I have not been a fan of the drive by some liberals to impeach Bush. It's not what the American people want. The people fired the congressional Republicans in '06 for allowing self-interest and petty obsessions to distract them from doing their jobs. I have said repeatedly when the impeachment idea has come up that we'll find ourselves receiving the same judgment in '08 if we pursued impeachment. Instead, I said, investigate, for two reasons. One, we need to find out what happened and how things were messed up in order to fix them. Two, the work product of Congressional investigations would all be grist for the political mill. To be honest, I thought that while very seedy details would come out about Iraq, Katrina, K Street, etc., there would be no new major scandals.
Then the United States Attorney story broke. I have now started to wonder if impeachment might be a possibility.
If there is anything that cannot be tolerated in a free country, it's the executive branch turning law enforcement into a political weapon. The reason should be obvious to anyone, conservative or liberal. It's worse than rigging an election. If the corruption of politics is pushed down to every district in the country, we will all lose any assurance that when our party is out of the White House, that our elected officials elsewhere will be treated fairly. If all the cops are bad, then there is no point in obeying the law. More than idiotic wars, more than illegal wiretaps, more than truly evil propaganda, more than ideological judges, more than cronyism, I fear a political system that treats law enforcement as a spoil of war.
That's exactly what Bush and Rove seem to have done, and their efforts may have succeeded. Beyond the eight U.S. Attorneys who were fired, how many succumbed to pressure and were retained? An investigation may reveal the answer. If it is as bad as I suspect, then with greatest reluctance I think it will be our duty to impeach Bush. To save the Constitution.
Of course, it may not come to pass. Maybe it's not as bad as it seems. I really and truly wish it's not. But I am not hopeful.
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