What I found interesting about the announcement on Padilla was its timing. All day the report about Iraqi political leaders agreeing to press for an end to the U.S. occupation had been climbing to the top of the top stories. Then Gonzalez announced the Padilla indictment and pfft, the Iraq story gets buried again.

I can't say I truly believe the Padilla announcement was rushed in order to bury the Iraq story. Then again, this administration knows how to manipulate the news cycle, and Iraqi leaders--from across the ethnic and political spectrum--calling for an end to the occupation is not a story they want hanging around.

Ironically, I think the one event that could get Bush impeached would be a successful, even small, terrorist attack within the United States. In the fevered couple of years after 9/11, I'd have said just the opposite -- that a terrorist attack would get him elected emperor. But after Katrina and everything else, who can doubt the government's response would be horrifically inept or that the public would blame Bush & Co for not preventing it?

It's an odd turn. In the days of color-coded threat advisories, it seemed the administration had the gumption and the ability to manipulate our fears at will, to its advantage: we must submit to the police state because the next attack could come any time. Now, the periodic revelations of two-bit 'terror' schemes, little more than post-adolescent power fantasies, seem calculated simply to keep public discontent off balance, as in: look, it may not amount to much, but we are vigilant.

I think Kamiya is right, we're stuck with Bush. And probably, what it would take to get him impeached would be a price not worth paying.

Republican rule has been a disaster, to be sure. But there was no peace under Clinton, and the country's wealth was moving from poor to rich all the while. Recall, please, that the bombing of Iraq never stopped for a day under President Clinton and that our destruction of that country's power, water and sewer systems was blamed for half a million deaths, a price our secretary of state said was 'worth it' to contain that beast Saddam. Recall, please, that some of our most vulnerable citizens were stripped of public assistance in the name of welfare reform; watch 'Roger & Me' again for a reminder of those times.

Bush and Cheney will burn in Hell for all they've done. But the Clinton era was no golden age of peace and shared prosperity.