There is still time to save the Bush presidency, but the Democrats will have to act fast. Having achieved a Congressional approval rating that ranks about even with a swollen prostate gland might not be enough. But do not underestimate their genius. My colleague, Master Heppler, recounts below a local call for impeachment of President Bush. Rush Limbaugh (yeah, he is still out there, tanned and ready and out of rehab) has this:
There's a full court press on now to wear down the public into believing that impeachment is proper of the president, and as I reminded you in the first hour of the program, I predicted back before the elections of 2004, if Bush were to win, the Democrats would head down this road, at least talking about impeachment and censure and so forth.
Rush is making a full court press to convince us that the Democrats are really moving toward impeachment. Why? Because, of course, he wants it to be true.
I think it very unlikely that articles of impeachment will be introduced on the floor of the House, and even less likely that they will be passed. Regardless of whether a particular Democrat were acting out of principle or out of political passion, it would require a kind of courage that is in short supply among them. And it would be a disaster for the Democratic Party.
When the Republicans impeached President Clinton, they did themselves a great deal of political damage. The reason is that most Americans did not think the occasion called for it, and thought the Republicans were acting out of partisan anger. But nobody doubted that the facts were true, or that President Clinton had got himself into trouble out of the most sordid of motives.
Now consider the present case. A deeply unpopular Congressional majority, without the courage to use its power to actually block the President's policy, having wasted tens of thousands of man hours on on hearings that were obviously fishing expeditions, and having caught no fish, with no court decisions threatening the President to piggy-back on, can one imagine such a Congress launching an impeachment without it looking like a partisan circus?
And what will they be impeaching President Bush for? Not going to war in Iraq, since after all many Democrats voted to give him permission for that. Not for claiming false grounds for going to war, since the previous, Democratic Administration frequently asserted the same beliefs about Saddam's weapons programs. All they will have is the claim that the Administration has been overzealous in trying (successfully, so far) to protect America against another terrorist attack. If you believe the congressional Democrats are really going to put themselves in that position, I got a bridge in Brooklyn for you.
Sorry, Rush. The impeachment talk is just the wild-eyed wing of the Democratic party stroking itself.
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