.US peace activist Cindy Sheehan vowed Monday to stand for election against top Democrat Nancy Pelosi in 2008, over her refusal to launch an impeachment drive against President George W. Bush.
Sheehan who lost her US soldier son, Casey, in Iraq and became a figurehead for the anti-war movement, vowed to eject the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives from her seat in California. "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," Sheehan said after a cross-country trip with supporters.
"Not only am I going to run against her, but I will beat her." Sheehan, who has spent weeks camped outside Bush's Texas ranch in protest against the war, delivered her threat before marching from Arlington military cemetery, outside Washington to Capitol Hill.
She planned to meet Democratic House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, to tell him a million people had signed her petition demanding impeachment proceedings over the war.
Despite demands from grass-roots Democratic activists for Bush to be impeached over Iraq, Democratic leaders in Congress have shown little enthusiasm for such a move.
On Sunday, Democratic Senator Russ Feingold said he would introduce two censure motions, a lesser non-binding device than impeachment, against Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other White House officials. Under US law, the House is the only body that can impeach, or lay formal charges of treason or criminality against a president or other elected official.