Bob Fertik has posted a diary on impeachment:
Poll on Impeachment, Fri Nov 24, 2006 at 09:17:43 AM PST
See their 10-point platform for impeachment.
Needless to say, I would be thrilled to see the bums thrown out of office and brought to justice (with due process, of course), but a complex set of factors need to be looked at. To follow are some of my thoughts on this, as of now.
- First, I don't want to see it overwhelm the congressional agenda in the next two years (as was the case with GOP on Clinton), because there are extremely urgent and pressing matters, in fact of life and death, that need immediate attention (Iraq, minimum. wage, global warming, health-care, to name a few).
- But, if the Dems will limit this to a portion (say 10-20%) of their time, and do it under the banner of Government Accountability (which is defensible and important on principles), I would like to see them investigate a whole lot of things that happened over the last 6 years. I think unleashing Conyers on this and giving him some resources could work out.
- One can impeach (in the house; this only needs a majority of votes in the house), but not convict (in the senate trial; we don't have the votes for this anyway). That's an option that I'd be OK with, if investigations in (2) setup a solid case with documented evidence. That's an option to explore to prevent Cheney from becoming president.
- Of course, if they do go the (2) route, they should seek to compile evidence on cases of (potential, to be formal) wrongdoing by both Bush and Cheney, and perhaps Condi Rice as well. Rumsfeld should also be held accountable, but only the censure option may be available at this point since he is out the door.
- Impeaching in the house and censuring in both chambers, but not convicting in the senate, is another alternative.
- Since anything done will overlap the 2008 cycle, caution is warranted. We should keep in mind that different players on our side will view this from different angles.
- Ultimately, how the public perception on this turns will hinge on how the media portrays and projects anything. As we well know, the media doing its due diligence and playing a neutral, fair and reasonable arbiter is something we can't depend on.
- It it critical that the Democrats maintain and expand upon their congressional majority (they're poised to gain several seats in the senate in the next cycle) as well as win back the whitehouse in 2008. In general, I oppose one party rule by anyone, but given the past 6 years of devastation by the bad guys, we do need a few years of one party rule by the better guys (perhaps with us closely monitoring the deeds our guys as well) to get things back on track.
- Keep in mind also that risk and interest levels will vary widely among the congressional Democrats themselves.
- Finally, from both political and idealistic standpoints, accountability and a goal of making the system work better should be the stated and pursued objectives and not revenge or retribution.
To close, for your voting pleasure, here is Yet Another Poll on Impeachment (YAPOI):)