Should Bush be Impeached?

Live Vote: Should Bush be impeached? - Politics - MSNBC.com

Not a scientific poll, but we can at least conclude that among people who read MSNBC.com and choose to respond (and who may or may not know how to delete their cookie to vote more than once), some 87% of 286,000 votes say Bush should be impeached.

My only question is whether he can be impeached more than once, or if he is convicted by the Senate, can we impeach Cheney too?

Fortunately or unfortunately, Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader, has already said Impeachment is off the table. My guess is she’s done the math about the ‘08 election and realized that even if the Dems succeed with impeachment in ‘07, the bad taste will linger and the Cons will take revenge in ‘08 by simply showing up to vote (against Gay Marriage, Abortion, etc..). Or worse, they show up in ‘06 out of some lingering misguided loyalty to Bush. Also, it’s unlikely that the Senate will go Democratic this time around (only 1/3 are up for grabs and many of those are a lock to incumbents), so that means Bush won’t likely be convicted even if he’s impeached by the House.

If Cheney were running for President in ‘08, it would be a no-brainer to load tar on the impeachment brush (see Gore in 2000, after Clinton was eviscerated for executive emissions). But whomever the Cons put up (apart from Condoleaser) wil be free to criticize the Dems and still not feel Bush’s taint. Plus, if Dems somehow take back both houses of Congress and convict both Bush and Cheney of crimes against the Consitution, then who’s next in line of succession? You guessed it. A Democrat. Speaker of the House, which could easily be Nanci Pelosi.

So you can see why she’s shy about impeachment talk. Such a move would be seen as more self-serving than patriotic, for her and the Dems. And that won’t help in ‘08 with the presidency and another 1/3 of the Senate on the line. However, the thing that can tip the balance in favor of impeachment is if Pelosi rephrases her stance as "I’ll the American people decide."

My take is more principled than pragmatic. We should do what the law requires even if it hurts the Dems in the short-term. The long-term impact of Bush flouting the laws and the constitution will only pave the way for some other would-be despot to come in and do the same thing down the line.

We need to re-establish a tradition of law and respect for the constiution or we’ll be living in virtual slavery in our generation or the next. And as Congress wholly failed to act from 2001 till now, I wouldn’t particularly mind if we fired them all.^*

Enough with politics as usual. It’s our damn country. I say we clean house.