Repectfully, Joan, you're wrong this time -- wrong on two counts.

First, the Dems' declining poll numbers have mostly to do with public frustration at the way they're letting Bush push them (and, by extension, the country) around, even after the powerful mandate of the '06 elections. They'd gain "political capital" by confronting Bush about his crimes head-on, not lose it. (What's more, there won't be an opportunity to bring Bush to justice after he leaves office; even if we keep both houses and win the White House, the media will accuse the new Democratic leadership of pettiness and revenge-seeking should they make any attempt to restore accountability, and will mindlessly repeat the usual talking points about the need for our country to "turn the page" and "begin to move on" by leaving criminals unpunished and even richly rewarded.)

Second, and more importantly, something more valuable than "political capital" is at stake here. I've been a door-knocking Democrat all my political life, but I'm getting fed up with my party's willingness to treat crime like "scandal," and to play politics with the U.S. Constitution. The sacrifices they're permitting -- allowing a president to escape impeachment after openly admitting the most serious kinds of felonies -- are totally inappropriate.

Once you open certain doors, you'll never close them. The powerful taboo associated with official kidnapping and torture, for instance, will never again be as powerful as it was six years ago.

There is a meaningful time limit ticking away here. If the Dems let this guy slink out of office without facing impeachment, our country -- which has already lost so much -- will again have lost something irreplaceable.

The Democrats have been losing and losing by doing the wrong thing in the interest of long-term political gain. It's time for sombody to demonstrate some actual leadership -- some character -- by doing the right thing, "political capital" be damned. That the right thing, in this instance, would also be a tremendously popular move is what makes the Dems' wimpiness so maddening.

I'm the definition of a moderate Democrat -- and if I were in Pelosi's district, I would consider voting for Sheehan.

Not "repectfully." My bad.

In response to the commenter who brilliantly pointed out that only half of the country now supports impeaching the president, while only slightly more than half supports impeaching Cheney:

Are you fucking kidding me? I'm literally gagging here.

How visionless, how wimpy and pathetic, must the Democratic Party be before people like you will be satisfied?

So the fact that our president is an admitted felon . . . and only half of the electorate supports his impeachment, equals . . . "wait and see?"

Maybe it would be best if we waited until a majority of Republicans were clamoring for impeachment. In fact, maybe it would be best if we let the Republican leadership take the lead in the impeachment effort. That way, we wouldn't have to "waste" any of our precious "political capital."

When you consider all of the Democrats' accomplishments -- closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay and ending the lawless military tribunals; impeaching and prosecuting Alberto Gonzales and his generals for turning the DOJ into a racketeering operation; closing the "black site" torture camps in Poland and Romania; scaling back the Bush tax cuts; ending the war in Iraq; and restoring the Geneva Convention and the writ of Habeas Corpus . . . and the fact that they've managed to accomplish all of this while keeping those poll numbers rising, rising, rising, maybe you're right: the "political capital" is just too impportant to "waste" in bringing a rogue president to justice.

Let's wait, at least, until polling data from several sources indicates that clear Republican majorities support impeachment.

Christ.

Seriously: Christ.

When I read comment threads like this, it makes me wonder whether I shouldn't just pack it in and become a Republican. Better to be on the left fringe of a party that has the power to eventually exert some power than to be stuck in a party with a bunch of inept, spineless nincompoops (!) who think that the impeachment of The Torturer President is a bad idea because it's only supported, at this point, by half of the country.

You're breaking my heart.