I'm not happy with Speaker Pelosi's comments about impeachment, but I wish her well. She has literally one of the toughest jobs in the world. Few of us can imagine what she has to deal with, every single day of her life. It's an enormous responsibility, and she won't always handle it perfectly. She won't always say things we want to hear her say. There's no way to sugarcoat that.
I've defended the Speaker for having taken impeachment off the table, because I thought she was being smart and responsible. As leader of the opposition party, and as second in line to the presidency, it would be enormously dangerous for her to openly discuss removing from office the elected President and Vice President. Even if impeachment hearings are undertaken, it is critically important that she remain neutral. It might even be responsible for her to recuse herself from any final impeachment vote. Even so, her comments to Mike Stark upset me.
I favor impeachment, but I want it done right. I want it done methodically and transparently, with evidence carefully taken, on the record, on television, for all to see. I want it based on the facts, not my personal loathing for this administration. I do believe the facts, carefully laid out to the public, will convince enough people of the necessity of impeachment that the Republican Party will be forced to deal with Bush the same way they dealt with Nixon. I believe they will have to first deal with Cheney. When they do, I believe the Democrats will be able to force Bush to appoint a palatable successor- someone moderate, bipartisan, and uninterested in 2008. I've written about this, many times. I wasn't planning on writing about this today.
It doesn't help to insult our Democratic leaders. That's not the way to get them to listen. We want them to listen. Reasonable arguments are being made by people like Kagro X, Vyan, teacherken and Major Danby. Passionate arguments are being made by people like One Pissed Off Liberal and buhdydharma. None of them make a habit of insulting our Democratic leaders, although some of their fans do. We want to convince people, we don't want to make them mad.
People who oppose impeachment do so for a variety of reasons. Many are willing to listen to people who aren't yelling at them. Some have recently come around. Many are wavering. They are on our side, politically, and we want them on our side, on impeachment. The momentum is on our side. Let's coax them over with reason and respect. Let's do the same to our elected leaders.