The Republican party has fallen out of love with impeachment. The same Republicans who probably have a dog-eared copy of the Starr report on their bookshelves now react to the word "impeachment" like vampires stepping out into the midday sun. The Republican National Committee has been whipping up fear among its base (and consequently raising money) by claiming that if Democrats are elected, they will...gasp!....
impeach George W. Bush.
Tim Russert couldn't help but jump in the sandbox as well today, warning that if Democrats win the House, Conyers will be chairing the House Judiciary Committee. Conyers, as Russert pointed out, wants an investigation to determine whether grounds for impeachment exist. On The Huffington Post, Conyers responds:
Perhaps Mr. Russert has forgotten, but I have been a Chairman before. For five years, from 1989 to 1994, I was the Chairman of the House Government Operations Committee, now called the Government Reform Committee. I have a record of trying to expose government waste, fraud and abuse.
That was back when Congress did something called "oversight." You know, in our tri-partite system of government, when Congress actually acted like a co-equal branch. The Republican Congress decided to be a rubber stamp for President Bush instead.
Perhaps, if we had a little oversight, we wouldn't be mired in a war based on false pretenses in which we have lost thousands of our brave men and women in uniform and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis.
Perhaps we would not have had an energy policy drawn up in secret with oil company executives that has led to gas prices of more than three dollars per gallon.
Perhaps, if we had a little oversight, we wouldn't have a prescription drug plan written by the pharmaceutical companies, that prohibits the government from negotiating for lower prices with the same drug companies, and that no one really understands.
Perhaps, if we had a little oversight, we would know the extent to which our own government is spying on our phone calls, emails and other communications, contrary to the law of the land.
It's the "o" word Republicans should be afraid of. Because oversight will shine light not only into the Presidency, but into every aspect of this dysfunctional government. But no, no mention of oversight, only impeachment, because in this Republican party, it's all about the W: cultivating it, protecting it, preserving it.
And the Russerts of the world lap it up. Because heaven forbid Americans should be reminded that Democrats with subpoena power will investigate gas prices, no-bid contracts, billions missing in Iraq, the stifling of science at the FDA and the EPA, secret and ineffective surveillance programs, torture at detention camps, innocents stranded at Gitmo, Big Pharma, and more.
The midterms elections aren't about impeachment. They are about a new day and a new government, about a Democratic Congress that will vigorously fulfill its oversight duties--wherever they may lead.