Clark Calls for Bush Impeachment Probe

Democratic presidential candidate Gen. Wesley Clark is calling on the House of Representatives to begin an impeachment probe into what he says was President Bush's decision to invade Iraq under false pretenses.

Asked by a reporter if he thought Bush's decision to attack Iraq constituted an "impeachable offense," Clark said Thursday, "Let's have that investigation done."

Asked next if he thought the president's decision to go to war was "criminal," Clark told the Associated Press, "I think that's a question Congress needs to ask."

"I think this Congress needs to investigate precisely" how the United States wound up in a war "that wasn't connected to the threat of al-Qaeda," the former NATO commander said.

"This was an elective war. [Bush] forced us to go to war," he complained.

Gen. Clark's comments raise questions about whether his call for a Bush impeachment probe was encouraged by ex-President Clinton, who in 1998 became the first-ever elected U.S. president to be impeached.

Before he entered the race in September, Clinton touted Clark as a Democratic Party "star" and has lately begun making fund-raising phone calls on his behalf. Clark himself has admitted that he entered the race at the urging of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Clark's campaign is staffed by ex-Clinton advisers and campaign operatives, including Chris Lehane, who co-authored the written version of Mrs. Clinton's "vast right-wing conspiracy" theory in 1997.

Both the former president and Sen. Clinton have been seeking ways to mitigate the impeachment stain on their legacy.

At the outset of her book tour last June, Sen. Clinton complained about her husband's impeachment, telling ABC News:

"I would say that there is a very well-financed right-wing network of people that was after his presidency from the very beginning. [They] really stopped at nothing, to the point of perverting the Constitution, in order to undermine what he was trying to do for the country."

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