[Peace-discuss] Impeachment

[Bill Strutz]

I Googled the Impeachment sections of the Constitution.  Sen. Durbin's
letter is strictly correct.  (Someone brings a bill of impeachment to
the House.  If the House approves it by a simple majority, then the
Senate (with the Chief Justice presiding) tries the case.  The Senate
must get a 2/3 majority to remove the President.  The same rules apply
to the impeachment of a vice-president or other high official, such as Attorney General Gonzales.)  Don't
blame Durbin:  A senator cannot bring the bill of impeachment, it must
come from the House.  What Sen. Durbin says is the most direct path to impeachment.  I think his head and heart are in the
right place.

My thinking about impeachment has gone through several stages -- please bear with me.

First my thinking was that the Democratic majority would investigate the acts of Bush, Cheney, et al., and the truth would stir up so much revulsion in the American people that impeachment would be an irresistible tide, whether or not the Democrats actually want to impeach.  We can't get a 2/3 super-majority in the Senate -- yet.  Rather than use up political capital in a hasty impeachment, we can muster a tidal wave that will sweep the Neocons out of office and discredit them forever.  We simply need to investigate, and let the chips fall.  Impeachment now would be premature.  Let investigations flush out the truth, let the American people roar in anger, and we will get that 2/3 majority.  Yay!

Next I despaired, because in the meantime Bush/Cheney have the bully pulpit to "catapult the propaganda."  However, look at how they sling it:
  (A) Bush gave his January 10th speech, trying to gather support for his escalation of the war in Iraq, and his popularity actually declined.
  (B) Bush gave his
 State of the Union Address, and it was a complete non-starter.  He has lost all credibility except among the 27% who will go along with anything.  No one even believes that his intentions are good.

Third, I thought about how impeachment would play out, and became discouraged all over again:
(A) If we tried to impeach Bush and Cheney simultaneously, the timing would be tricky, and would probably be impossible.  Also, since the Speaker of the House is the next person in line for the Presidency, and is of the opposite party, every Republican would fight impeachment
 bitterly.  We've seen how bitterly the Republicans can fight.
(B) If we impeach Bush and Cheney serially, at some point they would appoint a new vice president -- Perhaps McCain -- who would serve out the balance of the Presidential term and who would run in 2008.  Remember how Gerald Ford moved from the House to the Presidency, with a hop, skip, and a jump, without an election.

Therefore,
Fourth, I come to a conclusion:  It really is best to leave Bush/Cheney in office until the 2008 elections.

They are so thoroughly discredited that their proposals are DOA.  They are further discredited every time they open their mouths (so let them open their mouths as often as possible).  They are not Midas, they are Sadim:  Everything they touch turns to shit.  The escalation will also fail, and will help to bring them down.  They are poster-boys for a certain sly duplicity blended with blatant incompetence.   Do not martyr
 them.  Let them  remain in office, where they discredit their friends and their Party.

By the 2008 elections, every Republican candidate will either repudiate their party, or will be defeated.   It is conceivable that the Republican Party will shatter and dissolve, as the Whigs did in the 1850's.  

The smartest path the Republicans could follow would be for Cheney to resign and be replaced by a relatively popular Republican appointee (perhaps a faux maverick such as McCain), and then for Bush to resign.  The new Republican president might behave well enough to get elected in 2008.

Meanwhile, we must continue to protest.  We must make sure that the Administration's misdeeds and arrogance come to light during these two years.  We must make it clear to everyone that Bush/Cheney are acting against the will of the American people.  We must make every Congressperson go on the record, repeatedly, as to what
 they support and what they disavow.  We must make it clear to other nations that Americans are outraged by the evil that Bush and Cheney do.

Above all, we must convince every Democratic Congressperson that America's "roar of anger" will not be appeased by mere regime change.  We must pound that lesson into them, over and over, for two solid years.  They must never forget our lesson:  

We are not fighting for the Democratic Party, nor against the Republican Party.  We are fighting for the Constitution and for responsive government.  We will not tolerate militarists, authoritarians, or corporatists.

I am reminded of something that Gandhi said about persistent civil disobedience:  "First they ignore you.  Then they mock you.  Then they fight you.  Then you win."

           -- Bill Strutz
 
---------------------------
William J Strutz 
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."  -- Martin Luther King Jr.
PO Box 11464,Champaign IL 61826       (217)
 359-0598





 
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