Put impeachment on the table

Re “West Hollywood votes to impeach Bush and Cheney,” July 22

Kudos to West Hollywood, the first city in Southern California to stand up and let it be known that it believes in our Constitution. City Council members have told the entire nation that they believe in stopping precedent-setting that would allow future presidents to commit crimes and have them ignored.

It is time for Los Angeles to stand up and join the 80 cities that have censured President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for an endless stream of violations that do not represent our values: torture, illegal wiretapping, lying and ignoring Congress and the laws of our land. An impeachment resolution would tell Washington and the American people that we value our great Constitution, and we do not believe that any president has the right to ignore it.

Marilyn Goodman

Santa Monica

A West Hollywood resident says that it is wrong to be “disagreeing with elected officials and then trying to recall or impeach them.” This is not about mere disagreement. This is about violating the Constitution. This is about an abuse of power that is attempting to eliminate the lawful powers of the other branches of government; for example, the White House refuses to prosecute any official for contempt of Congress.

This is a danger to the United States that will not be removed by an election. If we allow the precedent to stand that these actions are lawful, all future presidents, Democrat or Republican, will be able to grab the same unconstitutional powers. If we do not stop this now, some future president might grab all these powers and more. I do not care if Bush is impeached on his last day of office. He must be impeached to protect the Constitution and our country.

Richard M. Mathews

Porter Ranch