The Dumbest Move the Dems Could Make
By Michael Tomasky
Washington Post
"Impeach or else!"
That was the headline that one liberal Web site ran over a recent interview with the antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, who has been demanding that President Bush and Vice President Cheney be chucked out of office. But the Bush administration isn't her only target. Sheehan is so frustrated with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- who declared impeachment "off the table" even before the Democrats took control of Congress -- that she is threatening to run against her.
The speaker may think impeachment is off the table, but the I-word is being tossed about pretty freely in some left-leaning circles these days. The idea was first mentioned by a hardy band of Bush foes as long ago as the immediate aftermath of the 2000 Florida recount. Today, my e-mail inbox bubbles with notices of fresh and scandalous counts just waiting to be added to the bill of indictment.
Even a few Republicans have bruited about the idea. Sen. Chuck Hagel (Neb.), speaking to Esquire magazine about Bush's hostility toward democratic accountability, said that "before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment." Bruce Fein, a Reagan administration veteran and conservative legal scholar, has aimed his gunsight at Cheney, producing a scathing denunciation in Slate of the vice president's high crimes and misdemeanors -- even describing one, the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens, as "indistinguishable from Louis XVI's execrated lettres de cachet that occasioned the storming of the Bastille." Mon Dieu!
In the midst of this came an American Research Group poll in early July that found that 45 percent of respondents would support impeachment proceedings against Bush and 54 percent would back moving against Cheney. With even some conservatives and apparently many independents favoring impeachment, you'd think that liberals would be unanimous in their desire to invoke Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution and get the show on the road, right?
But wait. Today is the wrap-up day of the annual YearlyKos convention, organized by the Web site DailyKos.com, often described by the mainstream media as the nerve center of unhinged leftism. Last week, I went to the YearlyKos site to see how the topic would be handled there. I found a list of about 175 panels and seminars on topics as disparate as "The Art of the Killer Campaign Ad," "Rural Issues: America Is Really Purple and Proud?" and "The Military and Progressives: Are They That Different?" But there was no panel on impeachment.
(Continued here.)
Washington Post
"Impeach or else!"
That was the headline that one liberal Web site ran over a recent interview with the antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, who has been demanding that President Bush and Vice President Cheney be chucked out of office. But the Bush administration isn't her only target. Sheehan is so frustrated with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- who declared impeachment "off the table" even before the Democrats took control of Congress -- that she is threatening to run against her.
The speaker may think impeachment is off the table, but the I-word is being tossed about pretty freely in some left-leaning circles these days. The idea was first mentioned by a hardy band of Bush foes as long ago as the immediate aftermath of the 2000 Florida recount. Today, my e-mail inbox bubbles with notices of fresh and scandalous counts just waiting to be added to the bill of indictment.
Even a few Republicans have bruited about the idea. Sen. Chuck Hagel (Neb.), speaking to Esquire magazine about Bush's hostility toward democratic accountability, said that "before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment." Bruce Fein, a Reagan administration veteran and conservative legal scholar, has aimed his gunsight at Cheney, producing a scathing denunciation in Slate of the vice president's high crimes and misdemeanors -- even describing one, the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens, as "indistinguishable from Louis XVI's execrated lettres de cachet that occasioned the storming of the Bastille." Mon Dieu!
In the midst of this came an American Research Group poll in early July that found that 45 percent of respondents would support impeachment proceedings against Bush and 54 percent would back moving against Cheney. With even some conservatives and apparently many independents favoring impeachment, you'd think that liberals would be unanimous in their desire to invoke Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution and get the show on the road, right?
But wait. Today is the wrap-up day of the annual YearlyKos convention, organized by the Web site DailyKos.com, often described by the mainstream media as the nerve center of unhinged leftism. Last week, I went to the YearlyKos site to see how the topic would be handled there. I found a list of about 175 panels and seminars on topics as disparate as "The Art of the Killer Campaign Ad," "Rural Issues: America Is Really Purple and Proud?" and "The Military and Progressives: Are They That Different?" But there was no panel on impeachment.
(Continued here.)
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