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US House holds hearing to criticize President Bush

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-26 10:06

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. House committee held a hearing on Friday for critics of President George W. Bush's policies.

The Democratic-dominated Judiciary Committee insisted that the hearing was not about impeachment of President Bush but a chance to charge him with all his impeachable "high crimes and misdemeanors."

U.S. President George W. Bush. He makes a statement at the conclusion of the G8 Summit at The Windsor Hotel Toya Resort and Spa in Toyako, Japan July 9, 2008. [Agencies]

The leading speaker, Representative from Ohio and former Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, urged the committee to "support and defend the constitution that has been trampled time and again over the last seven years."

He has repeatedly introduced a resolution to the floor to impeach Bush and his vice president, Dick Cheney, whose terms would expire in January, 2009.

U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey (L) and U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (R) arrive to testify before a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the George W. Bush presidency called "Executive Power and Its Constitutional Limitation" on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 25, 2008. [Agencies]

"The decision before us is whether to demand accountability for one of the gravest injustices imaginable," Kucinich told the hearing.

However, the committee chairman, John Conyers, made it clear "to the regret of many, this is not an impeachment hearing," but about executive power and its constitutional limitations, which as he listed include "the politicization of the Department of Justice, the misuse of signing statements, the misuse of authority with regard to detention, interrogation and rendition, possible manipulation of intelligence regarding the Iraq war, improper retaliation against critics of the administration ... and excessive secrecy."

On the other hand, Republicans in the committee expressed their suspicion at motives of the hearing.

"It seems that we are hosting an anger management class," said Representative Lamar Smith. "This hearing will not cause us to impeach the president; it will only serve to impeach Congress's credibility."