I've been pro-impeachment because of the Bush administration's attack on the constitution, especially with the claim of unitary dictatorship putting the executive branch on a level that is not answerable to the Congressional and Judicial branches of our government.
Below the fold read more and see my political cartoon about putting party before country.
When Nancy Pelosi said that impeachment was off the table, I was very dissatisifed. What could be more important than Congress restoring the constitution and removing an individual who is either incompetment or criminal from the Oval Office?
Many anti-impeachment folks at the grassroots level argued that the reason impeachment was off the table was because Congress would not be able to get any work done if they also had to go about the process of impeaching Bush and Cheney. So I agreed to disagree with them.
They felt their reasons were valid. I felt they may be have a point but that they are missing the bigger picture. Congress may not get bogged down with the impeachment process, but they're already pretty friggin useless anyway because of a President who will veto anything they send along that might fix things. Besides, if impeachment is off the table then Congress is really a dog that's all bark and no bite. I'm sure President Bush was quivering in his brush-clearing boots when he heard the Democratic Leadership say impeachment is off the table.
Now all of this has changed. Superpole has a diary from Monday talking about the Vermont legislature moving forward with impeachment. Superpole quotes an article from Counterpunch that talks about the national Democratic Party's leadership opposing impeachment not for the lofty reasons of getting business done, but for partisan reasons of improving their electoral chances in 2008. Since the Washington Democrats seem to be missing the obvious, let me clue them in. Putting party before country does not win over independent voters.
It's an odd twist of fate where Republicans would be quick to call impeachment partisan politics yet the truth is that taking impeachment off the table is the absolute worst type of partisan politics. Compromising your principles in exchange for increased personal power.