Just listening to NPR this morning about how our War on Terror has further undermined our security, this time in a real big way. Our European allies are not at all happy to find out that we've been running a secret torture Gulag right in their midst. Aside from the principle of the thing (or, our complete lack of all principle), they are understandibly scared of how their Islamic communities will react. Our national security has just taken another nosedive.
So, I agree with Kossacks who feel that regime change here is too critical to leave until 2008. But I also agree with those who think impeaching the President, while praiseworthy, is just an impossible dream.
So, why not impeach Cheney?
If I understand the Constitution, we can impeach a Vice President just like a President. And there seems to be general agreement that Cheney is the chief Evil Genius of this administration, his rather unhealthy interest in promoting torture being just the latest evidence of his undermining our basic national principles.
There are several advantages in pursuing Cheney's impeachment.
- If Bush is a puppet of those around him, it will do little good to remove just the puppet.
- Any attempt to target Bush runs directly into the Bush Cult of Personality of the wingnut stratum (oops, I mean the Conservative Base). Impeaching Cheney gets at the real substance of our problems without having to waste time and effort convincing a lot of people that their Dear Leader is less than divine.
- If we did remove Bush, check out the constitutional line of succession. Right.
In a normal administration, impeaching a Vice President would be a pointless waste of effort. This administration, however, is far from normal.
What say you all?