"But if he lied to get America into a war, I can't imagine anything more impeachable," said Capuano.

CAIRO, March 25, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – As US President George W. Bush's approval ratings in polls are lower than for any American leader in recent history, more American lay people support the impeachment of the wartime president for misleading the American public and lying to them about his war on Iraq, a leading US daily reported Saturday, March 25.

"Bush says there were weapons of mass destruction, but there wasn't. Says we had enough soldiers, but we didn't. Says it's not a civil war -- but it is," Ira Clemons, a window cleaner from Vermont, told the Washington Post.

Asked whether he would support his congressman's call to impeach Bush, Clemons replied emphatically: "Why not?

When asked the same question, Colleen Kucinski from Massachusetts wagged her head "yes" before the question is finished.

"He picks and chooses his information and can't admit it's erroneous, and he annoys me," she said.

"Without a doubt. This is far more serious than Clinton and Monica. This is about life and death. We're fighting a war on his say-so and it was all wrong," she added, referring to former president Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky sex scandal.

Residents in four Vermont villages voted earlier this month at annual town meetings to impeach the president for lying about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction, the paper said.

A Zogby International poll showed that 51 percent of respondents agreed that Bush should be impeached if he lied about Iraq, a far greater percentage than believed Clinton should be impeached.

Bush acknowledged for the first time last December Iraq was invaded on wrong intelligence and took the blame for the invasion-turned-occupation.

"As president, I'm responsible for the decision to go into Iraq -- and I'm also responsible for fixing what went wrong by reforming our intelligence capabilities. And we're doing just that," he said.

He further admitted that faulty assessments on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction damaged US credibility.

"This administration needs to be slapped down and held accountable for actions that could change the shape of our democracy," said Ratner.

Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights said this administration needs to be "slapped down."

"Bush is saying 'I'm the president' and, on a range of issues -- from war to torture to illegal surveillance -- 'I can do as I like,' " he said.

"This administration needs to be slapped down and held accountable for actions that could change the shape of our democracy."

He was referring to reports about Bush's approval of harsh interrogations of prisoners captured in Iraq and Afghanistan, tactics that human rights groups such as Amnesty International say amount to torture.

Bush also admitted last December that he had authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to carry out domestic spying without the necessary court warrants.

The Republican-led US Senate Judiciary Committee announced on Friday, March 24, it would hold a hearing next Friday on a call by a Democratic lawmaker to censure Bush for his domestic spy program.

The Senate has censured a president, which amounts to a formal rebuke, only once before and that was Andrew Jackson in 1834 in a banking dispute.

"If the president says 'We made mistakes,' fine, let's move on," Rep. Michael E. Capuano (D-Mass.) told the Post.

"But if he lied to get America into a war, I can't imagine anything more impeachable."

The impeachment of Bush further drew support from prominent legal experts and professors like Harvard's Laurence H. Tribe and former Reagan deputy attorney general Bruce Fein.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted last month to urge Congress to impeach Bush, as have state Democratic parties, including those of New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina and Wisconsin.