Our motto is ‘We won’t rest until they’re frog-marched out’ and I am not going to abandon our creed just because we took back the Congress. But impeachment (and perhaps a preemptive Nixonian resignation) now seems like it is more likey than handcuffs. There are two factors that are forcing the country’s hand. First, there are Bush’s poll numbers, which are the lowest of his Presidency. And then, more significantly, there is this:
Former White House advisers to George H.W. Bush are keenly disappointed and concerned about the current President Bush’s initial reaction to the report by the Iraq Study Group.
They consider him rather dismissive of the group’s conclusions, issued yesterday, which include the view that current Iraq policy is failing. The group recommends a variety of important changes, such as assigning U.S. troops to play more of an advisory and training role and less of a combat role. The ISG also recommends that the United States withdraw most of its combat brigades by early 2008 and that the administration increase diplomatic efforts, including starting talks with
Iran and Syria and energetically working toward an Israeli-Palestinian solution.Adding to the unease were President Bush’s comments at his Thursday news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in which he avoided commenting on specifics in the ISG report.
“We have a classic case of circling the wagons,” says a former adviser to Bush the elder. “If President Bush changes his policy in Iraq in a fundamental way, it undermines the whole premise of his presidency. I just don’t believe he will ever do that.”
And, so, we are at the end of the road. We have exhausted all of our options short of impeachment. Jim Baker tried, but he failed. There is nothing left to do but remove him from office.
