After calling the White House proposal fraudulent, Rangel said Bush's attempt to reform Social Security was an "impeachable offense."

For black Americans, the congressman added, the struggle against the proposed changes was "not only a civil-rights fight, but a fight for America."

Rangel called on African-Americans to continue their "missionary" work against the Social Security proposals and likened the effort to marching with Martin Luther King Jr. from Selma to Montgomery.

Before raising the spectre of impeachment, the top Democrat told a Town Hall meeting in Harlem that the Bush Social Security plan was both "vicious and mean."

"We have to get rid of the bums that are trying to take [Social Security] away from us," Rangel complained, saying he was referring to "people who sleep with Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, and the rest of them."

Editor's note: