I would love to have Bush impeached. Impeached in the House, convicted in the Senate, and out he goes. Putting aside the present impossibility of getting Articles of Impeachment out of this House, we have another problem..
There's more....
It's the line of succession. And it is a true nightmare.
Here is how it goes:
The Vice President Richard Cheney
Speaker of the House John Dennis Hastert
President pro tempore of the Senate1 Ted Stevens
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of the Treasury John Snow
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton
Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns
Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez2
Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao
Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson
Secretary of Transportation Norman Yoshio Mineta
Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson
Secretary of Homeland Security4 Michael Chertoff
Even if we take back both Houses of Congress in 2006, we still have to deal with the line of succession. Name me one of these idiots that you would like to see warming the Chair in the Oval Office.
You impeach Bush (a man renowned for no brain), you get Cheney (a truly evil individual who scares the dickens out of me.) We impeach both (there has never been an impeachment of both the Prez and VP), you get Hastert. Who ever ultimately lands in the spot as President nominates a new Vice-President.
I am not raining on the parade. Impeachment would help us enormously in 2008 (as it did Jimmy Carter). But those in the line of succession will be no different. And if it is Cheney, trust me, you think things are bad now? He'll have the Army Corp of Engineers building concentration camps, or they will start using commercial airliners for extraordinary renditions, and Uzbekistan is not on my travel itinerary.
There was an excellent diary by Richard Mathews on the consequences of indicting a President for criminal behavior and whether the line of succession would be applied. You will find that here. Of course, that would require Gonzalez's okay (Ashcroft's second in command, Comer, appointed Fitzgerald- I always thought he did it as a parting gift to an Administration he didn't have a lot of respect for; in any event, you have to agree that Fitzgerald is the gift that keeps on giving).
My daddy always warned me to be careful what you pray for. In politics, you have to be three steps ahead of your target. So give close and considerable throught, people. That's all I am asking.