Johnson, Clinton, and ...Bush?

In parts of Vermont and Massachusetts, people are calling for support in the impeachment of President George Bush. In four Vermont towns, people voted to impeach the president for "lying about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction and for sanctioning torture." Despite the remarks, many Democratic representatives believe this to be a bad idea. As shown by a poll by Zogby International, fifty-one percent of voters believe Bush should be impreached if he lied about Iraq, a greater percentage than those who voted against President Clinton during the Monica S. Lewinsky scandal. Bush has received the lowest approval ratings by the American citizens than any recent president. People have criticized Bush, blaming him for things such as warrentless electronic surviellance of cell phones, emails, as well as approval of harsh interrogations of prisoners; torture.

If the president says 'We made mistakes,' fine, let's move on," said Rep. Michael E.
Capuano (D-Mass.). "But if he lied to get America into a war, I can't imagine anything
more impeachable.

Throughout American history there have been two presidential impeachments. In 1868, Andrew Johnson was put on trial by his Senate. Around the time of the reconstruction period after the Civil War, Johnson's view of the rearrangement of the south differed greatly from his Congress'. Johnson's senate pushed for impeachments after the suspension of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Although Nixon resigned before he was released, recommendations on the impeachment trial were made between 1986 and 1989. On December 19, 1998, two articles of impeachment were approved by the House of Representatives against President Clinton. The articles claimed that Clinton had "willfully corrupted and manipulated the judicial process" and had committed the definition of "high crimes and misdemeanors". On February 12, 1999 the second president of United States history was impeached.