and another thing

[topaz]

This is at least partly related to spending the evening watching a Michael Moore movie, but I am so fucking angry about the Scooter Libby business I can't see straight.  Holy hell am I mad.  I could just about eat a battleship and shit staples.

I think one of the things that's most infuriating is that we have such a gutless, spineless, Democratic leadership in Congress, it's practically guaranteed that nothing is going to happen.  Pelosi's chair was barely warm before she announced that impeachment was off the table.  (The Huffington Post is urging you to make her put it back on the table.  That number is 202-225-0100, folks.  And MoveOn has one of their endless petitions in play to support impeachment, if you like signing MoveOn petitions.)

Our House rep, Marty Meehan, is vacating his seat this fall and it's up for grabs.  The first candidate who says they support impeaching this motherfucker will get my vote.  For that matter, they may well get me to quit my job and go to work on their campaign.

Comments

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

You are not addressing the possibility of impeachment AND conviction.

Who is tasked with the duty of repairing the Constitution? The same assclowns who would and do abuse it. How the hell, exactly, is this going to work? And how would "moving on" at this point help?

[qnetter]

I don't address that possibility because there is no such possibility. There is no chance at all of a majority voting to impeach, or of a majority convicting on any of the charges discussed. All that would accomplish is waste the next 18 months.

As for what "moving on" would help, it would help exactly as I described it: by heading off the potential demotion of impeachment into a vote of no confidence. That is a far, far greater peril to our form of government than these specific crimes. The same standards you apply would probably have required the impeachment of FDR, Truman, JFK, and LBJ, as well as Nixon.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

There is indeed a possibility of it, because the mechanism exists in the Constitution. There is a very low PROBABILITY of it, one that is probably not worth measuring.

You talk about the demotion of impeachment as if it were a tangible thing, but i think you exaggerate not only about its likelihood but also in the magnitude of its effect. I feel that a bigger peril to our form of government is the way that the Bush Administration has extended the power of the Executive Branch, which i hope you're concerned about. I wonder what crimes the White House would have to commit for you to feel that impeachment would not risk self-demotion.