Graham Just Hints at Impeachment

CONCORD, N.H. —  CONCORD, N. H. -- Democratic presidential candidate Bob Graham said Thursday there were grounds to impeach President Bush if he was found to have led America to war under false pretenses.

While Graham did not call for Bush’s impeachment, he said if the president lied about the reasons for going to war with Iraq it would be “more serious” than former President Clinton’s lie under oath about his sexual relationship with Monica S. Lewinsky.

“If in fact we went to war under false pretenses that is a very serious charge,” Graham, a senator from Florida, told reporters in New Hampshire.

“If the standard of impeachment is the one the House Republicans used against Bill Clinton, this clearly comes within that standard,” he said.

Democrats and some Republicans have raised questions about the unsubstantiated claim Bush made in his January State of the Union speech that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa in its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.

Graham’s comments came as reporters followed up on his remarks earlier this week that any deception by Bush over Iraq might rise to the standard of an impeachable offense -- as defined by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives when it voted to impeach Clinton.

Clinton was ultimately tried but cleared by the Senate after being impeached by the House.

After his appearance in New Hampshire, Graham, a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, issued a statement saying that he saw the issue of impeachment as a largely academic one, adding that if Bush had misled the American public he would pay the price for it in the 2004 presidential election.