by Nick Juliano and Michael Roston
Raw Story
Published: Monday July 23, 2007
Anti-Iraq War activist Cindy Sheehan announced in Washington on Monday afternoon that she would challenge Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the 2008 Congressional election.”The Democrats will not hold this administration accountable so we have to hold them accountable and I for one will step up to the plate and run against Nancy Pelosi,” Sheehan told a cheering crowd on Capitol Hill.
Sheehan brought a petition calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to the office of Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
According to Sheehan, Conyers said that there were not enough votes to impeach the President or Vice President, and so he did not intend to hold hearings on the impeachment resolution introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). The Ohio Democrat’s Articles target the Vice President.
A spokesperson for the Congressman would not confirm the details of the meeting with RAW STORY, but agreed that Rep. Conyers said the resolution would not advance.
The anti-war activist, who became prominent after initiating peace vigils near President Bush’s Crawford, Texas ranch, then conducted a sit-in at Conyers’ congressional office, where she was later arrested by Capitol police.
Sheehan and a group of two to three hundred supporters marched to Capitol Hill from the Arlington National Cemetery. Sheehan is the mother of Casey Sheehan, an Army Specialist who was killed in the Iraq War.
While Sheehan has considerably greater national prominence, she is not the first progressive candidate to challenge Pelosi. In the 2006 Congressional election, Pelosi faced Green Party candidate Krissy Keefer, who received 8% of the vote in Pelosi’s San Francisco district. The Speaker received 80% of the vote.
Daily Kos diarist Bob Fertik offered further details of the Conyers-Sheehan exchange at this link.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit.
Dandelion Salad 
Nice quote Curtis, Too bad he went on to completely ignore it at the expense of 620,000 American lives.
Pingback: Peace activist Sheehan arrested at Congress By Thomas Ferraro « Dandelion Salad
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” “This country with its institutions belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.”
~Abraham Lincoln
Cindy Sheehan is truly stepping up to the plate by challenging Pelosi. Cindy is truly taking on the do nothing Democrats and this corrupt administration. People think Americans are stupid and that we haven’t done anything to stop the war criminals in D.C. We have done things (like the last election where we voted in the Dems.) But our leaders have let us down. What do you do when you scream at the top of your lungs and those in power simply ignore you? I know what the American people should do but this would require real sacrifice and even some bloodshed. Like Maher said when I see protests I want to see things on fire! Amen