Sheehan: I Will Beat Speaker Pelosi
    By Jeremy Jacobs
    The Hill

    Tuesday 24 July 2007

    If Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) refuses to bring articles of impeachment against President Bush to the floor of the House, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan said Monday, Sheehan not only will challenge the Speaker in the next election but also will defeat her.

    Discussing President Bush and Vice President Cheney, Sheehan said, "We put them there. We can fire them. If Nancy Pelosi doesn't do her constitutionally mandated job by midnight tonight, tomorrow I will announce that I'm going to run against her.

    "And not only am I going to run against her, but I will beat her," Sheehan added.

    A spokesman for Pelosi, Nadeam Elshami, said the Speaker and House Democrats are working toward their goals this Congress and would not address Sheehan's proclamation.

    "The Speaker and House Democrats are focused on ending the war in Iraq, holding the Bush administration accountable and delivering a new direction for the American people," Elshami said. "Those are the priorities of the Speaker and the Democrats."

    Sheehan seized the anti-war spotlight during her extended protest outside the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas in 2005, after her 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in Iraq. Speaking at a demonstration at Arlington National Cemetery, Sheehan argued that it is Pelosi's constitutional obligation to impeach the president.

    "The administration has abused our soldiers. They've abused our freedoms," Sheehan said. "They have killed my son and countless others. And they must be held accountable.

    "Impeachment is not a fringe movement. It is mandated in our Constitution. Nancy Pelosi had no authority to take it off the table," Sheehan said.