By Dan DeWalt

What timing! You have gathered today just as the House Judiciary committee, for the first time during this criminal administration, has heard testimony about the crimes and impeachable offenses of Bush/Cheney engine of evil. I frankly had my doubts as to whether this day would ever come. But it did come, and it was largely through the efforts of the thousands of activists like you, with the support of literally millions of other Americans that made it come to pass.

Make no mistake, the Democratic leadership will do everything in their power (and they have lots of it) to keep the genie in the bottle. But Dennis Kucinich will be doing all he can to keep exposing the administration’s criminal malfeasance, and he will need our continued help and support. When the judiciary committee stops answering their phones, and when their email accounts start refusing to accept new mail, (as happened last week), you know that we are having an impact. Indeed, when Nancy Pelosi acquiesced to any hearing at all, it was a major victory, brought about in large part by Cindy Sheehan’s courageous campaign to take Pelosi’s congressional seat away.

NEIC should be proud that we have been among the leaders in this movement and have been instrumental in applying pressure on many different fronts for the cause. I won’t embarrass Sue Serpa with praise, but she and others have represented us well and at great sacrifice both in the Northeast and in Washington D.C.

I regret that I bowed out of attending today, but I am actively working for impeachment as the campaign director for Thomas Hermann, and Iraq veteran who is challenging Vermont congressman Peter Welch for his seat. The driving force behind our campaign is Welch’s refusal to impeach, and his failure to live up to his promises to work to end the war. Today I am working the phones to line up the rest of our campaign team, so that we can meet FEC requirements, get the website up and running and organize the fund raising.

Once we decided to run, it took less than a week to gather over 800 signatures from over 130 Vermont towns and villages to get Thomas on the ballot. Thomas is the only major candidate running against Welch, so we have the advantage of NOT being a potential “spoiler” in the race, which might have enabled a Republican to win. Welch will be increasingly feeling the heat from now straight through until November.

This will be a real test of whether we can translate our grass-roots impeachment network into a force for electoral change. Judging from the reaction of the public and the press to our nascent campaign, I am very encouraged and energized.

Campaigns like ours, and Bob Feur’s are integral parts in the overall push for accountability in Washington. As you consider different options for future actions today. I would ask you to be open and supportive of whatever different initiatives that members may be proposing to do. As an organization, we may choose to focus on one or two particular strategies, but I believe that all efforts, including controversial ones like indictment, are worthy of at least our moral support, even if we are not able to marshal enough resources to work on every idea.

Just as the rest of the world eagerly awaits the end of the Bush era, so have they noticed that patriotic Americans like yourselves have been working tirelessly to defend the Constitution, even as our “leaders” have so ignominiously failed us. Please keep up the hard work, don’t lose faith, and be proud that we are a vital part of the force that has kept the possibility of American idealism alive.

Thanks,

Dan DeWalt