{"id":10756,"date":"2007-07-05T11:39:30","date_gmt":"2007-07-05T18:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/07\/05\/impeachment.html"},"modified":"2007-07-05T11:39:30","modified_gmt":"2007-07-05T18:39:30","slug":"impeachment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/07\/05\/impeachment.html","title":{"rendered":"Impeachment?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lots of talk about it, from folks generally outraged by the last 6.5 years of shenanigans in the Administration (which includes, for this <\/em>purpose, the VP’s office).  My thoughts?<\/p>\n

Meh.  From a practical standpoint, the chances of it actually happening between now and January 2009 are passingly small.  Hell, look at Alberto Gonzalez.  For all his buffoonery before Congressional committees, inane answers that made him look like either an idiotic liar or a cretinous half-drunken absentee manager, for all the responses that drove even Republican congresscritters to condemn him and call for his resignation — the Senate couldn’t muster the votes from the GOP to pass a non-binding “No Confidence” vote.<\/p>\n

What do you think the chances are, in an election year-and-a-half, that the Republicans will actually treat the actions of the last six years, which encompass activities that they approved of and signed off on or stood by at the time and merely smiled and nodded about, as something worth removing the President (and\/or VP) for?<\/p>\n

Zilch.  Zero.  Zip.<\/p>\n

And given that the majority of Democrats — and the American people — have gone along with it, too, makes it even less likely.<\/p>\n

All impeachment proceedings would do at this point is distract from the Administrations actions, now and ongoing.  It would become (or be made) the center stage, the focus, dragging on and on, and the argument would turn from “Was this policy\/action by the Administration a sheer affront to what it means to be American” to “Should the President be impeached, or is this impeachment all about partisan politics?”  (And, sadly, given their propensities, there would be enough Democrats trying to exploit it baldly and politically to give the suggestion legs.)<\/p>\n

Unless Bush\/Cheney actually do something to actively torque off Congress as a whole <\/em>enough to act  (which they’ve verged on doing at times, to be sure), or can get the President or VP to actually testify on the record and perjure themselves (which is how they nailed Clinton — and why they never have and never will get those two into such a situation), we’ll never see it happen.<\/p>\n

(Do I think it should <\/em>happen?  Yes, ideally.  But pragmatically, I think it holds too many risks, given the current situation and limited time to do it all in, even if it were likely that it could <\/em>happen.)<\/p>\n

So what can and should an outraged public do?<\/p>\n

The best result would be to vote the bums out, to have this Administration so widely despised by the voting public that not all the election year shenanigans that the Administration can pull will be able to keep 2009 (and 2011 and 2013) seeing a Democratic president and Congress, akin to the post-Watergate backlash of ’76.  That has its own dangers — I’m a big believer in not having single-party rule — but it would be the clearest, and most straightforward condemnation that could be given to Bush and Cheney and their cronies.<\/p>\n

It might not be as satisfying as impeachment and carrying their figurative heads around on pikes, but it would be a lot more likely and a lot more effective at keeping this sort of thing from happening in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lots of talk about it, from folks generally outraged by the last 6.5 years of shenanigans in the Administration (which includes, for this purpose, the VP’s office).  My thoughts? Meh.  From a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[54,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-2008","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":38109,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/02\/rush-to-legislation.html","url_meta":{"origin":10756,"position":0},"title":"Rush to Legislation","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 2-Jul-13 9:20pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Texas GOP aren't taking any chances that their desired anti-abortion bill won't pass during the second session. \u00a02,300 people signed up to testify ... but let's cut it to 100. Oh, and hold the testimony in a small room half-take up by legislators and staff.Then, once that's done, we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27238,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/23\/with-great-power-comes-great-chances-to-do-really-bad-stuff.html","url_meta":{"origin":10756,"position":1},"title":"With great power comes great chances to do really bad stuff","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 23-Mar-12 5:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Even super-heroes, who, over the years have done some pretty awful punishments to their defeated opponents -- a lot of which have to do with being trapped in some awful punishment situation forever. #ddtb Embedded Link 6 Psychotic Punishments Doled Out by Famous Superheroes Sometimes a hero's unwavering moral code\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18847,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/06\/tweets-from-2010-10-06.html","url_meta":{"origin":10756,"position":2},"title":"Tweets from 2010-10-06","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 6-Oct-10 11:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Felt off at karate last night - stiff, more flailing than fighting. I did learn half of my next kata, though, so that was good. # Today, comic books, BP check, pick out new glasses, and school dinner at Pasquini's (yum). Wow, that sounds very pedestrian. # In honor of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12306,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/06\/03\/on_to_denver.html","url_meta":{"origin":10756,"position":3},"title":"On to Denver","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 3-Jun-08 10:03pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It occurs to me that I will actually be working downtown when the Democratic Convention is in town. 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