Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak asks ImpeachforPeace.org to “not include me as someone who supports impeachment”

jodinrybak.jpg~ Jodin Morey speaking with Mayor Rybak on May Day
by Mikael Rudolph of ImpeachforPeace.org

In an article published by our organization on Monday, May 7th, the day after the May Day parade: Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak: ‘Bush/Cheney actions justify impeachment’ we reported that the mayor had approached us in the staging area prior to the parade and told us that he was in favor of the impeachment of President George W. Bush.

In light of a strong denial issued from the mayor’s office concerning his support – or rather lack thereof – of impeachment, we feel compelled to share our experience.

The second and third paragraphs of the article in question read as follows:

As we were preparing to march, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak stopped by and shared his thoughts on impeachment. At first, he noted, he had considered impeachment a distraction from the important political work that needed to be done, but he had been convinced after hearing a talk by Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower who leaked “The Pentagon Papers” in 1971: “If the actions of the Bush Administration don’t justify impeachment, what would?”

Mayor Rybak chatted with us briefly before departing, and soon after, Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) stopped by and gave his best wishes to impeachment marchers. Rep. Ellison also indicated that he would be interested in hosting a Town Hall meeting on impeachment. Both Rep. Ellison and Mayor Rybak were given ImpeachforPeace.org buttons, which they promptly pinned to their shirts.

With Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) enthusiastically agreeing that day to our request for him to host a Minneapolis Town Hall meeting on the topic of impeachment (now tentatively scheduled for Sunday, September 23rd) we were very excited to hear that we could also now count upon the mayor’s support of our organization’s mission… or so each IFP member who spoke with the mayor that day thought.

That friday the following e-mail was forwarded to us that was being circulated in local peace and justice activism circles as a response to those who had contacted the mayor’s office regarding this apparent revelation.

[all e-mails verbatim as received by us except e-mails removed to protect against SPAM]

Date: Fri, 11 May 2007 17:12:29 -0500
From: “Smith, Tina F.”
Subject: EMAIL FROM MAYOR R.T. RYBAK:
Inaccurate email

EMAIL ON BEHALF OF MAYOR R.T. RYBAK

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

There are emails circulating that inaccurately say that I support
impeachment of the President.
This is not true.
I have asked them to
stop, but they have continued.
If you get one of these emails, please
help me set the record straight.

I have been deeply opposed to the War in Iraq from the beginning, and I
remain so. We must demand accountability from the President and this
administration.
I believe, however, the impeachment process would be a
distraction from the crucial work of holding this administration
accountable.

Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any additional
questions about this issue and my position.

Thank you,
R.T. Rybak
Minneapolis Mayor

Email sent by:

Tina Smith – Chief of Staff
Office of Mayor R.T. Rybak
Suite 331, CIty Hall
350 South Fifth Street
Minneapolis, MN
55415
612-673-2100

A number of things about this e-mail catch our notice:

~ The e-mail was sent from the mayor’s chief of staff’s e-mail account, yet is ‘signed’ by the mayor.

~ The subject says that it is “FROM” the mayor, but the heading in the body of the e-mail says it is: “ON BEHALF OF” the mayor.

~ The existence of a dichotomy in the text:

“We must demand accountability from the President and this administration.
I believe, however, the impeachment process would be a distraction from the crucial work of holding this administration accountable.”

Impeachment is accountability. It is the process of accountability established by our nation’s founders to protect our nation from exactly the crisis situation we find ourselves in today. There is no other legal political means by which to directly hold the President and Vice President accountable for their crimes and misdemeanors.

~ Finally, the e-mail represents a simple denial of support for impeachment. Here is what the following members of ImpeachforPeace.org remembered of their encounter with the mayor that day:

“Before the May Day parade, Mayor Rybak approached me, introduced himself, and spoke about his own recent conversion to the cause of impeachment as a result of words by Daniel Ellsberg. We chatted briefly about this topic before Mayor Rybak moved on.”

~ D.L. Corvin (co-writer of article mentioned above)

“I was wearing an orange “detainee” Guantanamo jumpsuit when the Minneapolis Mayor eagerly told me about how his mind had been changed on impeachment.
He described how he met Daniel Ellsberg, who had challenged his reticence by asking him what president could ever be impeached, if not Bush.
The mayor described how he and his wife had discussed this question in the car on the way home, and that it had helped him to change his mind in supporting impeachment.
I then told the mayor that it was also crucial to set a precedent for future presidents that this criminal behavior wouldn’t be tolerated, to maintain the rule of law.”

~ Jodin Morey (IFP co-founder and creator of the DIY impeachment).

“I recall RT saying that he had found the arguments for impeachment very convincing […] he mentioned something about a need to impeach Bush because if he wasn’t impeached, then who possibly would be.”

~ another IFP marcher

This writer was also present. What the mayor said directly to me led me to believe that he was in support of the impeachment of President Bush. I removed one of the ImpeachforPeace buttons off of my shirt and handed it to him. He promptly pinned it to his shirt. I went and found a member with a camera to capture this monumental moment on disc. One of the photos taken appear at the top of this page. Our small ImpeachforPeace.org button can be seen between the “Obama” and “Ellison” stickers on the mayor’s shirt.

We sent the following letter to the mayor in response to the e-mail issued from his Chief of Staff’s e-mail account. It is important to note that we decided at our weekly meeting the following Tuesday night that with the veracity of our reporting and thus the integrity of our organization in question, we could not afford to keep this e-mail exchange ‘close to the vest’:

From: Mikael Rudolph
ҬSent: Sunday, May 13, 2007 10:26 PM
ҬTo: R.T. Rybak
ҬCc: Smith, Tina F.
ҬSubject: Impeachment

Honorable Mayor R.T. Rybak,

(cc: Ms. Tina Smith, the leadership of IFP and two esteemed local peace leaders ‘in the loop’. It is our intent to keep this circle closed if at all possible.)

We would like to discuss with you at your earliest convenience a matter of extreme importance to our organization and its relationship with your offices.

In the staging area in advance of the May Day Parade last Sunday six of us involved with ImpeachforPeace.org were readying ourselves to march in our orange “Gitmo detainee” jumpsuits with our “IMPEACHFORPEACE.ORG” banner when you were gracious enough to approach us to discuss our mission. Three representatives from Amnesty International in yellow suits and one dressed as the iconic “crucified/wired stress position detainee” were also assembling with us, expanding our group to ten members.

Without prompting from anyone in our group that we are aware of, you shared with us that you had previously been opposed to the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney as a “political distraction” but that after hearing Daniel Ellsberg speak on the topic you and your wife had discussed impeachment on the drive home and had come to the conclusion together that impeachment was the proper remedy for the situation at hand.

Mikael Rudolph handed you one of our “IMPEACHFORPEACE.ORG” buttons, which you promptly put on your shirt. Then as you were speaking with Jodin Morey, D.L. Corvin took some photographs. If you click on the photo found here to enlarge it:

https://impeachforpeace.org/impeach_bush_blog/?p=1652, the IFP button, although small, is clearly seen between the “Ellison” and “Obama” stickers on your shirt.

At least four of our members have confirmed that they heard you express your support for impeachment efforts and we are waiting to hear from the others who were present.

Mr. Corvin wrote the article linked above with the help of Natalie Morrison about our entire MayDay experience. Ms. Morrison was tabling at Powderhorn Park during the parade and assisted with that perspective on the event for the article.

As soon as the article was finished and we had photographs in hand, we posted the article on our webite

http://impeachforpeace.org
and sent out an e-mail promoting it. It was also forwarded to reddit, Digg, Buzzflash and other independent information distribution sites, just as we do with any other significant impeachment-related article. For example, here is the article we posted after our meeting with Rep. Keith Ellison last month: https://impeachforpeace.org/impeach_bush_blog/?p=1361

We were greatly disheartened and dismayed when the following e-mail was forwarded to us as apparently issued from your offices. If it was not generated from your offices, please let us know:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Date: Fri, 11 May 2007 17:12:29 -0500
From: “Smith, Tina F.”
Subject: EMAIL FROM MAYOR R.T. RYBAK:
Inaccurate email

EMAIL ON BEHALF OF MAYOR R.T. RYBAK

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

There are emails circulating that inaccurately say that I support
impeachment of the President.
This is not true.
I have asked them to
stop, but they have continued.
If you get one of these emails, please
help me set the record straight.

I have been deeply opposed to the War in Iraq from the beginning, and I
remain so. We must demand accountability from the President and this
administration.
I believe, however, the impeachment process would be a
distraction from the crucial work of holding this administration
accountable.

Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any additional
questions about this issue and my position.

Thank you,
R.T. Rybak
Minneapolis Mayor

Email sent by:

Tina Smith – Chief of Staff
Office of Mayor R.T. Rybak
Suite 331, CIty Hall
350 South Fifth Street
Minneapolis, MN
55415
612-673-2100
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Again, many of our members present heard you express your support for impeachment. This e-mail represents either an equivocation on your part or simply crossed signals or crossed purposes within your offices. We understand that sometimes it is necessary politically to hold separate personal and public stances on issues, but when this opinion was spoken publicly to our group and offered to us so freely, we felt it was our right and responsibility to share it broadly.

We are not interested in causing undue controversy, nor do we have any interest whatsoever in doing you political harm. We know you to be a strong political ally in opposition to the war as well as in holding the Bush Administration accountable and reversing their disastrous policies whose effects are felt globally, nationally and locally.

On the other hand, we are a non-partisan citizen-run organization dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their words as well as their actions. Most importantly to us, over the past year and a half since our inception, we have worked very hard to earn the trust and respect of fellow activists and peace and justice activism organizations around the nation and locally as well as the trust and respect of the media as a reliable source for impeachment-related news. This article is a continuation of that commitment.

As personal witnesses to and as being integral parts of the conversation Mr. Corvin wrote about we stand behind Mr. Corvin’s article unequivocally and will not retract or revise it in any way. If further challenges to its veracity were to be put forth by your offices we would be forced to make a public statement on behalf of its veracity that may appear to be in direct contradiction to the statements in the e-mail quoted above.

We strongly believe that impeachment is the very “crucial work of holding this administration accountable” which the e-mail from your offices mentions and we welcome your unwavering support of these efforts as a moral imperative over and above all that which may fleetingly and speciously appear to be politically expedient and advantageous.

We also strongly believe that you will be pleasantly surprised to find that the great majority of Minneapolis residents agree that impeachment is warranted and that a stand by you calling for impeachment would gain you deep local respect and strengthen your base. Rep. Ellison’s stalwart support of the impeachment movement throughout his successful campaign should be convincing evidence of this truth. Then-candidate Ellison spoke at our October 5th, ’06 impeachment rally in Loring Park and the audio that we recorded was sent all over the web. We notified ImpeachPAC about candidate Ellison’s impeachment stand, which led directly to a $1,000.00 campaign contribution from them.

It would be our great preference to let this potentially divisive issue dissipate on its own from this point forward and to work together with your offices and the offices of the City Council to join those of Representative Keith Ellison – who we are already working with – toward hosting a Minneapolis Town Hall meeting on the topic of the relative merits of the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush as soon as it can be scheduled. This can be hosted with or without any committed stand on impeachment from those hosting.

We have asked Trayshana of Rep. Ellison’s office to contact your offices in this regard and we are also in touch with representatives of known impeachment proponent Garrison Keillor and other national names through connections with other impeachment groups around the nation.

We await your reply and hope to hear from your offices before our weekly Tuesday night meeting on May 15th so that we can decide as a group how to proceed in full knowledge of your interests in this matter.

Again, we ask all parties to hold this ‘close to the vest’ out of respect for everyone involved. Thank you all for honoring this desire.

Respectfully,

Mikael Rudolph
Jodin Morey

Co-Founders: ImpeachforPeace.org
Organizers: Minneapolis Chapter of www.WorldCantWait.org

Mayor Rybak responded 19 minutes later:


From: “Rybak, R.T.”
Date: May 13, 2007 10:45:01 PM CDT
To: “Mikael Rudolph”
Cc: “Smith, Tina F.”
Subject: RE: Impeachment

Thank you Mikael.
I really appreciate you taking the time to write this very well thought out email.
You are correct I did approach your group —I wanted to thank you for protesting the war and for raising issues regarding Gitmo—and I did put on a button.

However the original email overstated my conversation.
(I copied my original response to your email below).
I was also disappointed that after I corrected the email, I received no response and instead additional emails were circulated that not only repeated that statement but also said I agreed to cohost a forum, which I did not.

We came away from that conversation with different understanding but in any case, I deeply appreciate you raising these issues, hope we can continue to work together to stop the war and only ask you not include me as someone who supports impeachment.

R.T.
P.S.
You wrote this to my city email account.
I think technically this is not city business so it would be better to communicate to me about this at my private account, which is [withheld by request].
(I don’t give that out much because I can’t process a lot of emails there so please don’t circulate that widely.)

Here’s the oringal email I wrote in response:
Paul: It was a pleasure meeting you and the group at May Day. Thank you for raising the issues of the unjust war and I was especially appreciative of your raising attention to mistreatment of detainees, which I feel is deeply wrong. I appreciated our conversation, but I think your post here overstates my feelings on this. I do not at this point support Impeachment. I am going to keep my focus right now on running the city, and in my political life, being a strong voice against the war and electing a new President.
As I said when we talked at May Day, I have considered Impeachment a major distraction. I feel President Bush has grossly violated civil liberties, has taken the country for war over false pretenses, politicized the judicial branch of government and done many other things. But wrong as all this has been, until recently I was strongly against Impeachment because I felt it was a major distraction from the urgent work we have to do right now, which is to stop the war and elect a very different kind of President. I also felt that Impeachment now, following the charade that took place with President Clinton, would mean that every time there was a Congress that was of the other party of the President, we could end up with Impeachment, which I feel is a very extreme action.
Then I told you about the discussion I had with Daniel Ellsberg. We were at an event in St. Paul and he asked me if I was going to join Mayor Rocky Anderson of Salt Lake City in calling for Impeachment. I repeated pretty much what I wrote in the paragraph above. He then made a very strong case that Impeachment is also about precedent and if we did not issue articles of Impeachment now, when should we? I told you that that night on the ride home I talked about this with my wife that for the first time I saw a good argument to actually do that, but I was still undecided. I am still very concerned about the precedent of repeated Impeachments, I am extremely concerned about an Impeachment that could lead to President Cheney, and I still worry about the distraction.
My focus will continue to be to stop the war and elect a new President. I would ask you not to state that I am for Impeachment. I have not yet made that judgment. I do hope we can both continue to work for ways to change the very serious problems in our country right now.
Stay in touch
R.T.

We of IFP do not know of the ‘Paul’ refered to above. We assume the mayor was responding to another activist on this same topic – perhaps the one who first contacted him about this article. We also have had no interaction with the mayor, by e-mail or otherwise since May Day, other than the e-mails included here.

As stated in our e-mail to Mayor Rybak and Ms. Smith, we understand that sometimes it is necessary politically to hold separate personal and public stances on issues, but at least four separate members of our group clearly heard the mayor express support for impeachment during a public gathering. When this support for our mission was expressed publicly and offered to us so freely, we felt it was our right and responsibility to share it broadly.

We will accept that the Mayor intended to communicate an agreement in principle with us that a compelling argument in favor of impeachment can be made and that the Bush Administration should be held acountable for the horrendous damage they have wrought. We also accept, however that the Mayor wants it known that he does not support impeachment at this time.

We hold out strong hope that the Mayor will continue to weigh the fleeting, specious political cost of supporting impeachment against the national, historical cost of allowing this criminality to go unchecked by our top executives as apparently communicated to him so eloquently by Daniel Ellsberg.

Where we must part ways is that we of ImpeachforPeace.org have come to the conclusion that accountability should and must rightly come through impeachment and that we are committed to setting aside personal and professional goals at any risk to see that this takes place in the best interests of our once and future great nation.

Maybe – at its core – that is the difference between politicians and activists. We activists have chosen to position ourselves to be able to afford to act directly on principle upon a moral imperative without feeling limited by having to run our public stance through the filter of weighing the personal political ramifications.

23 Comments

  1. Mikael wrote, “We and I hope the mayor, you, and everyone else is understanding of the predicament we found ourselves in. It is, after all, our first impeachment.”

    yes, i am understanding and hope others are too … :O)

    Happiness

  2. Thank you to both Mario Penalver and Mikhail!
    Happiness, your defense of the status quo will not lead to happiness- not yours, or anyone elses. Polititians smile, and say “keep up the good work boys and girls”, as they lead us down the primrose path to s lavery. The mayor will never be , what did you call it- a fabulous ally! He has already chosen his path. Stop voting Democrat and Republican. They are closed clubs.mõ

  3. I said: “Who is your favorite pro-war candidate? Hillary or Obama? Who has less blood on their hands?” in comment #16 above.

    I humbly submit the following. I can admit I was wrong. It is a bit reassuring, but not much. They are both riding the anti-war wave in their runs for President.

    Agence France-Presse
    Congress okays billions for Iraq war without timetable

    Both houses of Congress on Thursday passed a $120 billion Iraq war budget, after Democrats reluctantly agreed to President George W. Bush’s demands to strip it of troop withdrawal dates.

    “The Senate vote to send the legislation to the president was 80-14,” AP reports.

    Presidential candidates Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) both voted against the measure.

  4. Happiness,

    I greatly appreciate your perspective. We considered the fact that we could have gotten a stronger confirmation, but four separate testimonies seemed enough to go forward with.

    It was really only when the mayor (or his chief of staff) came out with such a strong denial – in effect calling us liars – that we felt that we couldn’t avoid making clear our experience.

    We and I hope the mayor, you, and everyone else is understanding of the predicament we found ourselves in. It is, after all, our first impeachment.

    MIkael

  5. Dear Mr. Penalver,

    You wrote, “…what kind of “ally” is a man who says he wants to “stop the war” but refuses to “support impeachment”?”

    He is an ally regarding his desire to end the war and a potential future ally regarding impeachment.

    Facts are more reliable than assumptions.

    Hearts and Minds,
    Happiness

  6. Dear Happiness,

    With all due respect, in a movement of accountability, where citizens demand that politicians do what they say, what kind of “ally” is a man who says he wants to “stop the war” but refuses to “support impeachment”? If Mikael and IFP do not hold the mayor (and any politician for that matter) accountable for the corollary between peace and impeachment, how is this in the spirit of a movement of accountability?

    Any man or woman who refuses to see the necessary connection between the two is no friend to the solution this country so desperately needs. That solution is our refusal to deal with words that have no bearing on history. When the mayor demands an end to the war, but refuses to deal with the impeachment of the man who spearheads it, then this mayor needs to be called what he is (a lier), in the hopes that he can reevaluate the sincerity (or lack thereof) of his sentiments.

    With patience and hope,
    Mario Penalver

  7. E-mail to the mayor stated, “…but when this opinion was spoken publicly to our group and offered to us so freely, we felt it was our right and responsibility to share it broadly.”

    In my experience it is usually GOOD practice (where public officials are concerned) to err on the side of confirming the type of support they are willing to lend to an organization, rather than assume. It is BEST practice to get it in writing.

    I hope people here stop assuming that the mayor has bad intent until they have more evidence. Why not consider the misunderstanding a learning experience for both parties. He would be a fabulous ally, so if bridges are mended between IFP and the mayor, you could keep pursuing his support.

    Merci,
    Happiness

  8. 3,455 as of these soldiers having died in this illegal war of aggression yesterday that the Democrats (GOP-Lite) have just voted to continue using our tax dollars to pay for:

    KILLED IN ACTION:
    Pvt. Oscar Sauceda Jr., 21, U.S. Army, Del Rio, Texas
    Cpl. Julian M. Woodall, 21, U.S. Marine Corps, Tallahassee, Florida
    Lance Corporal Benjamin D. Desilets, 21, U.S. Marine Corps, Elmwood, Illinois
    PFC. Joseph J. Anzack Jr., 20, U.S. Army, Torrance, California
    Sgt. Brud J. Cronkrite, 22, U.S. Army, Spring Valley, California
    Sgt. James William Harlan, 44, U.S. Army, Owensboro, Kentucky
    Spec. Philip I. Spakosky, 25, U.S. Army, Browns Mill, New Jersey
    Command Sgt. Major Edward C. Barnhill, 50, U.S. Army, Shreveport, Louisiana
    PFC. Brian K. Cutter, 19, U.S. Marine Corps, Riverside, California
    PFC. Brandon C. Sturdy, 19, U.S. Marine Corps, Urbandale, Iowa
    Lance Corporal Jeremiah E. Savage, 21, U.S. Marine Corps, Livingston, Tennessee
    Spec. Jeffrey R. Shaver, 26, U.S. Army, Maple Valley, Washington
    Spec. Kyle A. Brinlee, 21, U.S. Army, Pryor, Oklahoma

    Who is your favorite pro-war candidate? Hillary or Obama? Who has less blood on their hands?

  9. It takes all kinds, even cowards & liars, otherwise we wouldnt have 3245+ dead American soldiers & Bush/Cheney to impeach in ’07. Of course, i’m not insinuating the mayor is either.
    Walt

  10. Happiness,

    Respectfully,

    Mayor Rybak told everyone within earshot that he was in support of impeachment. He put on a pro-impeachment button. You can defend him all you want, but I personally, and we of IFP will continue to hold any and every public office holder accountable for their public statements. We are dedicated to getting every public official to publicly state their position on impeachment. Mayor Rybak is no exception. If he misspoke in public it is absolutely not our job to protect him any more than it is our wish to do harm to his image.

    How about just prioritizing the truth over political expediency and loyalties? Let’s leave loyalty “uber alles” to person or party to the neocons.

    His statements were made in a public park in front of a group of the public at a public event. They weren’t made “in passing”. He visited with our group for 10-15 minutes and shared his stance multiple times with whomever of ‘the public’ stepped up to chat with him. From that description you come up with considering it a private statement? Please explain your logic.

    Do you think that because a politician isn’t on a stage in front of a microphone or on camera they aren’t speaking in public?

    We weren’t asking him to “lend his name to a pro-impeachment campaign” like trying to get him to sign on to a dog park or sidewalk improvement bill. We took him at his public word freely offered to us unsolicited. His word is either worth something or it isn’t. It can be trusted or it can’t. He, just like every public official in America, swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the U.S. against domestic enemies to it EXACTLY such as those currently in the White House. He either will come around to understanding that he is duty-bound to honor that oath or not. If not, then we would be better off with a mayor with a deeper understanding of what that oath entailed, what his or her word is worth and how desperate the stakes are nationally.

    I don’t hold allegiance to any party or politician over the best interests of my country and the world.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    (from Dictionary.com):

    public

    adjective
    1. not private; open to or concerning the people as a whole; “the public good”; “public libraries”; “public funds”; “public parks”; “a public scandal”; “public gardens”; “performers and members of royal families are public figures” [ant: private]
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    You are going to tell me that it is OUR responsibility to decide for him whether or not that public statement should or shouldn’t be shared? I don’t work for the mayor. I don’t work for the Democrats – despite the fact that in November I voted straight DFL/Dem with one Green exception – purely as an anti-Bushie vote, nothing more, nothing less. My commitment is to the best interests of the nation right now, which is in a very, very serious crisis. Those that have a platform from which to make a difference are going to feel every bit of pressure that I and we can muster in every possible way to utilize that platform for peace and justice – or I will work to see that someone with a stronger sense of responsibility replaces them.

    Just to be clear, I did not call you or anyone else stupid. I asked how stupid ‘WE’ are going to continue to be in supporting this lack of leadership virtually across the board in the Democratic Party ‘leadership’ that can’t seem to find the cajones to put one vertebrae on top of another successfully enough to see to it that this criminal White House administration is brought to justice.

    And btw… reporters are largely passe’, having rendered themselves in the majority of cases obselete by their neutered and compromised integrity as corporation-owned & operated shills. They don’t show up at the most important events and neither do they report the most important news. Striking exceptions such as Seymour Hersh, Dahr Jamail and Bill Moyers prove the rule.

    All politicians need to learn that bloggers and citizen reporters are everywhere. This is a new age of accountability in America. Between Mr. Morey, Mr. Corvin and myself we have been published hundreds of times in such diverse sources as the Huffington Post, Prison Planet, OpEd News, MyDemocrats.com, AfterDowningStreet, OhmyNews, MichaelMoore.com, DailyKos, Democrats.com and IndyMedia.

    The citizen press will not be manipulated, and the citizen press will not be lied to.

  11. Hows the saying go? “De-Nile ain’t just a river in Egypt!”

    I don’t understand why anyone would be opposed to impeachment. An incompetent administration with no concern for the laws of our country is a serious problem. Impeachment is the only solution. I also believe Bush and Cheeney should serve some jail-time but that will probably never happen.
    If I break the law I go to jail, why is it any different for the president? or vice president? arrrrg! It makes me angry!

    Hang in there guys, your doing the right thing!

  12. Saying he is pro-impeachment in passing to a group of people, (reporter NOT present) is not the same as agreeing to lend his name to a pro-impeachment campaign. Period.

    Mikael wrote:
    “You can keep using your “Minnesota Nice” and see how “effective” that will be for you. … How stupid are we going to continue to be?”

    Well Mikael, you can continue to call people who agree with you “stupid” and see how effective that will be for you.

    Best,
    Happiness

  13. Mikael,

    Thank you for sharing this information with me. I am certainly disappointed. I thought your e-mail to the mayor was very well written and professional sounding.

    Maybe I am too idealistic, however the following statement by the mayor gives me some hope:

    “…My focus will continue to be to stop the war and elect a new President. I would ask you not to state that I am for Impeachment. I have not yet made that judgment. I do hope we can both continue to work for ways to change the very serious problems in our country right now…”

    I think rather than either burn bridges or completely throw in the towel on the DFL Party, the fact that he admits he has “not yet made that judgement” sounds to me like he is undecided on the issue. Unfortunately for him, rather than admit upfront he is undecided on the issue, he went ahead and put the button on his shirt and allowed himself to be photographed. Although this is embarassing PR for him, rather than write a bunch of negative comments about the man, as aggravating as his lack of clarity or inability to make up his mind might be, I think a better approach would be to see his uncertainty as an opportunity for all of us to attempt to persuade him otherwise.

    I also think this statement by Mikael is very true:

    “Maybe – at its core – that is the difference between politicians and activists. We activists have chosen to position ourselves to be able to afford to act directly on principle upon a moral imperative without feeling limited by having to run our public stance through the filter of weighing the personal political ramifications.”

    I happen to be on the activist/community organizer side of the fence. Throughout life I have never been afraid to speak and make my voice heard or encourage others to do the same in order to work for social justice, peace, and equality. Though I do certainly understand the notion of the difference between the public self opinion versus the private self opinion. For example, I was an AmeriCorps/VISTA volunteer. While I definitely feel very strongly about a variety of issues, it would not only be irresponsible, but against the Hatch Act for me to show up to a protest, rally, partisan event, or state my views to the media AS a VISTA. In other words, while a VISTA, I could certainly go to a war protest, but not wearing a VISTA shirt and never identifying myself to the press in the manner of, “My view on [insert issue] is [insert opinion] and I am a VISTA.” I also am a board member to a non-profit organization. In the same respect, because this non-profit organization is a 501c3 non-profit that is non-partisan with tax exempt status, I cannot go around saying, “As a board member to [insert non-profit], I feel strongly about [insert partisan based statement or any other statement that does not go with the mission statement or fiduciary responsibilities of this non-profit].”

    I realize my own personal stories I just mentioned are indeed not the same thing as being a politician, but my point is that on some level, I can to a degree understand why it is that sometimes politicians are reluctant to publicly state certain opinions. That being said, it was foolish then for the mayor to wear the button while cameras were flashing. If the mayor was either opposed to impeachment, unsure about his stance on it, or not ready to endorse the issue at this time, he probably should not have pinned the button to his shirt and allowed his photograph to be taken. It’s pretty common knowledge that with so many people carrying cameras at all times and so many indiduals with blogs, if and when anyone IN PARTICULAR a public figure is photographed IN PUBLIC, it is entirely possible that photograph along with any conversations with people while IN PUBLIC are at risk for being published on the internet or elsewhere.

    Due to my own immense interest in politics, I have often contemplated running for some sort of office and people who know me have over the years tried to urge me to someday consider doing so. It’s entirely possible I might someday make such a decision. Honestly though, I often think the more “behind the scenes” work of either a campaign manager, activist, or community organizer sound much more appealing, mostly for the fact that there is less liklihood of being in the media spotlight, having to worry about your “public self”, or having a complete lack of privacy about ANY aspect of life, as well as dealing with mud slinging from opponents.

    As for the notion of not supporting the DFL Party, this is something I will rarely if ever do. While I realize the current two party system is certainly flawed, I still continue to be a very strong supporter of the Democratic Party. I have never regretted any vote I have cast. However, anytime I have been unhappy with a decision made by a Democrat politician represent me, I definitely make a point to let that politician know about my disappointment. When important legislation is up for discussion, I often contact my congress members to voice my opinion on the matter. I write letters to editors. I contact Republican politicians as well even though I pretty much never agree with them on just about anything.

    As for the impeachment issue, I am definitely on your side, however not ALL liberals are yet. If any of us want this to actually happen, we need to just be persistant, learn the reasons why others might be opposed to the idea, come up with a rebuttal, and express why WE personally feel the way we do while acknowledging and respecting their difference of opinion, yet not come across as preachy or alienating. Effective persuasion is challenging, but essential in order to create change. Think of that old cliche and attract the flies with honey instead of vinegar.

    Again, I am definitely on your side, however I would be very disappointed if the overall impeachment movement became a “let’s bash the Democrats” movement. As a (VERY liberal) Democrat, I am always extremely turned off when other liberals who support 3rd party candidates (be it the Green Party, Socialist Party, etc.) try to preach at me about how terrible the Democrats are or that if god forbid I vote for Democrats I somehow must be voting for “the lesser of two evils”. I do my homework and research when I vote. I never vote for a candidate I do not believe in. Just because I happen to agree strongly with a Democrat or the Democratic platform does not necessarily mean that I am a sellout, not voting my heart, or not a “real” liberal. I am not at ALL suggesting you are implying that, but simply stating my opinion on that as a cautionary statement to please keep the impeachment issue a COLLECTIVE issue as opposed to simply a fringe/3rd party issue. Issues like impeachment or ending the war are issues that not only all/most liberals ought to work together on, but some conservatives happen to agree with us.

    Anyway, keep doing the important work you are doing Mikael and don’t let this news about the mayor get you down. There are plenty of other people to persuade besides him. I’m still trying to persuade my own (quite liberal) parents on the impeachment issue. When or if that ever happens, maybe I can try to talk my dad into bringing up the issue to the mayor, because apparently sometimes they run into each other at the same coffee shop! My dad is also REALLY great at persuasion and not at all afraid to ask politicians about really taboo subjects. For example, he’s probably the ONLY liberal who WANTED the new baseball stadium, and he consistently brought this issue up anytime he talked to a liberal politician. (I think Pawlenty approving the stadium was the ONLY thing my dad approved of from Pawlenty!)

    I apologize for my extreme longwindedness and thank you for having the patience for reading my comments.

  14. This is another evidence of the terrible manipulations that go on behind the scenes. It seems perfectly clear that they got to him (the same pleople who helped all the newly elected Democrats desert us, no matter what sort of principals, or stance they had before). Therefore, we will have to find and stick with the few incorruptible souls left to us, if there are any left, besides Dennis Kucinich, and of coure Mayor Rocky, and a few others. And by the way, does anybody know what happened to the once brave Representative Conyers, who also started out brave enough to bring up impeachment long ago, I think it was even before Kucinich did. And he was even associated with Kucinich in the beginning. Guess they got to him too–very quiet from that area, probably he has turned tail too. And of course they have the example of that brave woman Representative (I think it was Barbara Walters, who got drummed out, after she stood up to the Bush Cabal). Please correct me, if I got the facts mixed up, it is long past time for me to give up, at 81 years old, but somehow I have to “keep on keeping on”, as long as I possibly can.
    Best regards to all who can continue full force,
    Margaret L. Albert

    [Editor’s note: I believe you were referring to former Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-GA)]

  15. It is my impression that what plagues this country, at long last, is the hypocrisy of saying everything, but doing nothing.

    I would like to point out here, after reading only about half of these e-mail dispatches before the dinner in my oven started to burn, that what Mikael and the rest of Impeach for Peace are experiencing in this fiasco with the Mayor’s Office, is a local version of a national crisis of waiting.

    The Mayor’s reply to Mikael was this:

    “As I said when we talked at May Day, I have considered Impeachment a major distraction. I feel President Bush has grossly violated civil liberties, has taken the country for war over false pretenses, politicized the judicial branch of government and done many other things. But wrong as all this has been, until recently I was strongly against Impeachment because I felt it was a major distraction from the urgent work we have to do right now, which is to stop the war and elect a very different kind of President.”

    The “but” in the Mayor’s letter is not to be taken lightly. The but’s, yet’s, or’s and though’s are the reason why an elected official in the White House can continue to systematically strip this country’s citizenry of its dignity and laugh at the face of Congress. All because of a “but,” all because of an exception to justice which our politicians have granted to this country’s highest office. Our current White House is, to put it simply, the epitome of “but.”

    There is another reason why I must react to this mayor’s reply. While calling impeachment a “distraction from the urgent work we have to do right now,” he fails to realize that there is nothing about the impeachment movement that is NOT urgent. Our message is anything but delayed. Our message is the opposite of waiting. Our message is justice, NOW.

    Impeachment is urgent in another way also. It realizes that the worst atrocities of the Bush administration’s War on Terror are here at home, in our rotting schools and among our starved homeless. These are the “urgent” realities we face in our cities, and we face them because our government can no longer pay to fix them.

    With over two-thirds of our nation’s entire budget being spent on Bush’s generous war policy, two out of three dollars that could have been spent on better schools or more shelters, how can we NOT see impeachment as urgent? When we spend more on body bags than we do on school books, how can we NOT see impeachment as urgent? The impeachment movement recognizes that above all else, the real grave diggers of the Iraq War and War on Terror are the economic ramifications that result from a half a trillion dollars that are NOT going toward life here at home.

    This is not the message of somebody waiting. This is the message of somebody who tired of waiting. So this is my reply to the Mayor’s Office of Minneapolis: If you demand peace, you must end the war. To end the war, you must end the Bush regime. Furthermore, if you demand justice, you must end the injustice. To end the injustice, you must end the Bush regime. Every demand requires consequence. We’ve heard your demands. What are your consequences?

    Mario Penalver
    March Leader
    March of the People

  16. “What public officials say in private…”

    This was not stated in private. It was stated in a public forum with many people coming and going. If a reporter had overheard this comment, he or she would be duty bound to report it.

    “Political naivete”?

    Yeah, I guess… We thought we could trust him at his word. Stupid us. Just like the nation thought they could trust the Democrats to stand strong against the war. Stupid us.

    Now we are supposed to trust the Democrats with whomever they want to inherit the grossly exaggerated ‘Unitary Executive’ authority and powers in the election for President in ’08?

    How stupid are we going to continue to be?

    You can keep using your “Minnesota Nice” and see how “effective” that will be for you. What we have to say to Mayor Rybak in this time of national crisis is the same thing we have to say to all public officials at all levels:

    Lead, follow or get the hell out of the way.

  17. What public officials say in private is not an endorsement unless they explicitly give permission to use their name. This whole affair smacks of political naivete by the Impeach for Peace folks.

    In my experience, it is imperative to ask if the person would be willing to lend their name to the cause, before you use their name. It’s good manners and it’s more effective.

    BTW, I was at the Impeach Day (with flashlights and bedsheets), so I am with you on the issue.

    Just my .02.

  18. He is just another Democrat who wants the war to continue thru 2008 because he believes it will enhance the chances of a Democrat being elected President. I for one will vote for a 3rd party candidate who opposes the war and favors immediate withdrawal from Iraq. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

  19. Folks,

    The Democratic Party leadership is actually getting in the way and trying to STOP Impeachment all over our nation.

    There can be a number of reasons for that but the reason is irrelevant. We The People will continue to push this issue and demand accountability.

    Move onwards and upwards.

  20. “the impeachment process would be a distraction from the crucial work of holding this administration accountable”

    Are you fucking kidding me?

  21. I’m so sick of flip-flopping politicians. Are all politicians in this country so afraid of the Bush/Cheney machine that they can’t stand their ground, or is it Halliburton and Exxon they are afraid of? By the way, Dick Cheney was in Iraq for 2 days, where is he now? United Arab Republic? Halliburton? Where in the world is that Dick Cheney??????

    Later

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