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WHY MORMON MEN CAN’T BE TRUSTED — A ex-Mormon woman looks back at the Church. PLUS It’s fifty years since the Port Huron statement. Alexander Cockburn on the origins of SDS and one of the crucial documents of the 1960s. PLUS Two ounces of oil + a fishing boat + Homeland Security Incident #995038 = the onward march of totalitarianism in America. Read Captain Knutson’s story.

October 12, 2005

Clinton, Bush and the Polls

Impeachment, Now and Then

by DAVE LINDORFF

Here’s a fascinating bit of news: More people today want to see President Bush impeached than wanted Clinton impeached on the eve of the House’s vote on his impeachment.

According to a poll by the Zogby organization, just released by the group Afterdowningstreet.org, 50 percent of the American public now would like to see the House impeach Bush if it were found that he had lied about the reasons for going to war in Iraq (if?).

Compare that to December 17, 1998, only days before Clinton’s impeachment by the House of Representatives, when an AP poll found that only 36 percent of the American public wanted to see the president impeached.

Clearly Americans view the flawed invasion of Iraq and other actions by the Bush administration, like the placing of business cronies in high places, the bankrupting of the federal government, and the failure to come to the rescue of an American city as far more serious than Clinton’s sex romp and the lying about it that followed. And there’s plenty more bad news to come for Bush, beginning with likely indictments in the Plame outing affair.

So, is the campaign by After Downing Street and other organizations to seek Bush’s impeachment just tilting at windmills? It certainly isn’t likely to happen with the current Republican domination of the House, but if public anger against Bush continues to grow, that could all change in November 2006, when all House seats are up for reelection.

The latest poll suggests we may have an entertaining 2006 and 2007.

DAVE LINDORFF is the author of Killing Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. His new book of CounterPunch columns titled "This Can’t be Happening!" is published by Common Courage Press. Information about both books and other work by Lindorff can be found at www.thiscantbehappening.net.

He can be reached at: dlindorff@yahoo.com

CLARIFICATION

ALEXANDER COCKBURN, JEFFREY ST CLAIR, BECKY GRANT AND THE INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF JOURNALISTIC CLARITY, COUNTERPUNCH

We published an article entitled "A Saudiless Arabia" by Wayne Madsen dated October 22, 2002 (the "Article"), on the website of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity, CounterPunch, www.counterpunch.org (the "Website").

Although it was not our intention, counsel for Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi has advised us the Article suggests, or could be read as suggesting, that Mr Al Amoudi has funded, supported, or is in some way associated with, the terrorist activities of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

We do not have any evidence connecting Mr Al Amoudi with terrorism.

As a result of an exchange of communications with Mr Al Amoudi’s lawyers, we have removed the Article from the Website.

We are pleased to clarify the position.

August 17, 2005