WISCONSINREPORT.COM (12/5/07) - An attempt by the Wisconsin Impeachment Coalition to have the question of whether to impeach President George W. Bush and Vice President Cheney was not acted on by the Madison City Council yesterday. The coalition had urged the alderpersons to hold a city-wide referendum on the matter during the upcoming Presidential Preference Primary February 18th, 2008. The deadline for including impeachment on a ballot February 18th is January 9th, 2008. A spokesperson says it might be on the council's agenda for their January 8th meeting.

The Madison city council did not even discuss the request by the Wisconsin Impeachment Coalition at the council's Tuesday meeting. There has been some informal comments outside of the meetings that indicates that the council acted on the impeachment issue at it's September meeting, and, since it was tried and failed, the council should be putting the time to better use on city matters.

At the September council meeting, among those who voted, the support for impeachment were 8 in favor and three who opposed impeachment of Bush and Cheney. However, eight Madison alderpersons had abstained from voting either way. 11 yes votes were needed, so the matter failed at that time.

Wisconsin Impeachment Coalition chairman Buzz Davis says his group is going to focus now on getting a countywide referendum on the ballot through the Dane County Board.

The Dane County Board approved a resolution calling for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney in August, so it is likely that the Dane County Board may be more apt to approve a county-wide referendum on the impeachment issue, instead of just a Madison city-wide referendum.

If a county-wide impeachment referendum would be approved by the Dane County Board, Madison voters would still be able to voice their opinion on the matter.

Here is the draft resolution the Wisconsin Impeachment Coalition wanted the Madison City Council to consider:
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Draft Resolution for City of Madison

Madison City Council Resolution #___

Title: Placement of Impeachment Referendum Question on the February 19, 2008 Primary Ballot

WHEREAS, the issue of whether the U.S. House of Representatives should start impeachment investigations against President George Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney is a issue of great importance and much public discussion; and

WHEREAS, although 68% of Americans oppose the Iraq war and 73% of Americans oppose using air strikes and ground troops against Iran, the Iraq war continues into its 4th year and planning for war against Iran continues*, and

WHEREAS, although 54% of Americans support impeachment proceedings against Vice President Cheney and 45% support impeachment proceedings against President Bush, Republicans and Democrats in Congress are taking little action to restore the rule of law and protect the U.S. Constitution as their oath of office requires*, and

WHEREAS, the city of Madison has a long tradition of using the ballot to encourage public discussion and decision making on important matters; and

WHERAS, three other communities in WI (Pittsville, WI Rapids and Stoughton) and a number of communities in other states have conducted impeachment referendums in 2006 and 2007;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the city of Madison will conduct an impeachment referendum with the following wording:

CITY OF MADISON

REFERENDUM QUESTION FOR FEBRUARY 19, 2008 BALLOT

Shall the electors of the City of Madison adopt the following resolution? “Be it resolved that the U.S. House of Representatives should start an impeachment investigation against President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney now.”

Yes ____ No ____


BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that this referendum question be placed on the city of Madison’s February 19, 2008 primary/presidential preference ballot.

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However, the Madison City Council did not act on whether to have a voter referendum on the matter during the February 18th Primary.

The Wisconsin Impeachment Coalition is attempting to have a referendum on the issue to get congress moving on impeachment, because they say our federal government is broken and impeachment is the remedy to fix it per the United States Constitution.

The vast majority of U.S. House members refuse to consider starting impeachment proceedings against President Bush or Vice President Cheney.

WIC's official stand: "Their oath of office to support and defend the Constitution requires impeachment under these circumstances. Yet they refuse to act, and sadly our entire WI delegation to Congress, Republicans and Democrats, are part of that mistaken majority."