For the last three years (ever since it became clear that the invasion and occupation of Iraq would end in ignominy) we’ve been told that serious people know that we must stay in Iraq. For the last two and half years (ever since Bush stole the election in Ohio) we’ve been told that election fraud is a topic for loonies and fringe leftists. For the last year and and a half (when the NSA program was revealed) we’ve been told that impeachment is a shrill, vituperative, and impractical solution.
But, we haven’t listened. Not me, not Susan, not Steven, not clammy, not Larry, not Chris, not Albert, not jpol, not Terrance, nor anyone else that writes for this community. We’ve just kept plugging away, documenting the atrocities and creating a public record that will stand in posterity as proof that not all Americans are fucking stupid and immoral.
I think we’re finally getting close to the point in this country where impeachment is no-brainer. Just look at this via The Muckraker:
Q Senators Schumer and Feinstein are going to introduce a no confidence resolution for Attorney General Gonzales next week, the Senate is going to vote on this. You have a sixth Republican, Norm Coleman, come out and say the Attorney General should resign. Doesn’t this all add up to the weight that’s dragging him down? And how can he be effective with all —
MR. FRATTO: I think it adds up to the bottomless bag of tricks that Democrats in the Senate would like to pull out on a weekly basis, regarding the Attorney General. The Attorney General has the full confidence of the President….
Q You addressed the Democratic part of that question. You didn’t say anything about the six Republicans. And you also had Specter saying that he predicts that he’ll resign — Gonzales will resign, saying that he’s unable to perform his duties. What about the Republicans?
MR. FRATTO: We understand that there are senators who have different views.
Q I’m talking about the Republicans.
MR. FRATTO: Talking about senators of both parties, and we understand that they have concerns and questions. We think that the Attorney General has been honest and forthright in addressing those questions; and as I said earlier, most importantly, has the full confidence of the President.
Jim.
Q But, Tony, when you say he has the full confidence of the President, and when you say you feel he’s been a strong Attorney General, doesn’t this erode the President’s credibility when it seems like the entire rest of the political universe is on the other side of that?
MR. FRATTO: No, I don’t think that’s where everyone is. Look —
Q How is — who’s on his side?
MR. FRATTO: What we are focusing on, what we think the Attorney General is focusing on is the mission of the Department of Justice. I haven’t heard anyone say that the Department of Justice has been weak in enforcing child predator laws. I haven’t heard anyone say that the Department of Justice has been anything short of strong and aggressive in protecting America from domestic terrorism threats. Those are the things that we are focusing on, and those things have happened under this Attorney General’s leadership….
Q Quickly, back on Gonzales. Would the White House consider a vote of no confidence to have any procedural impact at all, or would you consider it an empty political stunt?
MR. FRATTO: I think we would consider it to be just another political stunt.
Q Is it not important for the Attorney General to have the confidence of Congress?
MR. FRATTO: It’s important for any public official to have as much confidence as he can garner. And that’s going to ebb and flow, but it will not ebb and flow with this President and this Attorney General.
Consider the Dean of the Cocktail Frankfurter set, David Broder, chatting online today (via Atrios):
David S. Broder: The presideent clearly thought and acted as if he were above the law, or could bend it completely to his will. What happened was sickening, appalling on all the levels you describe.
And:
Anonymous: 9/15/06 you typed about Clinton: “When a president loses his credibility, he loses an important tool for governing — and that is why I thought he should step down.” Do you think Mr. Bush retains credibility enough to govern effectively?
David S. Broder: I think that is seriously in question. But Vicve President Cheney would have less,so that option is not really available.
That’s hardly a ringing endorsement of the President, and it is hardly a claim that calls for impeachment are shrill and vituperative. The School of Higher Broderism now officially thinks impeachment is only off the table because the Vice-President is worse. Of course, we would all, all of us, like to impeach the Vice-President first…or perhaps as a kind of package deal.
We just need the Republicans to get with the program. We don’t need a President Pelosi. We can work something out. Fuck…let James Baker and Lee Hamilton run the country for the last year of Bush’s presidency. I don’t care. Just get these crooks out of here. Do it. Now.
I’ve always thought that the Republicans would push Bush out, a little like the elite of Argentina forcing out Galtieri after the Falklands.
Actually the elite in Argentina had nothing to do with kicking out Galtieri. It was a popular move that could not br ignored or there was going to be an uprising. Actually what was going on was never seen there. people would report a crime, and when the cops got to the area, they would be snipped at. What the elites really feared was a revolution.
It’s true there had been popular agitation against Galtieri for years. But it was my understanding that the elite administered the coup de gras.
Hi Alice. First you should keep in mind that what brought him down was the Malvinas/ Faukland war. What Two main things brought his demise: He had been saying that we were winning the war, until the truth could no longer be hidden. They kicked our ass back and forth. Second was the way they treated those kids. They had to put up with freezing temperatures without the appropiate equipment. The people were enraged. The protests in front of the Pink House were constant.
Thus, Bignone took over. They thought that that would quell the mood of the country, but they were wrong. When I went back in 89, I could not believe what I was told: people where shooting at the police cars!!
I think it is slowly, surely building up to a point when the Republicans will indeed see that the only future their party has is to make a massive change in course — and impeachment will look better than the alternative.
Every strand of the web that gets revealed only sheds light on more threads yet to pull, until the whole nasty mess unravels.
Nixon resigned rather than face the impeachment process… but he was quite a different personality type than Bush. Bush’s all-or-nothing, any admission of error means utter failure approach is not going to make resignation very likely. Nixon at least had a keen sense of survival; he knew when to quit. I’m not so sure Bush is that attuned to reality. Which is far scarier….
Meanwhile, we need to keep picking at that web, strand by strand, exposing every sticky, sordid connection we can.
I disagree. I don’t think we will ever have enough GOP Senators on board to impeach Cheney or Bush. And to be honest, I don’t think Pelosi and Hoyer will let the House vote on impeachment articles. I wish I believed otherwise.
we’re going to have to find some way to use it against them in the 2008 elections (and beyond) — especially if there are any current sitting Senators who were among those blasting Bill Clinton during L’Affaire Lewinsky.
What brought Nixon down was the investigations, carried on TV in full view of the American people. It’s going to take something similar to bring down Bush and/or Cheney.
Here’s something to ponder — if Cheney is found liable in the Valerie Plame civil suit, what effect might that have on a possible impeachment, or a retirement for “health reasons”? Hell, I wouldn’t put it past him to pull a fake Kenny Boy Lay move and “die” in office…
i never listened, either!
This seems very encouraging to me. The practicioners of Higher Broderism had seemed inexplicably deaf to the myriad complaints about the Bush administration, until now. The Overton Window is moving in the correct direction, it would seem. The Comey testimony may have been the kick that the punditocracy needed to get it out of its complacency… I’ll never understand why it took this long, but for now I’ll just hope that this really is happening and the wait may be over soon.
Here’a very interesting take on the Republican Party and Bush. Paul Krugman at the NYT thinks that Bush is doing precisely what the Republican Party wants. I think so too and this is why this party must be either brought back to being just the party of wealth or completely swept under the rug of history. Another little nugget I found interesting is the fact that President Eisenhower’s granddaughter is so disgusted with the Republican Party that has betrayed all of her grandfather’s principles will most likely vote Democratic in 2008.
Impeach Cheney and Bush now.
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/05/18/opinion/18krugman.html?pagewanted=all