Anti-war groups dog Nadler on Bush impeachment

Congressman Jerrold Nadler makes the case for Senator Hillary Clinton at Sunday’s Democratic candidate forum.

By Jefferson Siegel

Anti-war groups from New York City and New Jersey descended on a Democratic candidate forum Sunday afternoon at the Hudson Guild Fulton Center to press Congressman Jerold Nadler to call for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Members of Chelsea Neighbors United to End the War and a slew of other groups attended the forum, “Decision ’08: The Democrats,” sponsored by the Chelsea Reform Democratic Club.

Surrogates played the parts of the Democrats vying for the presidential nomination. The most prominent among them was Congressman Jerrold Nadler, who was making the case for Senator Hillary Clinton.

But Nadler’s presence brought out several anti-war groups who are angry over his refusal to call for impeachment hearings against the president and vice-president, and they tended to dominate the proceedings.

Before the forum, members of Chelsea Neighbors United to End the War stood outside the Center passing out flyers, handing one to Congressman Nadler as he hurried inside.

Nadler spoke with Chelsea Now about the issues outside the Fulton Center.

“I’m supporting Hillary, and I think she’s the best candidate for president,” Nadler said, adding he had been her surrogate at other recent forums.

Asked about the dissatisfaction over the impeachment issue, Nadler replied, “I don’t think it makes sense at this point. I think that, in order to get Cheney or Bush removed from office, you need 67 votes in the Senate, which means 16 Republican votes, which you’ll never get.

“Since you’ll never get that,” he continued, “the question then becomes, Is it worth doing it simply for symbolic purposes? I believe that an impeachment proceeding, at this point, would suck all the oxygen out of what we should be doing, which is trying to end the war in Iraq, trying to get a decent budget for our people, and trying to elect a democratic president so we can turn the country around.”

Chuck Zlatkin, a co-founder of Chelsea Neighbors United to End the War, thinks Nadler is prevaricating. “In the five months since we met with Nadler on the issue [of impeachment],” Zlatkin said, “with all that’s transpired, with the destruction of the CIA tapes, the ongoing torture, $70 billion more for the war, Nadler still supports the party position that, regardless of what Bush and Cheney do, they should not have to face impeachment hearings.”

Last September, a dozen members of the Chelsea group met with Nadler in his Downtown Manhattan office to press their case for such hearings. At Sunday’s forum they circulated copies of a letter again requesting Nadler to support them. The letter maintains that, if impeachment hearings are not held before Bush leaves office next January, a dangerous precedent will be set, allowing future presidents to ignore the checks and balances of Congress.

A reported 133 people have already signed copies and sent them to Nadler. They are being circulated by Concerned Citizens for Impeachment, at www.AskNadler2Impeach.org.

Penn South resident Lee Sinovoi sat in the audience wearing a bright orange shirt reminiscent of the overalls worn by prisoners at Guantanamo with the words “Stop Torture” printed on it. “They’re important issues,” Sinovoi said. “We don’t suppport the war, and we think Bush and Cheney should be impeached.”

Two groups were so incensed at Nadler that they came from New Jersey to make their point. When it came time for Nadler to speak, eight members of New Jersey Labor Against the War and the New Jersey Impeach Now Coalition stood up in the back of the auditorium, holding up large letters spelling the word “Impeach.” They remained standing quietly as the forum proceeded.

Seated nearby, members of the group World Can’t Wait held up large orange cloths imprinted with their slogan, “Drive Out the Bush Regime.” On Jan. 2, some 15 members of WCW and the group Not in Our Name demanded to meet with Nadler in his Brooklyn office. Although Nadler was not there, four refused to leave and were arrested.

As State Senator Tom Duane sat in the audience with about 200 other people, the five surrogates for candidates Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel made their cases.

Their opening statements were pro-forma. It was when Nadler started speaking that the calls for impeachment rang out. When Nadler invoked the current campaign’s now popular invocation by saying, “Let’s have change,” someone in the audience yelled out to him, “Then impeach!”

Several activists said they intended to “bird dog” Nadler, to show up at functions he attends in order to keep the pressure on him to call for impeachment hearings. “Bird dogging” was also a tactic employed by the anti-war group Code Pink during Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaign. Members of that group attended numerous Clinton fundraising gatherings to protest her vote authorizing funding for the Iraq war. At one fundraiser held at the now-closed Chelsea club Crobar on West 28th Street, protesters managed to get inside, where they unfurled banners and chanted during Clinton’s speech until they were escorted out.