At the top of this morning's rec list is
Stephen D's crossposting of susanhu's Booman headliner about the 9/22/01 PDB that is a marachino cherry on top of the High Crimes (we need no longer bother with Misdemeanors) evidence pile. Just below the flip in that diary is this comment: "Do we need MORE proof for impeachment proceedings to begin immediately?"
Now it was 5 months ago that I left my computer for a work stint in Hawai'i, and I recall slams aplenty in this forum for folks making such an outlandish suggestion "way back" then. Now I'm back in cyber mode and Impeachment is is a more popular tag term on this site than Harry Reid, WMD, politics and White House.
Tipping point, indeed. Hmmm. I wonder what Dennis Hastert is thinking right now (other than the obvious, "AAIIGGHH!!!")?
Well, for the record, I am gung-ho for the Impeachment of the Harebrained Bushemites
after the midterms,
not immediately (rationale below). But this diary is nominally about what must be going through Dennis Hastert's mind right now, and my contention is that he must be thinking about these very things quite a bit. Let me explain...
First, let's start with the undeniable givens:
- There is enough evidence in the public domain right now to impeach Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and almost any Admin official you should take a fancy to - more evidence of criminal activity, in fact, that may have ever been accumulated against any American Administration in history;
- A sweep of Congress by the Dems is becoming more and more likely as the hours go by, assuming, of course, that the margin will be too large for Diebold and ES&S to erase (that is not a joke);
- The GOP knows for certain (as do we all) that if the Dems actually manage to locate their other gonad and thereby gain the House and Senate, it would take about a week for an Impeachment resolution to be put forward (they might allow the Bushemites the dignity of a SOTU address, just to reistablish comity);
- If #2 becomes reality, Nancy Pelosi becomes Speaker of the House and, thus, third in line for the Presidency (unless some DLC usurper manages to steal her gavel);
- The biggest drag on the GOP in '06 will be the suction of the Bush Cabal as they swirl down the vortex caused by their hubris-driven folly; and now for the less obvious, but equally undeniable offshoot:
<1i value="6">The GOP leadership is not so dense that they haven't thought about #'s 1-5 already, and current Speaker Hastert must be mulling all this as we speak.
Conclusion: It will soon come to the poll-driven point that he is forced to consider the unimaginable, to wit: Impeach Dick Cheney as a scapegoat for Bush and the rest of the administration, and also for the Congressional GOPhers; a sacrifice (of an unpopular prick) to gain the absolution of the American public and to hopefully prevent a full-blown GOP midterm meltdown. These crooks have a well established track record of executing high-wire, limited-hangout semi-investigations (911, Intel, etc) and this would just be one more, albeit the most daring - but also the most critical for them.
Therefore, my contention is that the Dems need to get out in front of this pronto, like yesterday, and start beating the I-drum right now. The mountain of evidence is so overwhelming that inaction is, in itself, an indictment of the opposition (and calling for investigations that will be run by congressional running-dogs is merely inaction draped in a fancy dress). This inevitable process needs to be driven by us, and if Hastert is allowed any initiative, to "altruistically" begin the Cheney amputation procedure or to get Cheney to resign, then the Dems will again be looking lame and befuddled - because they will be. They all need to fall, not just Cheney, and we need to bring them down.
I know, there are a million variables, like for Pelosi to become Pres (be still, my fluttering aorta) they would have to successfully impeach Bush and Cheney together (and why not - aren't criminal trials consolidated all the time?), and there would be some stiff intransegence on the part of DLC deadenders, pleading for those of us who seek justice to just make-nice. But there are variables wherever you turn, and the variables staring us in the face of three more years of Bush in office are...well, if you need a description, you shouldn't be reading this.
Given all the facts on the ground (and in the sewer), why not start acting on them and make Impeachent of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld (say) a lynchpin of the '06 campaign? Form a Democratic Committee to Draft a Bill of Particulars, and make it a publicly process. File Impeachement motions in the House as a pro-forma move, to wrong-foot the slimeballs and put them on the defense so that any move in this direction on their part will be seen as capitulation. (NB, when Reid called for the restarting of the Intel Manipulation Probe, Frist or somebody complained loudly that they were already planning to do it, the Dems knew it, and this was just Reid grandstanding; if we don't wrongfoot them, they will do it to us). Issue talking points to all the Sunday talk show troops. Slam the SOBs hard, and then keep slamming them, with the facts.
Here's a sample sound-bite: "The Bush Administration has broken your government and ruined its reputation; Let's Do Something About It and Put Our Country Back Together: Impeach the Bush Administration!" (you don't even need to use "Democrats" in the sentence.)