This week, in the online edition of The Progressive, editor and writer Matthew Rothschild made a rather convincing case for impeaching President Bush and Vice President Cheney. The article is too lengthy to present in this space but, in part, it reads:

Grounds For Impeachment

George W. Bush and his Administration have been so brazen in violating the law and asserting monarchical powers that we, as American citizens, must use the tool that the Constitution provides to reassert our rights, to reset the system of checks and balances, and to reestablish our democracy. That tool is impeachment.

Article II, Section 4, states: “The President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.�

Notice that the Vice President is specifically mentioned. So while we’re advocating the impeachment of George W. Bush, let’s not stop there. Impeach Dick Cheney, too. For Cheney has been in on every illegal act that Bush has committed.

And notice the phrase “other high crimes and misdemeanors.� At the Constitutional Convention, the drafters had originally restricted impeachment to “treason� and “bribery.� But George Mason, one of the influential delegates, found those terms insufficient, according to Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush, a new and highly informative book by the Center for Constitutional Rights. Those terms “will not reach many great and dangerous offenses,� Mason said, including “attempts to subvert the Constitution.� After some wrangling over wording, the founders agreed to James Madison’s phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors.�

And that is exactly what George W. Bush has been committing: He’s been subverting our Constitution, and he has repeatedly violated his oath of office to “faithfully execute� his duties and to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.�

He has done so in four key areas: in the Iraq War, in detentions here at home and abroad, in the torture scandal, and in the NSA warrantless spying program. more…

Rothschild proceeds to elaborate on the high crimes of Bush and Cheney in these four areas. While, in truth, I did not require much convincing that our less than esteemed leaders have committed impeachable offenses, I was even more convinced after reading the article. I believe that it is high time that the President and Vice President be held accountable for their high crimes and that the members of Congress be actively encouraged by we the people to uphold the law and their sworn duty and so begin impeachment proceedings. In order to provide said encouragement to our elected representatives, I propose the following campaign:

**GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT**

Demonstrate your belief that grounds for impeachment currently exist by mailing your used coffee grounds to your senators, representatives, and/or the White House! This nation produces a whole lot of coffee grounds, not surprising since recent surveys suggest that 172 million adults are daily coffee drinkers. (By comparison, a little over 121 million Americans voted in the last Presidential election.) Rather than just tossing the old coffee grounds in the trash, why not put them to use? Dry them out, pour them in an envelope or package them up, enclose a note of explanation if you wish, and send a much-needed wake-up call to your elected officials. Let them know that you are more than tea-ed off and want action. Mailing addresses for your Senators can be found here, for your House representatives here, and for the White House here. The Boston Tea Party was a dramatic moment in American history and led to the end of despotic rule. Perhaps the Washington Coffee Party can achieve similar results.