PRESS RELEASE
Murtha Again Says Impeachment Is
One of the Options on the Table
April 30, 2007 (EIRNS)—Interviewed on National Public Radio on Monday afternoon about President Bush's threatened veto of the defense appropriations bill, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) reiterated that impeachment is one of the means that Congress has to influence the President. Following are the relevant portions of NPR's transcript of Murtha's interview, as posted on http://www.npr.org:
Murtha: There's four ways you can influence a President. First of all, there's the polls, which didn't influence him. Second of all, there's an election, which should have influenced the President. It has had some influence: He fired the Secretary of Defense. Third, there's impeachment, and fourth, there's the power of the purse....
Q. Congressman Murtha, when you include impeachment in that list of four, are you raising that as a realistic possibility of something that could happen here?
Murtha: Well, I'm just saying that's one of the options that Congress has on the table. I'm getting more and more calls from the public about impeachment. Realistically, obviously the power of the purse is the most powerful influence that the public has, and we have to exert that influence to our utmost ability.
Q. You're saying you're getting calls from the public on impeachment. Is the call for impeachment anything that you would consider?
Murtha: Well, it's just one of the things that we always consider. That's part of the process. We're very careful about that. I've been through two impeachment proceedings. It's a very difficult proceeding, and I don't think it's appropriate at this time. But it's one of the things, certainly, that I always consider.
