The Case for Impeachment

The new incoming Speaker of the House, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, has made it abundantly clear that Bush’s impeachment is off the table. Her reasoning and the reasoning of many close political observers is obvious: Democrats have only 2007 to solidify their electoral gains by demonstrating that they, in fact, have a practical agenda to solve the many problems catastrophes that Republicans have left behind. Moreover, establishment Washington and pary insiders have convinced elected Democrats that the American public would not tolerate impeachment at this time. Frankly, I’m sympathetic to the practical and "rational" reasons against impeachment: Democrats will have a lot on their plate over the next year and, of course, media pundits and establishment Washington would jump down their throats if they got wind that Democrats were seriously considering Bush’s impeachment.

And then… I come across items like this, and think, Damn it, he’s right:

Impeachment: you think the world is not watching?

So it’s not politically convenient to try to impeach?

So there will be no price paid for being the worst president ever, apart for the promise of the judgement of history?

So Democrats also think it’s okay to go invade another country, to get several hundred thousand of its inhabitants killed, to proudly practice and promote torture around the world, to tear up the Geneva Conventions and a whole load of international treaties, and to go grab random foreigners around the world to put them in Guantanamo and throw away the key?

So not only was Bush reelected with a real majority, but the opposition essentially says that what he did is not so profoundly illegal that it deserves to be duly sanctioned?

Way to go.

The world is watching. And it will not forget. Our current leaders may be cowards, but they won’t always be there. Haven’t you noticed how being anti-American makes you a popular politician and makes you win elections around the world?

Fear will not be enough when the whole world is convinced that America will not correct its current ways, and that the problem is not just the current administration.

“Destroying Democracy”

According to some Republicans, making sure that every vote is counted amounts to "destroying democracy":

Republican Vern Buchanan made a rollicking, rambling appearance on Hannity and Colmes last night, during which he accused Democrat Christine Jennings of "destroying democracy" by contesting the election results.

The issue in the race, of course, is that electronic voting machines failed to register a vote in the congressional race from more than 13 percent of Sarasota County voters — a rate far higher than other counties and absentee ballots. That statistical aberration or "undervote" has led experts and other reasonable people to declare that something went wrong in the race.

Republicans… Planting Legislative Land Mines

Via TalkingPointsMemo.com, the Wall Street Journal Reports:

Like a retreating army, Republicans are tearing up railroad track and planting legislative land mines to make it harder for Democrats to govern when they take power in Congress next month.

Already, the Republican leadership has moved to saddle the new Democratic majority with responsibility for resolving $463 billion in spending bills for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. And the departing chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Bill Thomas (R., Calif.), has been demanding that the Democrat-crafted 2008 budget absorb most of the $13 billion in costs incurred from a decision now to protect physician reimbursements under Medicare, the federal health-care program for the elderly and disabled.

The unstated goal is to disrupt the Democratic agenda and make it harder for the new majority to meet its promise to reinstitute "pay-as-you-go" budget rules, under which new costs or tax cuts must be offset to protect the deficit from growing.

"I think we’re trying to get an accommodation," said Speaker Dennis Hastert (R., Ill.) last evening. "You’re digging a hole now and filling up with money from ’08," he said of Mr. Thomas’s demands. "He says he’s trying to move away from that."

Vichy Democrats?

Divide and conquer?

President Bush has invited leaders of the conservative Blue Dog and New Democrat coalitions to the White House Friday to discuss areas of "mutual cooperation" in the words of one Democratic Congressional aide.

The outreach comes at a time when Bush’s image on Capitol Hill and around the country has taken a serious beating. The meeting is scheduled just two days after the Iraq Study Group is scheduled to release its findings and one day after the Senate Armed Services Committee plans to hold hearings on them.

Reps. Alan Boyd (Fla.), Dennis Moore (Kan.) and Mike Ross (Ark.) will represent the Blue Dogs, a coalition of usually southern, conservative-leaning Democrats and Reps. Joe Crowley (N.Y.), Artur Davis (Ala.), Ron Kind (Wis.), Adam Smith (Wash.) and Ellen Tauscher (Calif.) are set to represent the New Democrats, a group of business-friendly centrists, at the meeting, which the president is expected to attend.

Bush’s Insult of Jim Webb

More on Bush’s insult of Senator-elect Jim Webb:

[A]ccording to Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), Bush was told that Webb’s son had a recent brush with death in Iraq and was warned to be “extra sensitive” when talking to the Sen.-elect. ThinkProgress yesterday spoke with Moran’s office and confirmed the congressman’s statement, first reported by hcc in VA:

Not only did Bush know about it, he was specifically briefed on the incident before meeting with Webb, and was cautioned to be extra sensitive in speaking with Webb about his son.

After such a briefing, Bush perhaps shouldn’t have been so surprised about Webb’s unwillingness to chit-chat about his son.