Disclaimer: I am no political expert. And, I am baffled by the refusal of our representative government to exert the will of the people and end this war.
After reading Lithium Cola's excellent diary about the Warner-Levin trap, I started to get depressed. Sure there was a great 100 hours agenda, but it is so apparent to me that the fundamental change we voted for will not come until 2008, if we're lucky. To me, the process that allows all the non-related ammendments to get attached to Bills in the Senate defies logic and reason. If it's something that needs to get funded and passed, it should stand on its own.
So if Congress is going to get bogged down by endless ammendments to bills of great import, unable to pass even a non-binding resolution against the war, it's time for Congress to generate some good news the MSM couldn't even ignore....
Congress, if you're unable to get anything of global importance passed, you might as well just start impeachment proceedings. Make it your battle cry. Put it back on the table. Say the word impeachment into every camera pointed at you, into every microphone thrust towards you. Call the President the liar and criminal he is; the Vice President, the liar and criminal he is.
You tried the honorable path, not taking over Congress with a vendetta. Kudos to you, I wouldn't have the same self-control. Well, it's time to take that back. Flip flop on it. I give you permission to rethink your position in light of all the new evidence. I'm sure millions of my fellow citizens will agree. If I outed a CIA operative, I'd be charged with treason, and quite possibly executed. Nixon was aware someone broke into a hotel room... where's the parity? Clinton lied under oath about a personal relationship. Where's the parity? Bush lied about evidence that led the country to war. Hundreds of thousands are dead as a direct result of his lies and his agenda. HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE HAVE BEEN KILLED due to the lies. Where's the parity? Impeachment is the only reasonable action now.
It has been claimed that absolutely nothing else would get done if Congress took up the Impeachment cause. So what? Nothing's going to get done anyway. You can't possibly imagine how infuriating it is to watch this gamesmanship when the consequences include so many dying and so much suffering.
When the rules of conduct and proceedings of the Senate were written, armies were just learning how to not line up in a field across from each other in plain sight. Now, you take a few days to do something in the spirit of "bipartisanship" and a couple of hundred more people die. Our family. Our neighbors, our coworkers, citizens of a country that had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks. They die, and the survivors are scarred for life, having watched the smoldering remains of their friends melt into their humvees. They lose limbs, faces, eyes. And the VA gets funding cut. The country spends a couple more billion dollars of credit to amass piles of cash they subsequently lose.
This country is hurting. And this country is hurting the world. Single payer healthcare, insurance reform, global warming are all very important issues... and big. But, it's just time to get the criminals out of office. All the other initiatives aren't going to do us any good if we're living in a radioactive wasteland.
Who among you would jump on the grenade tossed into a transport vehicle? Doesn't that take guts? To give your life for your comrades? Yet, political careers somehow become more important than the lives in the battlefield. Republicans in office dutifully do their part as pawns for the criminals at the top. Yes, their job is more important than the life of Senator Webb's son, serving in Iraq. More important than any of the lives being wasted. Who among you can even imagine throwing yourselves on a grenade to save someone other than yourself?
Yes, yes, Senate rules must be followed, even if they were written before the bullet was invented... So, follow the rules... and pick up the cause for impeachment. Maybe nothing will get done. Eventually, you'll have to not pass the funding of continued military operations in Iraq. So that's something....
The media will be all over it, and for me, there'll be a glimmer of hope Congress is working in the interest of the country.