We’ve all been frustrated by the seemingly endless litany of scandal and abuse that has come out week after week after week with the Bush administration and the Republican controlled Congress. So many scandals that no single one ever seems to gain traction for very long. Just think about them all:
Iraq
Our Broken Military
Halliburton
Abramoff (a whole universe of scandals in itself)
Duke Cunningham
The Downing Street Memos
Katrina
Plamegate
Tom DeLay
The NSA’s Warrantless Eavesdropping
Mining Disasters
Medicare Prescription Drug Plan (both how it was passed and how it is being implemented)
Payola for Pundits
Payola for Iraqi Journalists
Lies about Iraq’s WMD
Election Fraud
The Swift Boat Liars
Spying on Antiwar Activists
Intimidation of Government Employees Free Speech Rights
Cindy Sheehan’s Arrest at The State of the Union
Witch Hunts Against Whistleblowers
Cheney’s Quail Hunt Coverup
The UAE Ports Deal
I know I’ve left more than a few out, but these will do for now. The point is that no one scandal stands out. If you campaign on one, you ignore all the others, and you never know which one, by itself, will resonate with the most voters.
So what should Dems do on the campaign trail? How can they condense this mass of scandal and Republican overreach into one, easy to remember slogan that encompasses all these abuses of power?
It’s very simple, really. One word ought to do it:
IMPEACH!
Impeach Bush, Impeach Cheney. And how do we get there? By throwing the Republican bums in Congress who have enabled these abuses out on their ear this fall.
Think about it? If you were a Republican facing re-election with the President’s poll numbers IN FREE FALL, with all the array of abuses we know about (and the suspicion of many more that we don’t) what would put you on the defensive the quickest? Well, if it was me, I sure wouldn’t want to answer the question of:
“Why hasn’t Congress initiated an impeachment investigation?”
No matter how your republican opponent answers that question, it’s a winner for Democrats. It puts the focus on all that the Republican Party has done to screw up this country. It requires the Republicans to defend Bush’s record (and to talk about it), for, if they don’t, they make their base angry. If they hem and haw in the least little bit, any Democrat has an opening to attack them for hypocrisy and collusion with corruption.
Either way, it keeps the focus on all of the crap that has gone down in the last 6 years: all the lies, all the deceit, all the bribes, all the earmarks and no-bid contracts, all the abuses of power, all the shit that has happened on their party’s — the Republican Party’s — watch.
But putting the Republicans on the defensive is only one reason to use impeachment as the primary issue this fall. For it also makes Democrats look like fighters again. It makes them look like they stand for more than just “we’d be more competent” or “America, you can do better.” Let’s face it. Those are wimpy losers as far as slogans go. The American people like a party that fights, not one that cowers in the corner and whines about the “good old days under Clinton, when we ran things so much better.”
I-M-P-E-A-C-H.
C’mon Dems. It’s an easy word to spell, an easy word to pronounce, an easy way into talking about all the Republican failures while in charge of our Nation’s government. Take a chance on fighting back for a change, and demand the impeachment of President Bush and his Sith Lord Master Vice President Cheney. Indeed, don’t just demand it. MAKE IT THE CENTERPIECE OF YOUR CAMPAIGN THIS FALL.
Try it. You’ll like it.
You have nothing to lose, but your own losing ways.
Cross-posted at that Orange place.
