Protestors Join In S.F. To Impeach Bush

Jan. 6 - KGO (KGO) -- To voice their displeasure with the current administration, hundreds of people lined up on Ocean Beach Saturday morning to call for the impeachment of President Bush.

Over one thousand protestors decided to make a stand - by lying down.

Protestor: "I'd like to see him impeached for every crime he's committed since he was appointed to his office."

Fingers up - heads down - they lined Ocean Beach, to form the word impeach -- exclamation point included.

Dan Brook, Protestor: "Every great idea starts with people -- it has to start with people or it will never happen -- so it has to start with us."

ABC7's Noel Cisneros: "Do you think the country has the stomach for another impeachment?"

Dan Brook: "I think we don't have the stomach for another two years of Bush."

The "Impeach on the Beach" project is the brain child of Brad Newsham -- who got the idea from looking at Google satellite images with his daughter.

Brad Newsham, Event Organizer: "I hope we send a message of what a great country we have, and what horrible leadership we have, and we hope the message gets back to Washington -- and impeachment gets put back onto the table where the American people want it to be."

ABC7 Legal Analyst Dean Johnson: "You can't impeach a president for incompetence."

Dean Johnson is a former prosecutor and he says the strongest legal case against Mr. Bush would likely be for the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretaps of millions of American telephone calls.

ABC7 Legal Analyst Dean Johnson: "Section 1809 of the FISA Act provides that any public official who engages in a wiretap, without authorization, is guilty of a felony - I think it's beyond a reasonable dispute that President Bush violated that statute."

With Democrats now a majority in the House - an impeachment could be brought up. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that it is not on the table in this Congress. Impeachment straddles the legal and political and it is the Senate that conducts a trial. Democrats are also short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict a president for high crimes and misdemeanors.

We spoke with the communications director at the California Republican Party. He said the idea of impeachment is in his words ridiculous. He said if this is the kind of program the Democrats are trying to push they are not ready to govern, nor are they ready to assume a national security role.

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