Back in January, Barney Frank had an amusing interaction with Patrick McHenry.
My favorite quote from Frank comes at the very beginning:
FRANK: No, the gentleman has asked a parliamentary inquiry, and he's received the answer. The chair regrets that he does not like the answer, but cannot change that.
I use this video clip mostly because I enjoy it immensely, but also because it speaks to a point I, along with others, have been trying to make about impeachment.
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For weeks, even months, people here have been hammering away at impeachment, insisting that members of Congress who do not support it are at best spineless and at worst traitors.
Today, Senator Feingold explained to us why he does not support impeachment. By doing so, he made it quite clear that there will not be any impeachment proceedings during this Congress.
Kossacks might not like that answer, but if they cannot even convince the man who is likely Daily Kos's favorite Senator to follow them down impeachment road, then they are, as the saying goes, tilting at windmills.
But it's actually worse than that (here comes the meta). Every person here cares about some candidate or foreign/domestic policy issue. If, after having received this answer from Russ Feingold, members still persist in shouting about impeachment incessantly, and attacking those who do not support it in the ways that have been typical recently, then it won't take long before the world sees Daily Kos as a den of unreality, completely detached from what is possible.
We will, therefore, at some point, really be marginalized.
Am I telling people to shut up about impeachment? Not exactly. This is not my community, and I do not make the rules. Rather, given what Senator Feingold told us today, I am asking members to take a deep breath and think about what we can actually accomplish here in the future.
This diary won't win me many plaudits--meta rarely does--but I feel it's important to say what's on my mind about this community that I like so much.