Councilor Linda Johnson adds item to agenda

By Barney Lerten, KTVZ.COM

"All politics are local," Bend City Councilor Linda Johnson said Tuesday, after putting Item 3a on the council's Wednesday night agenda. And it's no little item, but a resolution that blasts President Bush and Vice President Cheney and calls for their impeachment for intentionally misleading the nation into a bloody, protracted war.

If three colleagues join Johnson in voting yes - and there's no guarantee of that - Bend will become one of dozens of cities across the country that have weighed in on the nation's biggest controversy, on the side of those opposed to the war and the administration's role in it.

Calvin Mann has led a cadre of fellow anti-war activists to the microphone at the visitor's section of recent council meetings, asking the council to take a stand and also to host a town hall on the topic. Mayor Bruce Abernethy suggested that Mann seek support from individual councilors, if he wanted to proceed.

Mann said Tuesday he contacted all seven councilors by e-mail and that Johnson, Abernethy and colleagues Peter Gramlich and Jim Clinton "all responded, pretty gracious and thoughtful. The other three never replied."

"Linda was definitely gung-ho on it and started giving me notes on how to amend the (proposed) resolution," Mann said, adding that he found the original draft passed by another city on the Internet. But when she informed him of the item being added to Wednesday night's agenda, Mann said Johnson also told her, "It doesn't look like you've got the votes" for it to pass.

Johnson told KTVZ.COM Wednesday she will back the resolution that she's offered up. But she said she's also "divided" on the idea of it being germane to city business, though she believes the war has cost everyone in more than bloodshed - for cities like Bend, a share of cold, hard federal dollars that instead are going to the war.

"As locally elected officials, we are struggling to provide basic services at a time when the Iraq War's costs are mounting," the preamble to the two-page resolution (full text at http://www.ci.bend.or.us/city_hall/meeting_minutes/docs/Resolution_Impeach_Bush.pdf - Adobe Acrobat Reader required) begins.

Johnson said, "On the one hand, it's not directly relevant to council business, and so there's a quite legitimate argument about this not pertaining to city departments and jurisdiction."

"But I also feel as council members, we are members of society," she said. "And if there's something that has impact - the war in Iraq is depleting government resources, so we're not getting federal funding for health care, for planning, homeland security, because those resources are going to Iraq - then I think there is a legitimate case where the city could say we are (affected)."

"I support sending a message we are not happy, and the country is suffering, both economically and on the moral stage," the city councilor said.

The resolution claims Bush and Cheney "did conspire with others to intentionally mislead the nation about the threat from Iraq in order to justify a war of aggression against that country, in violation of" federal law and the U.N. Charter.

It also says the president admits to ordering electronically surveillance of U.S. citizens without court warrants, and that he and Cheney "conspired to condone the torture of prisoners."

It also goes a bit off-topic in claiming the two men "ordered the deliberate suppression and falsification of scientific information and findings on climate change."

Because Bush and Cheney "have placed themselves above the law ... damaging the reputation and security of the United States," the resolution would have the city calling on the U.S. House "to formally and properly investigate these charges an determine if impeachment is warranted, and if found to be so warranted to vote to impeach" the president and vice president.

Johnson said of the resolution, "I do believe the public has a right to make those requests and has a right to an answer, and to hear individual councilors' feelings on that. I struggle to turn my back on a public or community member when they have something that they're passionate about."

"Civil discourse is a really important thing to me," she said. "People shrug their shoulders and say, ‘What can I do? It's not my problem.' I can't turn my back on that."

Mann, who said he gathered 450 petition signatures in just a few hours, said he's sure some councilors will view the resolution as, "Let's get this over with. Let's get these activists out of there."

"If they vote no, maybe there's another way to keep plugging at ‘em," said Mann, who used his traditional e-mail list to urge people to show up at City Hall and wear orange as a symbol of their support for the impeachment drive.

"The problem is, a large portion of the feedback I get is, ‘Yes, they are guilty of at least impeachable offenses, yes, they should be kicked out on their butt - but it'll never happen,'" Mann said. "So they've lost faith in the system. They believe it's under the control of big corporations and the media."