Man, Bush is just
ASKING to be impeached now.
Wonkette has a clip of his press conference with the quote, "We're not leaving [Iraq] while I'm the president."
It's pretty goddamn clear that we have two choices about the Iraq war:
1. Stay for 2006, 2007, 2008, and into 2009. Do you like that? Does that sound like a good idea to you? Do you get excited when you read that, "Yeah! We're going to be in Iraq for three more years! Three more years! Three more years!" Or maybe not. In that case, your only other option is to...
2. Get a new goddamn president. I don't know if Cheney would be any better (I suspect not), but at least a President Cheney might notice that he would be serving at the pleasure of Congress, and that if
he insists on carrying on the war until 2009, then
HIS ass will get impeached too.
Could it be any clearer? If you don't favor impeaching Bush and removing him from office, you are now OFFICIALLY pro-war-until-2009.
Yes, this will blow the minds of the political-media complex (especially the interlocking circle-jerks of the Sunday shows), because in their world, politicians don't actually play chicken with impeachment ("I dare Democrats to try to impeach me, because I'm so popular, and my war is so popular.").
Yes, there are people who will say, "But we can't impeach someone just because he won't do what we want politically," and the correct answer is not "Yeah, I guess you're right"; the correct answer is, "Why do you want Bush to be president so badly?"
Over half the country is pissed off at Bush - whether it's about the war, bullshit terror alerts, Katrina, gas prices, the budget, economic stuff that isn't doing jackshit for them, and the list goes on - and they don't trust him, or Cheney, or Congressional Republicans to get their shit together.
And here we have Bush telling people that as long as he's president, American troops will remain in Iraq. That's not a statement, that's a threat. Translating it from politics to English, you'll find it says, "I am going to keep getting your kids killed and maimed because you can't stop me. MWAHAHAHAHAHA!"
But it's also an offer, because there is one way to make him not be president: as Dan Savage says, ITMFA. Impeach the motherfucker already, which yes, is slightly crude, but so's telling the country that now that they've reelected you, you're going to do whatever the fuck you want, consequences and democratic accountability be damned.
The fact that politicians aren't considering it yet just says that they aren't aware of, or comfortable with, the idea. They'd rather find some third way out, that doesn't involve either the awkwardness of impeachment (funny how they weren't so reluctant when it was conservatives hectoring Clinton about a blowjob or two) or the continued violence and death of their constituents in Iraq.
But Bush has eliminated the idea of any kind of third choice by limiting the world of possibilities to two, and announcing that, like Conrad Burns, he will NOT be persuaded by public opinion (quite the desirable trait in the leader of a DEMOCRACY, eh?): stay in Iraq until 2009 (when, we assume, he leaves office, unless he tries to suspend the 22nd Amendment), or impeach the president.
The good news is that more than half the country already wants to get out of Iraq, already is pissed off at Bush, and is already inclined to vote against the people who enable him to keep fucking things up. The bad news is that this means our choices are reduced to two: MORE WAR... Or, IMPEACH BUSH. Don't like it? Don't blame me - blame the people who gave you those two choices and said, "Choose, suckers!" And realize that NOT choosing is to choose MORE WAR.
Those are your two choices. Discuss.