Jeez, all this impeachment talk is great stuff. Who would a thunk it, that half of all Americans would finally be in favor of impeaching Bush (and presumably kicking him and his sidekick out of office). But there's a certain sense where impeachment isn't enough.
If a president is impeached for doing things that are criminal as part of his job, then a top priority of the process should be to erase what he did from America's present and future. Why should we allow the initiatives of a bunch of crooks to continue after we've kicked them out?
For example, the invasion of Iraq (and probably also of Afghanistan) was a criminal act, and there have been many criminal acts committed as part of the campaign, both military and civilian. The whole structure of Guantanamo, the domestic spying policies, and so on: these were all part and parcel of the criminality that infused this administration, and somehow, the impeachment initiative should seek to undo them.
In fact, to a large extent, we could unring this bell. The constitution describes the process of impeachment in a fair amount of detail; in the House, it has the form in some ways of an ordinary bill. In the Senate, the process is different, but in neither case is there any impediment to the Bill of Impeachment and the decision-making process in the Senate including language that would undo some of the worst actions of this administration. If the impeachment and trial of Bush and Cheney succeeded, then the resulting bill would be ready for Nancy Pelosi's signature as the incoming president. A large portion of the radical changes to our way of life could be undone on her first day of office, with the stroke of a pen.
For example, right along with the articles of impeachment, we could have a phased withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, an abolition of the prison at Guantano, a repeal of the executive orders regarding domestic surveillance, a blockage of distributing government money to religious organizations, a return to more rational environmental policies and to a more rational use of science in policy-making, and so on. As annoying as it is to live under such a system now, just think how obnoxious it would be to allow Bush administrations to control our lives even under a Pelosi administration. So, getting as much of the changeover out of the way right at the beginning would really, really help.
It really sucks that this approach, even if it or something like it could be accomplished at all, could not be applied to the most threatening act of this band of crooks: undoing the nominations of Roberts & Alioto. I'm afraid that we're stuck with them for quite a while, even if we finally kick out the scumbuckets who got them into the Supreme Court.
Anyway, I think there needs to be an awareness that impeachment, as great as it would be, is only the beginning. We have a long road to travel even to get back to where we were a few years ago. It would help if planning for that "long slog" were done right along with planning for impeachment.