'On what basis would we be most likely to get the support of a significant minority of congressional Republicans?'
If it is at all possible to actually succeed in removing Bush and Cheney [from office], we should pursue that path. And it is quite clear that the Republicans are not willing to convict Bush or Cheney for anything they have already done (at least, anything that is publicly known). We will not succeed merely by making a better case about torture, or warrantless wiretaps, or signing statements, or politicization of the Justice Dept., or voter fraud, or Katrina.
First, Booman address my number one concern with impeachment, the concern that has had me, up until now, resistant to support any call for impeachment. That concern involves the fact that we do not have the numbers in the Senate to convict, and indeed, we would require at least 17 Republican Senators to vote with us to remove them from office. Why do we need 17 Republican Senators? Because in reality we only have 50 Democratic Senators, 49 if Senator Tim Johnson is not participating. And in order to convict a President and a Vice President, you need 67 Senators voting to convict. Two thirds.
Now, I know many here will start immediately screaming: It does not matter if we are successful in removing them from office, so long as we forever stain their legacy with impeachment, I am happy.
Well, I am not, and the reason I am not is because that rationale is exactly the same reasoning the Republicans used in impeaching President Clinton.
Identical. Never will I use arguments used by wingnuts to advance my goals. Never will I lower the Constitution's meaning of impeachment by using it just to stain legacies. President Bush's legacy is already stained. You don't need an unsuccessful impeachment to confirm it.
No, if you are truly honest about impeachment, and wish to see it carried out post haste, it is because you want Bush and Cheney removed from office. And the reason you want them removed is not that they committed unconstitutional and illegal acts in the past, but because you believe they will do it in the future!
Thus, impeachment to you is not a game. It is not to me. It is not politics. It is the most serious option left to us in our Republic. We must not use it to stain legacies. We must not use it to make a point. We must not use it if we know we will be unsuccessful.
Now, you and I still want Bush and Cheney removed from office. How do we do it? Well, you have to realize and accept that you will need Republican support. The requirement of Republican support automatically limits the scope of impeachment in my view, and in Booman's view:
[I]t is quite clear that the Republicans are not willing to convict Bush or Cheney for anything they have already done (at least, anything that is publicly known). We will not succeed merely by making a better case about torture, or warrantless wiretaps, or signing statements, or politicization of the Justice Dept., or voter fraud, or Katrina [or Iraq].
To convince Republicans we have to do something different. The answer, I believe, is to force Bush and Cheney to come into a direct constitutional confrontation with Congress. If Congress feels their powers are being subsumed under the Executive Branch they will stand up and exert their rights. We saw this when the administration snuck a provision into the Patriot Act that eliminated the Senate's advise and consent role in confirming US Attorneys. Congress swiftly restored that power to themselves.
The current confrontation between the Congress and the White House over the subpoeanas in the US Attorney scandal will do just fine. Eventually, Senator Leahy and Rep. Conyers will have to take the administration to court and find them in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with congressional subpoenas. At the point, Attorney General Gonzales is requried to enforce complaince with the congressional subpoeanas.
Booman is right, he won't.
The only option left to us is impeachment at that point. And we must pressure Conyers and Leahy to continue the fight along those grounds. Impeachment at that point will be over checks and balances and the preservation of Congressional power. That is something the Republicans in Congress can get behind. And you know that is why the White House deleted all of those emails, for if those emails just contained discussions of Iraq, wiretaps, or any normal Republican outrage, they would proudly produce them. No, they deleted them because they know they contain information that would get their own congressional counterparts behind impeachment.
The impeachment fight will not be over wiretaps. It will not be over lying to get us into the Iraq War. It will not be over voter fraud in Florida or Ohio. It will not be over torture.
We all need to accept that. And you have to, if you are serious about impeachment and removal. And look at it this way, sometimes what we want does not come to us in the way we expect.
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