The Tides of Impeachment

Let's give credit where credit is due.

In general, the Democrats played it pretty soft to win back the Congress. More than the Dems getting tough, it was the Republicans who handed over some of their own heads on a platter. It's not so much that the Democrats -- much less liberal causes -- won the midterm elections as much as it is the hanky panky, neocons who LOST the elections, so hypocritically righteous they were RIPE for the plucking.

This was not a checkmate election. This was just to put Bush in check, cuff him a bit, give him a "thumpin." You've been a bad little boy, now sit in the corner.

And so it's no wonder that last week, Nancy Pelosi said that "impeachment is not even on the table." Alas, here it is a new week, now barely a week post midterms, and already the tides of impeachment are causing some foaming and frothing. Some ways are breaking.

But as for Peolis, that was and is her table and her table of the immediate post-election, pre-Congressional takeover. That's her Thanksgiving gift to the GOP: we won't go after you until the holidays have come and gone. Her formal reach across the isle is SO 2006. Some are already chomping at the bit, just wait 'til next year!

Others have other agendas, some much more angry and less diplomatic than Pelosi's. And unelected, merely published or heard, they have much less to lose. And so impeachment is in the air and in the news again. Perhaps the vast middle of the country has the impeachment doldrums, and no amount of uncovered misdeeds or outright rancor could bring them on board. And by "on board," I mean seeing that impeaching Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney would be seen as high acts of patriotic duty, above partisan, hen house infighting. That gigantic middle would probably continue to see such proceedings as just more evidence the government is broken and a lot more like their favorite contact sports (football) than they'd care to stomach.

What a tactical advantage the Republicans have on impeachment. Impeach Clinton for sex, and even the mightiest war crimes will seem status quo, oh yeah, we've all seen our taxes wasted before, nothing new there. There is no gentlemen's agreement that says two presidents in a row can't be impeached, but oh, the cost of the thing, and we've already spent too much.

What price justice? Was Clinton's impeachment worth the trouble and the cost? I certainly think not. Would a Bush/Cheney impeachment be worth the trouble and the cost? Yes, I think so. But with this country's short attention span for graft and missing billions and feeling guilty by association with their elected leaders being accused of war crimes, I think many people would say, hey, enough. Just make sure I have a good job that pays me, on the world market, a lot more than I'm worth.

The tide of impeachment is coming in, from the left, and it may go out again soon enough. Or it may turn into a tsunami. Not likely. Lucky bastards.