playing who in this skit. For a bit of fun I took my best guess and if anyone thinks I'm wrong feel free to correct me.

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From D.L. Hughley Breaks the News, Hughley and Cliff Kelley discussing the Blago impeachment. Whether anyone agrees with Hughley's defense of Blago here or not, he's spot on with this statement:

Hughley: Now I listened to those tapes and I'm not going to hide my affinity for this guy. I never met him before then but to me we have become such a trivial place that we will impeach a man for having sex, or lying about having sex with a woman. In California we will impeach a guy because he raises taxes on license plates because energy gets out of control. We'll impeach a guy for saying some things on tape. But a man can take us to war and lie and we won't do a damn thing about that. That makes me so mad.

Something about this just feels so right.

Wapo:

Laura Bush asked members of Congress to pick local painters to decorate ornaments for this year's 20-foot Fraser fir in the Blue Room. The globes (to be unveiled by the first lady tomorrow) are supposed to showcase something special about each congressional district. Washington state's Rep. Jim McDermott contacted a local arts organization, which asked Lawrence, a collage artist, to create the local entry.

"I was at first nauseated, then realized it was an opportunity," said Lawrence, 55, who frequently combines politics and satire in her work and saw this as the perfect way "to highlight Jim McDermott because he's a hero of mine."

The nine-inch ball is covered with swirly red and white stripes -- and, in tiny glued-on text, salutes the Democratic congressman's support for a resolution to impeach President Bush. (Also showcased: Washington state's 1919 labor strike, its suffrage movement and the violent anti-World Trade Organization riots of 1999.) Lawrence sent it off to D.C. in September and was very surprised it was accepted for the tree -- and that she was invited to this afternoon's White House reception for the artists, which she flew to D.C. to attend.

"Apparently, they didn't read it -- or Laura Bush is more progressive than I believed," Lawrence told us.

UPDATE: Looks like The Washington Post ruined all the fun.

It hung on the tree along with ornaments featuring lovingly painted state seals and state scenery till the Washington Post pointed out that it differed substantially from its fellows.

AP followed, and Lawrence's ornment was plucked from its branch, on orders from Laura Bush.

President Musharraf of Pakistan has announced his resignation this morning, in an address to his nation in advance of impeachment charges which were expected to be filed tomorrow.

In a one-hour long televised address, Musharraf defended his nearly nine-year rule and rejected accusations against him, but said he was leaving office.

"After consultations with legal advisers and close political supporters and on their advice, I'm taking the decision of resigning," a somber Musharraf said.

"My resignation will go to the speaker of the National Assembly today."

His resignation had been rumored for weeks and speculation peaked yesterday, with the new civilian government in particular pushing it as an alternative to messy court proceedings, although until today Musharraf had insisted he would stay to fight the charges. There's little doubt that his Western allies have pressured him to accept a deal, seeking to keep Pakistan a little more stable at a time when it seems in danger of falling apart at the seams.

I was highly sceptical that he would step down as it implied a level of complicity by the military and ISI intelligence that I believed was more touted than real. It seems I was wrong. It remains to be seen whether the new government's further claims that it has complete control over the military and intelligence agencies now are also real following some very embarrassing setbacks - and whether it will curb the ISI from using Islamist terror groups as foreign policy proxies against its traditional bugbear India.

The other interesting question is "what will Mushie do next?" Exile seems likeliest and there have been rumors that the US, which has long backed the former dictator, would offer him asylum. But it appears that the Saudis have stepped in, as major mediators of the resignation deal, and so Musharraf will probably retire there. Which is ironic, in that it will put the man who was ultimately in charge of the intelligence agency that was pulling Al Qaeda's strings prior to (and post) 9/11 in the country that furnished most of the hijackers - and both Musharraf and the Saudi rulers are staunch Bush allies.

Nancy Pelosi is quickly learning that being a reliable and powerful liberal voice in the House of Representatives doesn't necessarily translate into blind support. During an event in Los Angeles to promote her new book, Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters, a group of protesters started screaming in anger over her unwillingness to open impeachment inquiries against Bush.

LATimes:

She was in Los Angeles to discuss her recently published book "Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters." Instead, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi got slammed by protesters screaming that she has been derelict in her duties for not authorizing impeachment hearings against George W. Bush.

The venue: more than 300 people paid $30 each Monday night at the American Jewish University (formerly known as the University of Judaism). The format: a 75-minute interview by the Rabbi Robert Wexler (not to be confused with the Palm Beach, Fla., congressman of the same name). The questions: tough but respectful. Wexler asked Pelosi about a recent Rasmussen Poll that showed a 9% approval rating for Congress.

Update: The Public Record broke the story.

If you've seen the Dennis Kucinich part of this video, start watching at 5:10 or so.   A citizen shows Nancy Pelosi a copy of the articles of impeachment at one of her book signings  [Know Your Power:  A Message to America's Daughters].   I'm raising my daughters to recognize what an appalling, self-interested, complicit, beltway insider you are, Madame Speaker. 

Oh.  Cindy Sheehan is running against Pelosi and has a book review here.  Heh.

So why don't we impeach Pelosi and show her what that impeachment thing is all about?

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Flying Spaghetti Monster bless Dennis Kucinich.  He's in the middle of an absolutely sisyphean task of trying to make Congress actually do their job -- one that far more Americans support than they did the impeachment of Bill Clinton -- and one that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is frustratingly and blindly ignoring, as evidenced by her stop-me-before-I-throw-something-at-the-screen appearance on The View.  

JOY BEHAR: You’ve ruled against impeaching George Bush and Dick Cheney, and now Kucinich is trying to pass that. Why do you insist on not impeaching these people, so that the world and America can really see the crimes that they’ve committed?

REP. NANCY PELOSI: Well, I think that it—I think it was important, when I became Speaker—and it’s, by the way, a very important position—President, Vice President, Speaker of the House—I saw it as my responsibility to try to bring a much divided country together to the extent that we could. I thought that impeachment would be divisive for the country.

In terms of what we wanted—set out to do, we wanted to raise the minimum wage, give the biggest increase in veterans benefits to veterans in the seventy-seven-year history, then pass research for stem cell research, all of that. This week, we’re going to pass equal pay for equal work. It has been a long time in coming—pay equity. We’re going to pass legislations for product safety, for toys that children put in their—there’s an agenda that you have to get done. You have to try to do it in a bipartisan way. The President has to sign it.

If somebody had a crime that the President had committed, that would be a different story.

Have you not been paying fricking attention for the last eight years, Nancy???  What do you mean, IF???? Say it with me now: warrantless wiretapping; waterboarding, lying to Congress and the American people to illegally invade and occupy a sovereign nation that posed no threat to us, firing US Attorneys for not pursuing partisan prosecutions, outing a covert CIA agent.  And those were just ones you knew about and did nothing to stop, Pelosi.  How dare she play stupid on national television and insult all our intelligence and what this country (once) stood for?  How. Dare. She.

So it makes me love the undaunted Kucinich that much more.  He appeared on Democracy Now! and tried to spin this in the best way possible.

(T)he reason why the Judiciary Committee should hold a hearing on the impeachment itself is because there needs to be a public airing of this. So, I have a great deal of respect for Speaker Pelosi, and I think that since she made that statement on The View, there's an opportunity now for us to come forward and to lay all the facts out so that she can reconsider her decision not to permit the Judiciary Committee to proceed with a full impeachment hearing. 

Give 'em hell, Dennis.

full transcript below the fold

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  For all the things to raise the specter of impeachment over, Lou Dobbs chooses poison tomatoes. Go figure.

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"You know, I have heard a lot of reasons over the years as to why George W. Bush should be impeached. For them to leave the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in this state, its leadership in this sorry condition and to have no capacity apparently or will to protect the American consumer - that is alone, to me, sufficient reason to impeach a President who has made this agency possible, and has ripped its guts out in its ability to protect the American consumer. It's insane what is going on here."

All the major newspapers refused to print Wexler, Gutierrez, and Tammy Baldwin's impeachment op-ed recently so it's surprising to see The Washington Post finally allow an argument to be made for just that on their sacred pages: "Why I Believe Bush Must Go: Nixon Was Bad. These Guys Are Worse." The Village elders will be most upset.

Check this out from the Tournament of Roses Parade on KTLA5!

Way to go! I'll send this to Rep. Wexler.

 Don't you just love the smell of freedom in Raleigh?

RALEIGH - Inside the Gov. James G. Martin building, the headquarters for State Fair security, stands the most interesting attraction fairgoers won't see. They call it the Wall of Shame. It's a cubicle partition where the police post information about the 25 people, as of Wednesday, who have been banned from the fair.

One guy had brass knuckles. Two people jumped the fence instead of paying admission. A teenager was tossed and accused of "attempted larceny of a stuffed zebra." Andy Silver was booted Saturday for carrying a sign that called for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Silver is with the Grassroots Impeachment Movement.

They said they needed to expel me because my sign might anger people and that someone might attack me. I was told I would be arrested for trespassing and taken to jail if I came back."..read on

It was for his own good. Well, that settles it. (h/t Daniel)