I'm here in Sacramento for the California Democratic Party convention, along with many other Courage Campaign staffers - and of course, many other Courage Campaign members. Over 8,500 of you signed your name in support of the resolution to hold Judge Jay Bybee accountable for his role in President Bush's horrific torture policies. That massive show of support helped solidify the case for the resolution here at the convention, where the Resolutions Committee approved the Bybee resolution last night.

There was a change made to the resolution - it calls for the House of Representatives to start a "Congressional investigation" of Bybee, and does not call for impeachment outright. This change was made by the resolution's sponsors, and many of its most ardent backers accept the change. A Congressional investigation is of course the first step toward impeachment, and though we'd prefer to see a clear statement for Bybee to be impeached, we also understand that the Congress has a process to respect. Besides, if the investigation stalls or impeachment charges are not eventually brought, you can be sure the Courage Campaign will be there to hold our members of Congress accountable.

David Dayen, a netroots activist from Santa Monica and one of the Courage Campaign's closest allies, wrote about the resolution at Calitics this morning:

The very, VERY good news is that the resolution to impeach Jay Bybee from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals passed the Resolutions Committee with only small changes to the language. Any impeachment process must begin with a Congressional inquiry that gets remanded to the House Judiciary Committee. That's exactly the language we got, a resolution supporting a Congressional inquiry into Bybee and the other lawyers who justified torture. To everyone that signed petitions, you helped make this happen. We're not done yet, however. In order to get to the floor, the resolution must get ranked among the top ten at a "prioritizing" meeting today. Many more than ten resolutions passed in committee, so it will be a fight to get the Bybee resolution on the floor. I will be testifying in the committee today and lobbying for passage, armed with the thousands of signatures and personal testimonials gathered over the past week.

This could be as consequential as anything done in this convention, despite it happening off the floor and relatively outside of scrutiny. A resolution of support from the full CDP would be powerful.

The Courage Campaign will be there in the committee as well to demonstrate the demand from our members that this resolution be approved by the full convention.