Please visit Adam Sullivan’s website at www.sullivanforcongress.net and sign up to help get the thousands of signatures needed between now and July 10th to put him on the ballot to challenge Jerry Nadler who is blocking impeachment on the Judiciary Committee despite the torture, murder, lying and spying that the Bush administration is perpetrating on this country and the world.

There are groups of people going out together to get signatures on Manhattan’s West Side and in parts of Brooklyn in Nadler’s 8th Congressional District. Invite your friends, family and colleagues!  If each of you filled up one petition, we could swamp the opposition with signatures, enough to avoid a costly legal challenge, which the Nadler campaign will mount if we don’t get thousands of signatures, although only 1250 valid signatures are required.

This was written jointly with Cheryl Abraham of World Can’t Wait, a great person and writer!  It was published at Opednews.com and at the World Can’t Wait website on June 10th.  History in the making! 

The people must do their utmost to spread this information as quickly as possible to everyone they know.  Contact the media and hold them accountable for their silence and complicity in the face of the enormous evidence of the high crimes and misdemeanors committed on such a massive scale by the Bush regime.  We must, in our millions, demand that the time for impeachment is long overdue.   

CHECK OUT OUR NEW POST AT WHERE’S JERRY PART IV!  COME WITH US EVERY WEEK UNTIL WE ARE HEARD.

Join us next Thursday, April 3rd at another encounter at Congressman Nadler’s Manhattan office.  We will meet on the SW corner of Varick St. and Houston St. at 11:45 pm.  This will be a shorter visit.  We’ll leave at 1:00 pm. Please RSVP to Stephanie@worldcantwait.org.

Following is a report on our 3/27 vist to Nadler. On Thursday, March 27th seven people who had answered the World Can’t Wait call to visit Congressman Nadler at his Varick Street office to demand his support of the impeachment of Dick Cheney via H.Res. 799/333 – that languishes in his Subcommittee on the Consitution, Civil Rights & Civil Liberties.
 
As on previous visits, he himself was not in the office. We were greeted by Robert Gottheim, Nadler’s Director of Relations (the very same person who had brought charges against the Nadler Four during our sit-in and arrest at the Congressman’s Brooklyn office).  One of our delegation asked if he could have a written copy of Nadler’s position on impeachment.  He was told that Nadler had explained his position many times in open forums and to groups of constituents (However, we noted that Nadler refused to attend, or even send a representative, to the March 9th Town Hall meeting on impeachment held by constituents).

Mr. Gottheim repeated some of the reasons for Nadler’s decision but declared that a written statement was not available and would never be available. He said we could stay until the office closed at 5 p.m.  His cordiality went so far as the provision of chairs for us which he had refused to do when we visited last summer, which in a Freudian slip he called his “malevolence” rather than “benevolence.” We continued to engage Mr. Gottheim in discussion.  However, a woman from the back office told him and other staff members to return to their offices. 

We then proceeded with our plan to read aloud from the Bush Crimes Commission transcript.  Gottheim reappeared and stated that if we read aloud we would have to leave the office.  One person raised the issue of free speech and the Bill of Rights.  Gottheim let us know that these did not apply within this particular office, that the staff was doing the government’s business and serving Mr. Nadler’s constituents.  In fact, Gottheim repeatedly told us how they were serving Nadler’s constituents although we were constituents as well.  He refused to say “other constituents” which would have acknowledged our rights to the Congressman’s attention also. When Mr. Gottheim left, another of our delegates read aloud the articles of impeachment from the Constitution. 

We had a lively discussion about Mr. Nadler’s position on impeachment, the Constitutional process and the war on Iraq.  We decided to leave as planned after two hours but that we would continue the visits on a weekly basis, varying the day, time and office.

On Sunday, March 9th, there was a Town Hall Meeting which included some great speakers.  Liz Holtzman was there speaking always about impeachment.  But the guest of honor, Congressman Nadler, refused to appear.  This message was given to the organizers:

Jerrold Nadler’s Director of Relations, Friday, after 5:00 p.m., replying to our invitation of February 14 to speak at the Town Hall Meeting this Sunday.  Congresssman Nadler has declined our invitation.  According to Gottheim, Nadler feels he has spoken to many of us on many occasions on this issue.  

We are very disappointed that Congressman Nadler did not take this opportunity to participate in this conversation weighing “Is Impeachment Necessary to Protect the Constitutional,” with three experts in the field of Constitutional law.  He will also not be making himself available to his constituents who will be coming to the Town Hall Meeting with questions and comments for him.

The fact that he refused to show up because this topic had been discussed before, and he refuses to speak to his constituents, as well as concerned citizens who absolutely have the right to not only speak with him, but to demand impeachment of  war criminals, should mean that he should lose his job! 

Return of the Faux Liberal:

Congressman Jerrold Nadler

It’s now been five months since I penned an article for Web site Counterpunch regarding New York Democratic Congressman Jerrold Nadler’s stonewalling on Cheney impeachment.  At the time, though I knew it would be a strong uphill battle, I figured that Nadler might come around and move on impeachment proceedings once and for all.   As the Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Nadler occupies a key position and could use his influence to press for impeachment hearings.  He has consistently refused to do so, preferring instead to stonewall activists.  Nadler hides behind a retinue of handlers whose job is to stall, delay, and play for more time.   Today, however, Nadler faces a wave of negative publicity as a result of his intransigence which could cost him politically.  I have just returned from Coney Island, Brooklyn, where Nadler’s constituents staged a peaceful sit in at the Congressman’s office.  True to form, Nadler refused to talk with activists regarding impeachment, spurring four women to practice non violent civil disobedience and get arrested.  How did we get to this point and what are the prospects for local activists moving forward? Act I: HR 333 Nadler is not some high up White House official in an ivory tower, he is a local Congressman.  And yet meeting with Nadler has proven frustratingly difficult.  The story started in July, when activists from the group World Can’t Wait organized a visit to Nadler’s office in Lower Manhattan in an effort to get the Congressman to sign on to HR 333, a bill to impeach the Vice President.   The resolution, submitted by Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich in April 2007, charged that Cheney had purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United States by fabricating a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, as well as fabricating a threat about an alleged relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda in an effort to justify use of force against Iraq.  Kucinich also charged that Cheney had violated his constitutional oath and duty by openly threatening aggression against Iran in the absence of any real threat posed to the United States.   It was never going to be easy to get establishment Democrats on board, however, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi remarking even before Democrats took control of Congress that impeachment would be “off the table.’  On repeated occasions, Nadler put activists through the go around, refusing to set up an appointment to discuss impeachment.   In the middle of a heat wave, I took the subway from my native Park Slope, Brooklyn to Nadler’s office in Lower Manhattan located in a Federal Building.  As the heat burnt through the pavement, activists decided upon a strategy: rather than go into Nadler’s office on the sixth floor in a group, we would go up in twos and threes.  Unfortunately, such elaborate tomfoolery had become necessary because the authorities were unlikely to let the entire delegation proceed together. At long last, my turn arrived. Together with another gentleman, I walked into the Federal Building. Act II: Nadler in His Fortress Inside the lobby, I did not see some of the earlier members of our party, leading me to think that indeed some activists had succeeded in getting up to Nadler’s office. But when I arrived at the security check, my hopes plummeted.  “Are you going to Nadler’s office?” asked a guard, suspiciously. “No officer,” we replied innocently, “We’re just headed to the Peace Corps office.” Judging from the security guards’ expressions, they were unconvinced by our alibi. After we passed our spare change, keys and cell phones through the detector one of the guards escorted us up in the elevator, just to make sure we went to the tenth floor and not to the sixth floor. “For Christ’s sake, this is ridiculous,” I remarked to my colleague. “I understand that the White House and certain government offices are very difficult to get access to. But this is our local Congressman.”   While we picked up an application to join the Peace Corps inside, our guardian waited outside for us to exit the office.  “What can we do?” I asked my colleague, feeling frustrated. “Not much,” he replied. “It looks like we’re just going to have to return to the lobby.” Right on cue our guardian rejoined us in the hallway and rode down with us in the elevator, just to make sure that we would not visit the Congressman’s office. I wondered what would happen if we simply opted to get off at the sixth floor. As I stood outside, I spoke with several other activists who were similarly outraged by the Orwellian treatment they had received at the hands of the guards. Some had been turned back at the security check and told they could not proceed at all.  I later heard that some activists had indeed managed to get into Nadler’s office, to the “chagrin” of his staff. An unhappy Robert Gottheim, Nadler’s District Director, was called in to deal with the activists. When activists requested to speak with Nadler either in person or by speaker phone or conference call, Gottheim said no: Nadler was unavailable.  When activists asked Gottheim to tell security to allow the rest of the delegation to come upstairs the Nadler handler refused. Hardly a hospitable host, Gottheim similarly refused to invite the activists into the office. Activists were told they could sit down in one of four seats in the entranceway.   The activists then eloquently presented their case. Gottheim, aptly demonstrating his stonewalling abilities and penchant to be a party hack, repeatedly stated that impeachment was a distraction from other things the Democrats sought to accomplish. Trotting out familiar Inside the Beltway group think, Gottheim claimed impeachment was not practical because the Democrats could not muster two thirds of Congress to vote for such a measure.  At that, Gottheim ended the discussion. When activists said they wanted to wait to speak to Nadler, Gottheim got hot under the collar. Putting on his suit jacket, he declared that the activists were in a Federal Building and should leave. Organizers stayed for about another hour or so, but finally opted to leave when it became clear Nadler was a clear No Show. Act III: A Surreal Vote Count and Nadler’s Tabling Increasingly however Nadler was out of step with his fellow liberal members of Congress.  In November, Kucinich read the text of HR 333 on the floor of the House and reintroduced the motion as a new resolution.  Led by Kucinich, scores of Democrats joined opportunistic Republicans in initially supporting the Ohio Congressman’s resolution, which would have prompted a full debate on impeaching Cheney.   The Republicans sought to force the Democrats to vote on impeachment, a development which the GOP thought might weaken the Democrats in the court of public opinion.  Fearful that Kucinich’s measure might embarrass the party, Democratic leaders such as Majority Leader Steny Hoyer moved to table Kucinich’s impeachment resolution.  Joining the establishment Democrats was Jerrold Nadler.   When Hoyer and his liberal enablers were outvoted 251 to 162, Democratic leaders moved to refer the motion back to the Judiciary Committee.  Again, Nadler voted with Hoyer and the rest, resulting in a truly surreal vote result with Republicans pitted against all Democrats save Kucinich and four other legislators.   Final vote count: 218 to 194 in favor of sending Kucinich’s resolution back to committee.   Since that time, HR 333 has languished in the Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep John Conyers (D-Mich.), who has publicly speculated about impeaching the president or vice president but has declined taking any action since taking the gavel in January of ‘07.   Back in New York, activists with World Can’t Wait tried to set up a meeting between peace activist Cindy Sheehan and Representative Nadler to broach impeachment.  Not surprisingly given his historic pattern, the New York legislator refused the opportunity. Act IV: Nadler Deaf to Democratic Base Still, recent developments suggest that Nadler and the establishment are at odds with the Democratic base and that their stonewalling could become a political liability.  Recently, Reps. Robert Wexler (D., Fla.), Luis Gutiérrez (D., Ill.) and Tammy Baldwin (D., Wis.), all members of the Judiciary Committee, have petitioned the other members to begin important impeachment hearings immediately.  Over 170,000 citizens nationwide signed on to Wexler’s letter in only its first six days and the petition received the attention of mainstream media such as the Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald and others.  Wexler hails from Boca Raton, and his heavily Democratic 19^th Congressional District includes parts of Palm Beach and Broward counties.  He has launched a Web site, wexlerwantshearings.com, and continues to gather signatures calling for impeachment hearings against Cheney.   “Our Constitution mandates that the House of Representatives hold presidents and vice presidents accountable when they commit high crimes,’ Wexler remarks in a video on the site.  Wexler says he is aiming for 250,000 signatures. He acknowledges however that he faces a ‘huge uphill battle,’ because House leadership has not been interested.  A veteran member of the House Judiciary Committee, Wexler hopes to deliver the signatures to the committee when Congress shortly returns to Washington. Act V: If At First You Can’t Succeed, Go To Brooklyn In an effort to support Wexler’s efforts and to keep the Cheney impeachment issue in play, activists with Not in Our Name and World Can’t Wait headed to Brooklyn this morning.  Oddly, Nadler’s predominantly Manhattan district also comprises the heavily Russian Coney Island area and the Congressman has a district office here.  Braving the frigid wind, I hopped on the F train in Park Slope.  The ride took only a half hour, though other activists traveled from farther afield.  Why travel so far and not go to Manhattan?   Sadly, such a move has become utterly necessary as Nadler’s Manhattan office is housed in a federal building and security guards will not let activists pass inside.  Located in a nondescript building along Neptune Avenue, Nadler’s Brooklyn office is located near such local businesses as the Belarus convenience store.   By the look of it, the local staff had never seen the likes of a peaceful sit in at their office.   Activists urged Nadler’s people to get the Congressman to sign on to HR 333 and move the resolution on to the floor of the House.  Ilan Kayatsky, Nadler’s Brooklyn Community Representative, gave us the usual line about the Democrats not having the votes to move on impeachment.  In a stretch, he also claimed that taking up the issue would tie up Congress for two years and that such a move would distract from other meaningful legislative efforts.  When pressed however, Kayatsky couldn’t name much in the realm of substantial accomplishments under the Democratic-led Congress. Activists, who had helped to put the Democrats into power in ’06, expressed dismay about the continued funding of the war and demanded to speak to Nadler.  Kayatsky replied that Nadler was not in the office and refused to call his boss.  We asked if he could leave a message with Nadler, which Kayatsky also refused to do.  In a move to dismiss, he said he would contact Nadler in future in an effort to set up a meeting.  Activists, who had long been shrugged off by Nadler, were distrustful of the offer and peacefully sat down on the floor. Outside, I made calls to local media outlets alerting them to our protest.  Presently a reporter from NY1, a local TV station, came to film and interview protesters.  Growing hungry, I started to think how nice it might be to get a bowl of borscht with a dollop of sour cream at one of the local Russian restaurants.  At one point, our group noticed that Robert Gottheim, Nadler’s none too ceremonious aide from Manhattan, was present in the office.  As closing time neared, Kayatsky threatened activists with arrest.  Sure enough, at five o’clock eight strapping cops showed up and tried to discourage activists from getting arrested.  When protesters refused, the police moved in and arrested four women from the group.   Nadler’s Cynical Triangulation Riding home to Park Slope on the F train, I felt a sense of accomplishment in our group’s action.  Nadler surely can’t be happy at the negative publicity on NY1 as well as Air America Radio and WBAI Radio, other media outlets which covered the story.  The reality however is that it is going to take a lot more effort to change Nadler’s position.  At one point while in Nadler’s office, I asked Kayatsky how many activists and protests it would take for the Congressman to consider changing course.  The legislative aide refused to answer. Nadler, who has a pretty liberal record overall and who has been gracious to anti-war protesters, is nevertheless a party hack who cares more about the political fortunes of the Democratic Party than the Constitution or the future of the country.  Unfortunately, he worships party loyalty and his ties to establishment politicians such as Hillary Clinton above all else.  Like many of his peers, Nadler seems to think that the Democrats can wait out the clock until the ’08 election and that the voters, disgusted by the Republicans, will give his own party a more substantial majority.   The Democrats believe that impeachment will turn off most voters and encourage defeat.  It’s a risky strategy however which may lead to failure: according to a recent poll conducted by the American Research Group, a startling 54% of the U.S. public now favors impeachment of Vice President Cheney.  Nikolas Kozloff is a Brooklyn-based writer.  He is the author of Hugo Chávez: Oil, Politics, and The Challenge to the U.S. (Palgrave, 2006) and Revolution! South America and the Rise of the New Left (Palgrave, April 2008).   For more information about upcoming actions related to Congressman Nadler, see: http://www.worldcantwait.net/ For future reference: Jerrold Nadler, 8th-New York District Offices
D.C. Phone: 202-225-5635
Fax: 202-225-6923
E-mail: nadler@hr.house.gov 212-334-3207 (New York) Fax: 212-334-5259
718-373-3198 (Brooklyn) Fax: 718-996-0039  

The Bush Regime has now been caught lying about Iran, destroying the taped evidence of its torture of prisoners – blatantly impeachable offenses, and much more. Yet what major candidate is even talking about stopping torture and repealing the new laws codifying it? What major candidate is supporting impeachment of these criminals? It is up to the people to act.Wednesday, January 2, 10 people sat in in the Brooklyn office of Jerrold Nadler, a key member of the House Judiciary Committee. Impeachment hearings could start by this committee, yet Nadler has joined Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic Party leaders in declaring impeachment off the table.

Protesters from The World Can’t Wait, Not in Our Name, and other groups, demanded to talk with Congressman Nadler to express the sentiment of millions that Bush & Cheney should be impeached for their crimes. On behalf of the Congressmen, his aides refused to even let the protesters talk to Nadler on the phone and instead threatened them with arrest.

At 5:00 PM four women were arrested, held overnight, and release with criminal trespassing charges. They are to appear in court on February 5, 2008.

Just before their arrest, they were interviewed by New York 1, WBAI Evening News and the Thom Hartmann show on Air America. Video by the protesters here .

Press reports on the sit-in and arrest can be found at:

NY1 Video Story

DailyKos

AfterDowningStreet.org
Op-Ed News

New York Daily News blog

New York Sun

Visiting our local Congressman
by Elaine Brower

It is an odd thing when a group of anti-war, pro-impeachment activists have to pay a visit to a local Congressman who is considered the most liberal of representatives in a completely “blue State.” Unfortunately, that is just what we had to do. Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-08), who is extremely progressive and has been an advocate for civil rights and civil liberties for his entire time in office, has for some reason gotten amnesia.
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http://ipetitions.com/petition/freenadler4/