Can the public do anything to impeach the president?

Question

How do you impeach a president? Can an individual start a petition or something? Or does Congress hold the sole power to impeach. If so, how can a person convince congress members to impeach?

Answer 1

The Government is the Public. That is what a Republic of Democracy means. The people are the Government and the Government is the people. Remember By the people and for the people, that is what they meant when the thing was written.
So yes, the peoples representatives in Congress and the Senate can formally impeach a President, and The Public Citizen can also have an affect on a Presidents appointed power and privilege.
This is some web junk about an Impeachment and the articles that are proposed.
Articles of Impeachment

of

President George W. Bush

and

Vice President Richard B. Cheney,
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, and
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

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. - - ARTICLE II, SECTION 4 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have committed violations and subversions of the Constitution of the United States of America in an attempt to carry out with impunity crimes against peace and humanity and war crimes and deprivations of the civil rights of the people of the United States and other nations, by assuming powers of an imperial executive unaccountable to law and usurping powers of the Congress, the Judiciary and those reserved to the people of the United States, by the following acts:

1) Seizing power to wage wars of aggression in defiance of the U.S. Constitution, the U.N. Charter and the rule of law; carrying out a massive assault on and occupation of Iraq, a country that was not threatening the United States, resulting in the death and maiming of over one hundred thousand Iraqis, and thousands of U.S. G.I.s.

2) Lying to the people of the U.S., to Congress, and to the U.N., providing false and deceptive rationales for war.

3) Authorizing, ordering and condoning direct attacks on civilians, civilian facilities and locations where civilian casualties were unavoidable.

4) Instituting a secret and illegal wiretapping and spying operation against the people of the United States through the National Security Agency.

5) Threatening the independence and sovereignty of Iraq by belligerently changing its government by force and assaulting Iraq in a war of aggression.

6) Authorizing, ordering and condoning assassinations, summary executions, kidnappings, secret and other illegal detentions of individuals, torture and physical and psychological coercion of prisoners to obtain false statements concerning acts and intentions of governments and individuals and violating within the United States, and by authorizing U.S. forces and agents elsewhere, the rights of individuals under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

7) Making, ordering and condoning false statements and propaganda about the conduct of foreign governments and individuals and acts by U.S. government personnel; manipulating the media and foreign governments with false information; concealing information vital to public discussion and informed judgment concerning acts, intentions and possession, or efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction in order to falsely create a climate of fear and destroy opposition to U.S. wars of aggression and first strike attacks.

8) Violations and subversions of the Charter of the United Nations and international law, both a part of the "Supreme Law of the land" under Article VI, paragraph 2, of the Constitution, in an attempt to commit with impunity crimes against peace and humanity and war crimes in wars and threats of aggression against Afghanistan, Iraq and others and usurping powers of the United Nations and the peoples of its nations by bribery, coercion and other corrupt acts and by rejecting treaties, committing treaty violations, and frustrating compliance with treaties in order to destroy any means by which international law and institutions can prevent, affect, or adjudicate the exercise of U.S. military and economic power against the international community.

9) Acting to strip United States citizens of their constitutional and human rights, ordering indefinite detention of citizens, without access to counsel, without charge, and without opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to challenge the detention, based solely on the discretionary designation by the Executive of a citizen as an "enemy combatant."

10) Ordering indefinite detention of non-citizens in the United States and elsewhere, and without charge, at the discretionary designation of the Attorney General or the Secretary of Defense.

11) Ordering and authorizing the Attorney General to override judicial orders of release of detainees under INS jurisdiction, even where the judicial officer after full hearing determines a detainee is wrongfully held by the government.

12) Authorizing secret military tribunals and summary execution of persons who are not citizens who are designated solely at the discretion of the Executive who acts as indicting official, prosecutor and as the only avenue of appellate relief.

13) Refusing to provide public disclosure of the identities and locations of persons who have been arrested, detained and imprisoned by the U.S. government in the United States, including in response to Congressional inquiry.

14) Use of secret arrests of persons within the United States and elsewhere and denial of the right to public trials.

15) Authorizing the monitoring of confidential attorney-client privileged communications by the government, even in the absence of a court order and even where an incarcerated person has not been charged with a crime.

16) Ordering and authorizing the seizure of assets of persons in the United States, prior to hearing or trial, for lawful or innocent association with any entity that at the discretionary designation of the Executive has been deemed "terrorist."

17) Engaging in criminal neglect in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, depriving thousands of people in Louisiana, Mississippi and other Gulf States of urgently needed support, causing mass suffering and unnecessary loss of life.

18) Institutionalization of racial and religious profiling and authorization of domestic spying by federal law enforcement on persons based on their engagement in noncriminal religious and political activity.

19) Refusal to provide information and records necessary and appropriate for the constitutional right of legislative oversight of executive functions.

20) Rejecting treaties protective of peace and human rights and abrogation of the obligations of the United States under, and withdrawal from, international treaties and obligations without consent of the legislative branch, and including termination of the ABM treaty between the United States and Russia, and rescission of the authorizing signature from the Treaty of Rome which served as the basis for the International Criminal Court.
This interest
Just one is an Impeachable offense, so pick and choose.
http://www.impeachbush.org/site/PageServer
Its Article III
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_in_the_United_States
Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution 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.
That Misdemeanors part is what gets flaky, but it has been used.

Answer 2

You can complain to your Senator & Congressman.
They would file charges for impeachment but they do need reason. They have no reason - not liking the President or even disagreeing with the President is not a reason for impeachment.
President Bush has done nothing that allows impeachment (that is why the Democrats that control the Senate & the Congress have not tried to impeach him).
Write them or email them. It is not by public opinion though.
2 presidents have been impeached throughout history - Andrew Jackson & Bill Clinton (Richard Nixon resigned & was never impeached). There have been several presidents that no one liked.

Answer 3

Honey,you can do whatever you want to in this country to try and impeach Bush but I'm sorry to tell you that through all of your efforts and all of those who will support you, you will not accomplish a damn thing except maybe get media attention and even that will die out eventually and then they will put you on the back burner and forget about you.

Don't believe me?

Ask Cindy Sheehan.

Addition :

I'm sorry to those who disagree with me enough to give me the thumb down vote but I am telling you the truth so it doesn't really matter how many thumb down votes I get on here concerning this because facts are facts and truth is truth regardless of who believes what.
I brought up Cindy Sheehan ,not out of disrespect for her cause I do mourn with her in her loss of her son but,because ever since she has lost her son she and others has rallied against Bush to bring the troops home and some say she is rallying to impeach Bush also but it has been to no avail nor will she and others to seek to impeach Bush ever succeed.
I applaud her,yours and others for speaking up and speaking out for what you believe in because that is what America is about,we have thart right to do so to protest and to petition here in America.
If anyone can make enough of a voice to petition congress to impeach Bush and we actually do have an impeachment trial against Bush in progress then I will unconditionally back you up but if all you all are going to do is get on the internet and bad mouth against the President and do nothing more then you are just a waste of time blowing hot air and foaming at the mouth.
You do have a voice,you do have the power,use it and use it wisely.

Answer 4

Congress can only begin impeachment proceedings against a President... the process starts with the accusation and the filing of charges and results in an indictment... the end result is the removal from office, so you can see it's a long and arduous task !
As a private citizen, you could possibly bring a lawsuit against a President... but not an accusation resulting in charges, unless of course he personally did something to you (ie battery,rape, manslaughter )... The President is protected against charges of misconduct from the general public because of his actions related to his service to the country... but if he were to get behind the wheel of a car and run you over, or shoot you in the face like Dick Chaney... you could file charges against the man himself and not the Presidency... Maybe if old "W" ties one on and takes a joy ride down 16th street and you just happened to be a DC tourist standing in the street there... you might just have a case !

Answer 5

the rules for impeachment are very clearly laid out in the Constitution. you have the right ot petition your government- also clearly laid out in the Constitution.

if Clinton escaped impeachment, it's doubtful that any traction can be gained to impeach GW...there are always hordes of people who disagree with any President, and granted, Bush has dealt with extreme problems ( the likes of which no other president since Lincoln has faced ) and not always to the liking of everyone (especially the Press), but nothing has he done that approaches the specific charges that must be proved to successfully remove him from office.

all this should have been taught to you in school. maybe it's your teachers who should be impeached.

Answer 6

You can do your homework. Get a group together, hopefully recruit an attroeny familiar with Constitutional law and make your case. List all the many instances where WB has violated his Oath of Office (one is an impeachable offense). Then circulate that among people in your Congressional District and get signatures, send your petition on to other people you know around the country and have them do the same and send the signed petitions to their Congressmen and Senators. Let your elected representatives know how absolutely fed up you are.

Remember, Thomas Jefferson was considered a rabble-rouser by the British Crown when he wrote the Declaration of Independence and told George III that we were done with him. maybe it's time for citizens to do the same with George the Lesser.

Answer 7

Bush can be impeached for purposefully failing to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution. Cheney's company Haliburton benefitted from Bush's decision, which gives Cheney motive.

Bush and Cheney can be impeached at the same time.

Also, Congressmen can be impeached too. Obviously there are members in Congress who are taking bribes when impeachment isn't being considered on behalf of the 70% of Americans who do not support Bush.

Answer 8

we can do pretty much all we want and it won't make a signifcant difference. the only people who have the final say is the Senate (a 3/4 vote by them is required in order to impeach). although, petitions and complaining does spur the senate to look into impeachment, so it is worth something to do so. many letters from different people, rallies, petitions, and all of the usual protesting tactics can be useful when you can get enough people supporting them

Answer 9

That would be a wasted effort at this point. By the time anything is completed, he will be out anyways.
Besides...He has to have done something illegal in order to get impeached.

Answer 10

President has two years left and you want to waste my time with the trouble with impeaching him. Try voting, Its a good bet that you didn't

Answer 11

first of all, clinton became impeached for perjury-mendacity below oath to a grand jury-the subject material of his lies is immaterial-he became fortunate to no longer have been faraway from workplace secondly, bush did no longer do something in iraq that became no longer supported by skill of the two events in congress-each little thing bush reported approximately iraq had earlier been reported by skill of the two clintons, pelosi, reid, kennedy, biden, gore, and something of the democratic management...you easily need to sidestep the knee-jerk left wing cindy sheehan style hyperbole; your ranting and wailing approximately 'a great american city layed (sic) in destroy' makes you sound retarded...enormous apple and washington have been attacked, however the WTC isn't all of enormous apple, and the pentagon isn't all of washington...if making the deficit upward push and a loss of reaction to our usa being attacked is your standards for a president being bumped off, your moon-bat chum carter ought to have been tarred and feathered-and characteristic you forgotten democrat icons jfk and lbj dragging us into vietnam, a lots worse tragedy with much less justification?