According to Speaker Nancy Pelosi:
1. "Impeachment is off the table."
2. "Bush isn't worth impeaching."
Now, some will jump in and say "oh, but there aren't enough votes...."
A fascinating remark considering the fact that a vote to impeach Bush hasn't even made it to the floor of the House.
Sadly, our leadership decided having a wounded, lame duck Bush in the Oval Office is the best guarantee of a Democratic presidential victory in 2008.
I hope the strategy works. With 554 days left on the clock, Bush has ample time to start new wars, further harm the environment, grow the debt and violate our Constitutionally guaranteed rights and liberties.
Posted by Christopher at April 29, 2007 08:31 AMI just heard on Leslie's show that Murtha uttered the "I" word on TeeVee today.
Posted by vicki at April 29, 2007 08:57 AMI am a visitor from a planet with intelligent life somewhere else in the universe. And I sit down to read recent presidential history.
PRESIDENT A: got impeached for a momentary indiscretion that - except for the political fallout due to overreaction -had no negative effects on the nation or the world.
PRESIDENT B: prosecuted a preemptive war on a foreign nation, unprovoked. He did so by fabricating and propagating lies about that nation and by punishing people who knew the truth and tried to correct the record. The war has resulted in hundreds of thousands of dead civilians in that foreign country. As a result of the war that nation's two factions kill tens ot thousands of each other each year in violent shootings and car-bombings.
This war has cost thousands of lives of soldiers in his own country. It has wounded tens of thousands in his own country. And these his administration refuses medical care for arbitrary reasons. It has served no perceivable public policy purpose. But it has enriched a number of this president's closest friends and political allies.
Meanwhile, he uses the fact that this war continues to grind up bodies of soldiers and civilians as justification to overthrow the structural balance of powers established by the Constitution, effectively overthrowing the form of government he inherited. He wantonly breaks laws, fails to enforce laws he is Constitutionally bound to enforce, and arbitrarily reinterprets law in ways unanticipated by and with effects in violation of the intent of the Constitution.
All of these actions imperil friendly relationships with close allies and nations originally indifferent to his nation. Similarly they drive nations competing interests and opposing views to be more competitive, better armed, and more confrontational. In other words, his policies destroy his nation's credibility in every other nation of the world. They make the potential need to exercise power less optional, less useful as a threat and more necessary as a final resort.
Every word he says proves to be a fabrication, a fantasy, or a lie. And every act can reasonably be interpreted as an act to destroy the institutions that put him in power. His administration practices a bizarre philosophy of "truth by assertion," that defines truth in terms of what the administration says, regardless of historical or scientific fact. Historical fact - its written sources are systematically classified and expunged or rewritten. Scientists are lambasted for failing to conform to a political orthodoxy when asserting scientific facts.
Even the elections that supposedly gave him legitimacy fail to withstand careful scrutiny. The first, if counted accurately would not have put him in power. Nor the second. So not only is his sole goal to destroy the democratic institutions that hypothetically give him legitimacy to rule justly, he arguably does not have that legitimacy in the first place.
This president you do not impeach.
Please propose a consistent theory of justice that explains the treatment of both presidents consistently. Explain why this should not appear to ET's such as myself to be purely arbitrary exercise of power.
Comment: As a visitor from another planet, I can only imagine that this is motivated by a great sense of self-hatred and self-loathing and an attendent hidden psychological desire to self-destruct. If this is not true, please explain why not.
Posted by steve at April 29, 2007 10:06 AMGreat post and great question - if this president and vice-president can't be impeached, who can?
The reason we won't see impeachment is twofold: (1) the Dems are afraid - and I mean knee-knocking afraid - that the Repubs and their media attack dogs would spin the Dems as petty politicos and unpatriotic traitors for going after the administration in a time of war, and (2) the Dems would rather spend the next 18 months using hearings to open up a steady stream of accusations of admin incompetence, corruption, etc, with their eye on 2008.
Posted by abi at April 29, 2007 10:10 AMA prerequisite to impeachment must be to instill the belief that Bush must end his War in Iraq. He must end it because it is HIS failure and he cannot pass along his failure to our next President. The next President will be fighting against terrorism in multiple contexts and needs the resources that Bush is throwing away. Bush's incompetence and mismanagement must stop immediately.
If Bush refuses to close out his disastrous policy--and the terms of HIS withdrawel can be laid out in the next few months--then he should be told that he and Cheney will be forcibly removed from office.
The only acceptable outcome should be his acceptance of his irresponsiblity--and his immediate attempts to remedy his catastophic mistakes.
Of course he won't agree, and so the Democratic Party will have to clearly communicate that they are operating for the good of the country and claim the moral high ground in rebutting all attacks against them. They must place incredible pressure on Republicans to join with them.
They have to move forward as a matter of principle, regardless of the "threats" that will be made as to their viability as a party...
Posted by Paul at April 29, 2007 10:45 AM"Impeachment is off the table" was a nice bipartisan gesture after the 2006 election.
Jr. and his Administration have bite the hand the feeds and have been begging for impeachment. Let's give it to them. Send the poor bastard home early.
Posted by Jim DeRosa at April 29, 2007 10:48 AMBecause of the immutable reality of numbers, it is going to be impossible to impeach Bush/Cheney unless senate Republicans can be convinced that it is in their long term political interest to do so. As America is now, the Democrats are virtually locked into a landslide win next year. There is nothing the GOP can do to prevent this for the current policies have lost about 2/3rds of the voters short term.
The real queston is about the long term. This continued policy disaster, which is virtually assured, may ruin the Republican brand name for a whole generation of young voters to the point that the Democrats have a chance to lock up a massive FDR era type majority both in numbers and longevity. Getting rid of Bush/Cheney early is better for America long term and gives the Republicans an earlier start at rebuilding. If the GOP senators become convinced that getting rid of Bush/Cheney is the best way to cut their losses, then they will provide the votes for the 2/3 rds majority needed.
It is a sad irony that the party that is most eager to wrap itself in the flag and other nationalistic symbols may end up doing the right thing for the nation out of self interest rather than their once vaunted patroitism.
Posted by herbal tee at April 29, 2007 10:48 AMComment: As a visitor from another planet,
Dear visitor:
Welcome to our blue marble. I would point you towards war crimes tribunals. Sometimes those who do the exact things you mention are held accountable by other authorities. If you could, would you please warp time and peer ahead to around late January or early February 09? Look for an extraordinary rendition from Crawford Texas to the Hague. Please get back to us with the results.
Posted by phidipides at April 29, 2007 10:53 AMI actually AM a visitor from another planet, sent here years ago to impeach Nixon.(mission accomplished)
I am currently awaiting the final plan of the Elders to solve the Bush\Cheney danger to the Universe problem. Although they are leaning toward the total destruction of Earth, another mere impeachment is still on the table.
My planet, Progresso, is disappointed that you Earthlings have not evolved to a higher point than to elect, much less re-elect such destructive idiots.
Secretary Rice did not help your cause on the Video Conveyance this morning, either.
Posted by TIKI AL at April 29, 2007 02:46 PMAmen! It's time to impeach VP and POTUSH! But, seriously, how many of the spineless,gutless,democrats will have the "balls" to do that! cleve
Posted by cleve at April 29, 2007 03:03 PMNobody is ever prepared to confront Pure Evil, nobody expects it from fellow humans. If Bush were in my living room, he'd probably torture my cat as a haha icebreaker, and not understand why it wasn't cute.
Y'know, one thing about these assholes...they make me proud to me not like them...I am so not pussy Dick Cheney, and proud...
Posted by Sharkbabe at April 29, 2007 03:33 PMThe Founders designed impeachment as one of the most important checks against abuse of executive power.
The Articles of Impeachment have been brought sixty-two times in American history. Some for sound reasons and others based on pure politics.
If President William Jefferson Clinton can be impeached for lying about oral sex, then surely the Democratic House of Representatives can order the Articles of Impeachment for George Bush and Dick Cheney based on:
1. lying the country into a war
2. Katrina
3. domestic wiretaping
4. politicizing the Dept. of Justice
oops, to be
Posted by Sharkbabe at April 29, 2007 03:35 PMWhy are we the people allowing this fucking madness and this fucking idiot. Thanks para. Speak speak speak!
Posted by Sharkbabe at April 29, 2007 03:40 PMDon't about it, sharkbabe, we all mistakes.
Posted by TIKI AL at April 29, 2007 03:42 PMThanks, Tiki Al...Really, enough is enough...why is this fat half dead bastard Cheney allowed to destroy my future, and my children's...why why why
these fucks must be stopped, now is the time, we are it
Posted by Sharkbabe at April 29, 2007 03:48 PMBravo Paradox!!! Let's all copy this letter and send, by the thousands, to Dean and Pelosi. I'm doing it right now!
Posted by Via at April 29, 2007 06:43 PMI actually AM a visitor from another planet
Damn. So we're all coming out. Well, I too am an alien. My last report to High Command simply stated that: "My observations of these earthlings are drawing to a close. The tribe called republi-con will make wonderful gardeners since they acquiesce to any authority. The others will make an excellent first course at the feast of Gromlthor. The Progressoians are here also. Prepare the war fleets and make ready the giant soup cans."
Posted by phidipides at April 29, 2007 07:29 PMInspired by your post, I just sent this off to Nancy Pelosi.
Speaker Pelosi --You and your team have been doing a great job since you got the helm, I have not for one moment regretted crossing party lines and giving time and money to help you get it. (I am a life-long Republican of the fiscal conservative, integrity first sort, and have had it up to here with the scoundrels that have infested the party of Lincoln).
As a firm believer that we shall only stand as a nation so long as we stand as a nation of laws, I would like to ask of you one small favour:
Put Impeachment back on the table.
Just look at all the new reasons that have come to light since you took it off the table back in 2006; the Hatch act violations, the unconstitutional Politburo-style shenanigans in the DoJ, his mulish refusal to sign the bill that would fund the troops stuck in the shooting gallery that his illegal occupation or Iraq has become.
And what about the broader patterns of behaviour? What about the nationwide, White House, orchestrated election tampering that resulted from the DoJ's use of selective prosecution, the GSA "Help Our Candidates" program--a misuse of office that would have made RMN proud? What about his creation of a shadow bureaucracy of cronies and "loyal Bushies," contractors and government funded "NGO"s devoted to the pilfering of public funds at a heretofore unprecedented rate?
The framers of our Constitution gave you the power to Impeach a sitting President for a reason: they knew that we might, from time to time, get saddled with a lunatic that needed to be stopped.
If you won't Impeach him yet, what will it take? Are you going to wait until he goes completely off his nut and tries to run over people with a bulldozer?
--[My real name here]
P.S. It turns out he already has tried to run a bunch of reporters over with a bulldozer, back in January.
So if his abuse of the constitution, misuse of the military, lying to Congress and the American public, attempting to subvert our democracy, institutionalization of corruption and cronyism aren't enough for you to Impeach, maybe you should wait for him to start fondling other world leaders, locking up US citizens without due process, or threatening to drop nukes on our allies or something.
--MarkusQ
Posted by MarkusQ at May 2, 2007 11:14 AM