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Congressional Candidate Raises Call for Impeachment
Submitted by davidswanson
From Harold Burbank
Canton, Connecticut, civl rights attorney Harold Burbank has begun a campaign to challenge US Representative Chris Murphy for his 5th Congressional District seat in the 2008 election over the issue of impeachment. Burbank, a GHW Bush recommendee to law school and succesful defender of Ralph Nader’s 2004 presidential campaign in Burbank’s home state of Maine, where Maine Democrats sought to sue the Nader-Camejo ticket off the Maine ballot and lost, says it is time to stop kidding ourselves about the necessity of impeachment, to end the human, financial and legal costs of offending decades of international human rights law and policy which the US helped to create, that is solidy grounded in the the most prescient of our US Constitution principles.
“Congressman Murphy, an attorney and Congressman sworn to uphold the Constitution, refuses to acknowledge that our wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan offend the most basic protections of the US Constitution for our people. Our citizens, military, treasury and futures stand at extreme at risk due to the criminal war adventurism of the Bush administration, which will only be stopped by impeaching GW Bush, Richard Cheney and Condoleeza Rice. Despite overwhelming evidence that this administration lied and scared us into current wars, with no end in sight, and which threaten wider war in Iran, Syria and beyond, it is time for the people to elect candidates who will say “No” to more soldiers, more money and more unending risks in middle east and threatened new imperial wars. I will be that kind of candidate and that kind of congressman. My first act as congressman will be to submit articles of impeachment against any exective branch official who continues to lead us in these wars, and who does not uphold the Constitution by ending them immediately. Connecticut’s 5th district voters will have a clear chance to help end these wars on election day. I will also campaign tirelessly and immediately to persuade Congressman Murphy to submit impeachment articles now, which he has said many times that he will not.”
Burbank said that he would consider withdrawing his candidacy if Congressman Murphy submits articles of impeachment immediately, and calls for immediate defunding of the wars. Meanwile, he is seeking enodrsements from his friend and former client Ralph Nader, and had email from Cindy Sheehan yesterday encouraging his candidacy.
“On some issues Chris Murphy has worked hard for his constituents, but he lacks the courage to lead in crisis. Unlike Ralph Nader and Cindy Sheehan, he does not grasp that if the administration is not impeached, his children and mine will confront WW III. There are no progressive experts in the fields of international relations, law, politics and religion who doubt this outcome unless the US immediately withdraws from the middle east, and begins to work with the United Nations to formulate new policies for regional peace and stability there. The UN is hard at work on such policies already, but Congressman Murphy does not seem to know or care about them.”
Burbank’s public service to date includes posts as Connecticut and Maine assistant attorney general, Penobscot Indian Nation (Maine) director of human services; Veterans for Peace delegate to the United Nations and charity groups for the disabled and poor of Africa. He holds the BA and MA degrees in international affairs plus the JD, and is admitted to the Conneticut, Connecticut federal, Maine and US Supreme Court bars. Currently he is a solo civil rights lawyer based in Canton, Connecticut, where he has lived for 17 years. He has been married 27 years to Marianne Humphrey of Canton, Connecticut, and has two children, one each in high school and college. He would appreciate hearing from anyone interested in his campaign at [email protected]
(Original Article)