Behar to Pelosi: Impeach Bush and Cheney!

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s liberal policies are not sufficient for "The View’s" Joy Behar. Why? Pelosi does not support impeaching the president and vice president. On the July 28 edition Behar hammered Speaker Pelosi on impeachment. [audio available here]

"You’ve ruled against impeaching George Bush and Dick Cheney. And now Kucinich is trying to pass that. Why do you, why do you insist on not impeaching these people so that the world and America can really see the crimes that they’ve committed?"

After going through a long laundry list of the Democrats’ agenda, Pelosi noted the president needs to approve legislation and there is not adequate evidence that the administration committed a crime.

Barbara Walters, who previously hit Pelosi from the left, noted Congress’ dismal approval ratings. Elisabeth Hasselbeck brought up the success of the surge. Pelosi, in predictable Democratic talking points, refused to concede success because of the alleged failure to meet political reconciliation.

Relevant portions of the transcript are below.

ELISABETH HASSELBECK: When Katie Couric was interview him [Obama] he still didn’t admit in clear terms that the surge was a success, the surge that he indeed did oppose, and we would be in a different situation had he been making the decisions there. Do you still feel that same way that the surge was not a success?

HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI: We had this conversation before Elisabeth. The surge’s purpose was to have a military time frame where there would be military security to enable the government of Iraq to make the political changes necessary for reconciliation. I said it before when I was here and I’ll say it again: Even with all of the time that has elapsed, they still have not done that.

HASSELBECK: The sectarian violence is down, the civilian deaths are down. I think we need to acknowledge-

PELOSI: The security has, has been improved, but the purpose of the surge was to pass the laws to bring the reconciliation, so we can bring our troops home safely soon honorably and responsibly. And that has not happened. Now the government of Iraq is saying "we want you to go home." So maybe the time has come for us to sit down with them and figure that out.

[...]

JOY BEHAR: You’ve ruled against impeaching George Bush and Dick Cheney. And now Kucinich is trying to pass that. Why do you, why do you insist on not impeaching these people so that the world and America can really see the crimes that they’ve committed?

[applause]

PELOSI: Well, I think that it- I think it was important- When I became speaker- and by the way, a very important position, president, vice president, speaker of the House- I saw it as my responsibility to try to bring a much divided country together to the extent that we could. I thought that impeachment would be divisive for the country. In terms of what we wanted to set out to do, we wanted to raise the minimum wage, give the biggest increase in veterans benefits to veterans in 77 year history, the veteran- pass research in stem cell- the stem cell research, all of that. This week we’re going to pass equal pay for equal work. It has been a long time in coming [applause], pay equity. We’re going to pass legislation for product safety, for toys that children put in them. There’s an agenda that you have to get done, that you have to try to do it in a bipartisan way. The president has to sign it. If somebody had a crime that the president had committed, that would be a different story.

BEHAR: Can they still do it after he is out?

BARBARA WALTERS: When, when we first- when I interviewed you last year, you had just begun, and you were going to clean up the mess, remember?

PELOSI: We did.

WALTERS: You, you look around this country, 75 percent of the country, forget George Bush, thinks that Congress is doing a lousy job.

HASSELBECK: I think it’s 91 percent now.

PELOSI: Well, I don’t disagree with that because largely it’s predicated on ending the war in Iraq. That’s the main question, and we were not successful. In our House of Representatives, I’m very proud of our members because they voted overwhelmingly over and over again to bring the war to an end, to bring the troops home safely and soon, send it to the Senate, and it hits a dead end. But in terms of that particular standard, I would say I disapprove as well. But we do, we passed some of the things I just mentioned, the energy bill. We worked in a bipartisan way, and ovation, agenda, we have to create jobs, expand health care, protect the American people, and educate our children. And you can’t do that if you’re trying to impeach the president at the same time, unless you have the goods that this president committed these crimes.

BEHAR: They did it to Clinton.

PELOSI: But they didn’t have the goods and it was wrong, and it was wrong, and it was wrong when they did that. Not that I- I have total disagreement with president on the war, the reason why we went in, which was based on a false premise. But that’s a different story than saying "can we try to get something accomplished for people," have concerns about the economy and the rest.