Nancy “Impeachment is off the table” Pelosi’s feelings on the subject aside, the “I” word has gained a lot of traction lately, what with at last count 15 congressfolk signed on in support of an impeachment bill, Bush’s poll numbers going down faster than the power grid in Baghdad on a hot day, and lots of republicans trying to pretend they’re not that kind of Republican, the kind that blindly follows the dictates of King George. The Gonzales mess, the refusals to appear before congress or enforce congressional subpoenas, and the utter failure of the more-of-the-same “surge” are further helping to sway even the blindest of the blind away from BushCo in spite of its massive propaganda machine and its army of flunkie-pundits.
Within the blogosphere, impeachment talk has been all the rage lately, too. Most on the left argue (quite rightly, in my opinion) that impeachment has become a necessity at this point, that it’s the only way to save our Constitution from further abuses, or simply that it’s necessary for America to say to the the world via this action, “We’re back, see? We’re not going to take this kind of shit from our own leaders anymore. Fool me once, shame on… uh … fool me… can’t get fooled again!”
But scariest argument for kicking out the neandro-cons, one which in a sane America, under any other administration at least in my lifetime, could be written off as nutty conspiracy-theory rambling, is this one: If we don’t impeach them now, we might not be able to later. Into the open wound of our loss of habeus corpus rights, Bush and his handlers have recently poured the salt of seizure of property and the putrid lemon juice of impending martial law, all subject only to the whim of the chief executive.
Thinking of joining a peaceful war protest? Bush can, should he desire, declare you an enemy combatant and have you arrested, dragged away to an undisclosed location, imprisoned indefinitely without charges, and waterboarded for fun.
Legally.
Thinking of supporting a charity that tries to arrange for food and medical relief to reach Iraqi civilians? Careful, because The Decider can Decide that you’re providing material aid to Al Qaeda (a group whose numbers have apparently expanded of late to include every single Iraqi), and take away your house, your car, your savings, even that rare comic book that for some reason your mother didn’t get around to throwing away when you were a kid.
Legally.
And what if we’re struck by some catastrophic event sometime between now and January 20, 2009? A terror attack, a hurricane, an earthquake? Have no fear, Bush is here! For our safety and protection, he’s given himself the right to throw out checks and balances (what few we have left), set aside the democratic process (which the Neandros never really understood anyway), and transform our country into a dictatorship overnight.
Legally.
Ernest Partridge over at The Crisis Papers wrote an essay last week called “A Republic, If We Can Keep It“, that summarizes the danger quite well. He argues that with signs pointing to massive Repub losses in ’08, these guys can’t afford not to go to extreme measures to stay in power – because if they don’t, there’s a vague shot that they could actually be held accountable for their actions, and hey, our prisons are crowded enough already.
I have a small problem with this part of his analysis, though. Why should republicans fear that the Dems – even given control of two full branches of government – would pursue real legal action against these lying, war-mongering, murdering-by-proxy Constitution-shredders? What in their experience over the last seven years has happened to suggest they’ll be subjected to anything worse than a slap on the wrist en route to their cushy jobs at think tanks and Saudi-supported oil concerns? Maybe a stern talking-to before they go off to host their own liberal-bashing radio shows?
The only thing Bush (et al) have been totally, consistently right about – hell, pretty much the only thing they’ve been close to accurate on, period – is that when push comes to shove, the democrats will keep pushing weakly against right-wing shoving.