Oldman over at BOP does an excellent job of analysing some of the realities in regard to impeaching the president, reasons behind it, etc… in Here Be Dragons:
Given the instability in Iraq, the poor governing numbers in the polls so far, and the increased price of oil that will likely be sustained or even run up another bull market then Bush’s popularity only has one place to go which is down. Even another terrorist attack might not rally but sour the public on a President that was all talk and no talent in his execution of basic issues.Like the late Palestinian leader Arafat however Democrats are weak not because of the issues, the American public is with them or will soon be with them on the issues (including some 70% for nationalized healthcare) but because they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. If the Democrats lose the 2006 elections, truly they have nobody to blame but their own party apparatus and candidates. However there is a danger in over-reaching.
Despite my personal desire to see GWB impeached, I don’t think this would be a good idea. First of all, impeachment of GWB would put Cheney into power, and if it didn’t then it would precipitate a power struggle. Second of all, the main political purpose of impeaching a lame duck President in the last two years of his second term, because impeachment before 2006 elections is highly unlikely, would be to tar and pin the responsibility and odium on his party in general.
The outcry from the public might in fact be enough to split off a large enough wedge of “rats leaving sinking ship” Congressmen in order to create an impeachment majority, but that might not be a good idea. Yes, I know they impeached Clinton, but the rules for Democrats and Republicans are not the same in the present time. Even if a successfull impeachment movement occured it would require splitting the Republicans and would engender a hard core group of embittered partisans on the right who would cry disenfranchisement.[...]
While GWB certainly deserves to be impeached, so did Harry Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson. Truman clearly violated the Constitution in attempting to use a UN Security Council vote rather than a US Congressional approval as vindication to go to war in Korea. Johnson was just as culpable or more so than GWB in the “Gulf of Tonkin” fabrication of causus belli as GWB was in the WMD-intel scandal. So merely fabricating a case for war or confabulating one isn’t sufficient by itself, though it may be a part of such a case for impeachment.
Nixon’s removal was clearly necessary because he was caught directly conspiring to use US government powers to persecute political opponents. This crossed the line even with many Republicans at the time. Oddly enough, GWB’s very simpleton nature much like the gradual senility of Reagan protects him from any such charges. Rove never told GWB that the election was fixed, and GWB never asked, and even if a child could have figured out from the election day exit-polls and Rove’s strangely confident insistence that the election would turn Bush’s way that something terribly wrong was amiss then well GWB has less of an IQ than a bright child.
Impeaching President Bush before a new Constitutional consensus has been reached in this nation would cause a terrible split and schism and lead almost inevitably to Civil War. That may indeed happen, but it would be short sighted. While I hate the guy, it is far better to let him linger and tar him with the deeds of his own hands’ fashioning, until he and the Republicans become noxious to every single non-fanatic American. The better route is to let the stench of mendacity and fanaticism rise to high heaven while the apologists and defenders of such a creed look ever more creepy and ever more deluded.
Read it all. It’s definitely worth the time and effort. (c/o See the Forest)
Some thoughts… Revealing the scandal of Watergate and prosecuting those involved was necessary and important, but it seems to me that the conservative rush to grasp power since then has been a direct reaction to that scandal.
It was, and is, seen by many in conservative quarters as an attack by the liberal establishment, the media and the educated elite, upon the instution of the presidency, and Nixon in particular and conservative values specifically.
So, impeaching Bush would most definitley bring the same reaction down the line, ten, twenty years from now. It would be worse than ever.
Solving the constituional issues first is indeed the wise path.
