Sam Farr: “today is the wrong day and this is the wrong way. When our side asked this morning why are we doing this today, the…”

“today is the wrong day and this is the wrong way. When our side asked this morning why are we doing this today, the Republican leadership responded, because we want to demonstrate democracy at work. Democracy at work? I served this country in the United States Peace Corps. I know how to demonstrate democracy at work. And this is not it. No one, anywhere in the world today, can explain why a Congress would impeach the most popular elected President in the world at a time when that President is engaged in a conflict in Iraq. What you see here today is not a demonstration of democracy; it is a demonstration of a partisan political coups. This is not only the wrong day, this is also the wrong way. Mr. Speaker, we cannot claim that a democracy is working when we deny the minority a voice. There are no options here today. There will be no vote for censure. That is not even allowed nor offered. There are absolutely no alternatives, no nothing, just plain meanness. ``There is no fancy way to say I've sinned.'' That was Bill Clinton, President of the United States, in an apology to his fellow citizens-- the people who elected him. And, generally, it seems, the people who elected him accept that apology and want to move on. They do not favor impeachment. They do not favor removing him from office. The Framers of our Constitution were wise men.…”