Impeachment is in the air these day; clearly no longer limited to a sub-group among us. Keith Olbermann has talked about it, so has Chuck Hagel, and so has Barbara Boxer.
The grounds for impeachment seem rather clear - indeed I'll hold off on restating them here because they'd literally take all day.
The question is: does anyone here think Bush and Cheney can be convicted and removed from office?
I support impeachment, but I don't think that there are nearly enough Republicans with any degree of principle willing to even consider convicting for crimes against the constitution.
Who might show some spine?
- Hagel (probably a decent bet)
- Spector (also a good possibility)
- Warner
- Lugar (getting iffier)
- Snowe
- Collins (unlikely that she'd want to piss off her base so much)
- Smith ("")
- McCain (No love lost, but no way)
Since I'm not Michael Chertoff I feel a little more comfortable speaking from my gut here and saying that 3 Republicans would probably be the maximum.
The once honorable Republican Party has turned into the Republican Guard, a lockstep cadre of lickspittles that showed no independence when it really counted. It's too late for most of them to redeem themselves from that.
And I haven't even begun to ask about Democratic unity. Ben Nelson or Ken Salazar would need coaxing, I'd think.
And I haven't mentioned the L word yet. Minus another vote.
I believe in impeachment because our Constitution has to have the last word, because it would rebuke Bush and Cheney in a lasting way (especially if the charges presented are a long, carefully chosen list prominently featuring their offenses against the Constitution). I think it could have a salutary effect in restoring the Constitutional balance, in curbing the excesses in executive power that have transpired lately, setting a better balance for Bush's successors.
I'd love to think conviction is possible, but I don't yet see how. It's painful because these vicious clowns still have a year and a half to plunge us further into the abyss.
[Also, as a response to a point made in comments, I personally have little hope that Bush and Cheney would have even the character that Nixon displayed, and resign after a vote to impeach in the House. Nixon was far more of a realist and far less prone to thinking he was acting out God's will.]
Does anyone think differently on the chances for conviction? I'd be happy to be persuaded otherwise. Or is the best rationale for impeachment one which holds regardless of whether conviction can occur?