Here is a statement Jonathan Tasini made to the press today.

“I support Sen. Russ Feingold’s proposal that the U.S. Senate censure George Bush for his illegal wiretapping of American citizens. Feingold is right when he asserts that the Bush Administration, ‘repeatedly misled the public prior to the public disclosure of the National Security Agency surveillance program by indicating his administration was relying on court orders to wiretap suspected terrorists inside the United States.’

I call on Hillary Clinton to join me in supporting Feingold’s proposal.

At the same time that I support Feingold’s proposal, I believe that the illegal conduct of this Administration has been so rampant as to justify the filing of Articles of Impeachment in the House of Representatives against the president and the vice-president.

Articles of Impeachment are an indictment. There are people sitting in jail today in America who were indicted on far less evidence than exists against this president and this vice-president. From misleading the American public about the Iraq war to the illegal wiretapping of American citizens to the new revelations that the Administration mislead the public about its handling of Hurricane Katrina, there is a substantial body of evidence that justifies the filing Articles of Impeachment.

Some of the timid leaders in the Democratic Party argue that impeachment should not be pursued because Democrats do not control Congress and, therefore, impeachment will fail. That argument is precisely the reason Democrats are in the minority: a lack of courage, a lack of vision and an unwillingness to lead on principle. The majority of the American people believe the president and vice-president should be impeached if it can be shown that they committed “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the Constitutional threshold for impeachment. From the Iraq War, illegal detentions here at home and abroad, the torture scandal, the NSA spying program and Katrina, this Administration’s conduct has far exceeded the Constitutional threshold.

When will the Democratic Party show leadership and defend our basic democratic system by bringing to account, via impeachment, an Administration that places itself above the law?