I don't mean to whine about being flamed -- certainly, I can take it, and I did, plenty of it -- but I can't help but laugh a little at the way things have changed around here in just a few short months ... basically not much more than a Friedman Unit.
I've got to go below the fold to go further ... but I'm amazed at how Kossacks are responding to the idea of taking impeachment off the table when it's Sen. Feingold doing the taking ... but last fall, when I said Speaker Pelosi was ignoring a mandate by doing the same thing, I was roundly castigated in these here parts ...
But let's continue below the fold ...
Back in November, shortly after the election, I posted a diary wherein I dared to criticize Speaker Pelosi and others in the Democratic congressional leadership for taking impeachment "off the table." I felt then, as I do now, that there was no tactical or strategic benefit to disavowing impeachment right away, indeed, I felt that the Bush crime syndicate would be even more likely to ignore anything Congress might do unless impeachment were a real threat. As the comments demonstrate, Kossacks were none too pleased by my position, and I heard it pretty much from all comers, both here and elsewhere.
Today, though, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) posted a diary saying essentially what my commenters said in November -- no, let's wait, impeachment isn't going to do any good, what's the point, yadda yadda -- but the attitude has shifted completely. Kossacks everywhere are falling all over themselves to urge impeachment and to point out the flaws in Sen. Feingold's opinion (and I agree that said opinion is mighty flawed, too).
So, what's different about today's diary as compared with mine back in November? Could it be that those of us who have been advocating for impeachment since the moment Democrats took on the majority might have been right after all?
Maybe it's the source? Some lousy Z-list blogger versus a member of the United States Senate? Possibly, but I don't think that's it. The opinions have validity regardless of who is voicing them.
What about the timing? Have things changed so much since November that what seemed totally unpalatable back then today is not only hoped for, but demanded? You know, maybe that's true for the Kossacks who stomped all over my diary last fall ... maybe they just changed their minds. But if that's the case, they're not very smart, because the impeachable offenses have been patently clear since well before November ... indeed, they've been obvious since around 2003. And I don't think Kossacks are that stupid ... on the contrary, these are among the most brilliant folks with whom I've ever had the pleasure to associate. So, it's not that things have changed drastically since November ...
So what is it? Why was the idea of impeachment so noxious in November and so de riguere now? I mean, normally I'm not the type to say "I told you so," but ... well, make of it what you will. I'm just glad to be on the same side of the debate as most everyone else here, this time.
(Cross-posted at Blast Off!)
