Mar 2, 2006 3:17 PM ET
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Board passes resolution to impeach Bush, Cheney
City Hall Watch
By Justin Jouvenal
Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, March 1, 2006 3:30 PM PST
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If it was up to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney would be shown the door.

Never shy about wading into controversial national issues, the board on Tuesday approved a strongly worded resolution calling for the impeachment of the president and the vice president for a laundry list of alleged crimes.

The offenses include “misleading” the American people into an unnecessary war in Iraq, torture, “disregarding” presidential duty in the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina and alleged illegal wiretapping. The board has no say over impeachment — that is the purview of the U.S. Congress — but Supervisor Chris Daly, who sponsored the resolution, said it was an important symbolic statement.


“The case is clear and it’s appropriate for us to weigh in,” Daly said. “We regularly weigh in with state and federal officials on items that we feel should be in front of them.”

But some supervisors argued the board — which over the years has been criticized by many for its symbolic stands on national and international issues — should instead focus on city problems.

“I don’t think we need to be calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney, as much as we don’t like them and as much as we don’t like the policies they put forward,” Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier said. “I also believe [Sens.] Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein do us … justice in representing us in the Capitol in Washington, D.C.”



San Francisco has found itself in the eye of a conservative storm in recent weeks — not an unusual place for the famously liberal city.

Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval drew dozens of angry phone calls when he suggested on a Fox News program in early February that the United States should not have a military. And the Southern California town of Highland voted against spending any money to send city employees on trips to San Francisco. The move came after The City’s voters approved a resolution calling for the banning of military recruiters on school campuses.

Mayor Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that he had not decided whether he would sign the resolution.