The Democratic leadership does not want to impeach President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney. This is not because the Democrats think Bush and Cheney are innocent of breaking domestic and international laws. Instead, it is because of sheer political expediency.
The Democrats are looking carefully at recent history and current poll numbers. When the Republicans impeached Clinton for breaking the law (lying under oath about a liaison), Clinton's poll numbers actually went up. And a May 2007 poll (Insider Advantage poll ) shows that only 49 percent of Democrats and 5 percent of Republicans are in favor of impeachment.
However, a more recent poll (USA Today Gallup Poll) after Bush's commutation of I. Scooter Libby's sentence, showed the opinion needle bending towards impeachment: Democrats 54 percent, Republicans 9 percent, and undecided 2 percent. But the poll numbers are not yet enough to give political courage to the Democratic leadership.
As a consequence, the Democrats are choosing the path of "waiting it out" and subjecting the administration to the "death of a thousand subpoenas."
But should poll numbers and political expediency be allowed to dictate this country's formal response to elected officials who brazenly commit serious crimes?
And what do these so-powerful poll numbers really reflect? Are we talking about collective, informed consent not to pursue legal remedies against elected officials who break the law? No. In fact the Bush administration has been astonishingly successful in manufacturing "disinformed" consent to its illegal activities.
In reality, the electorate is underinformed and "disinformed" about the nature of this administration's serious breaches of domestic and international law. An astonishing number of Americans still think that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11 and had weapons of mass destruction. This administration has assiduously sought, with the cooperation of much of the media, to misinform the electorate.
So let's look at this unvirtuous circle: Elected officials commit grave crimes against domestic and international law. These elected officials make sure the public is misinformed about the illegal activities. The uninformed public, when polled, is against pursuing legal remedies against illegal activities they don’t know much about. These polls persuade the only people (our representatives) who can pursue legal remedies not to pursue those legal remedies.
What's wrong with this picture?
This is a failure of leadership on a profound scale. Leadership's role is to inform, to see that the public has the full picture. The failure of the Democratic leadership to educate the public on the law and its serial breaches by the Bush Administration is an abdication of its role as the only real check and balance to a rogue administration.
Pelosi announced that she was "taking impeachment off the table." But the Constitution places it on the table for a very good reason: it is one of the few checks upon presidential powers, the measure of last resort when the other checks just will not work. Taking impeachment "off the table" is the equivalent of a prosecutor announcing that "indictment is off the table," irrespective of the crimes somebody did or might commit.
Impeachment should always be on the table to remind presidents and White House staff that they share power with coequal branches of government and they are obliged to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law.
I firmly believe that if the public were given access to a summary of the laws involved and the case which Bush and Cheney need to answer, the people would call for impeachment.
(For a simple but comprehensive presentation of the breaches of the law involved merely in the Iraq invasion, see:
Pinkyshow Iraq War crimes video
So if the Democrats wish to lead they need to educate the public and lay out the charges that would be itemized in the impeachment articles. They owe this to the American people and to the guiding principle of the rule of law. Our leaders should lead and the poll numbers that support their stand for justice will follow.