That enough Republicans will support impeachment seems unlikely at this point. The Bush administration has done so many horrible and unconscionable things already (i.e., war crimes, spying on its citizens, Jim Crow era voter suppression, etc.) that there is nothing short of a preemptive nuclear attack on France, San Francisco or Hollywood at Cheney's and/or Bush's direct order that could cause any Republican congressperson to actually vote for impeachment, and even that might not do it.

There is no doubt that they are trying to run out the clock.

However, with continued perseverance on that part of the American public who actually cares whether or not America continues to exist as a democracy as opposed to a dictatorship, those Republicans who refuse to act with integrity and honesty will find it nearly impossible to separate themselves from Bush in the 2008 elections.

Persistence is the key. Some people in the media (like Glenn) are casting a light that makes the continued lies difficult to maintain. If the mainstream media can be made (cajoled, embarrassed, whatever works) to turn its gaze in the direction of truth, the administration's lies will be nearly impossible to maintain and impeachment may very well end up on the table.

Exactly. None of the revelations coming out now are really all THAT new and surprising. In fact the Ashcroft hospital story that Comey "revealed" to congress this week has actually been known for several years now. As have multiple and egregious other administration acts of criminality that are clearly impeachable. The problem isn't that this stuff wasn't known, but that the public and press didn't seem to CARE that much about it, whether out of apathy, cynicism, partisanship or stupidity.

Sadly, for a variety of reasons, both the public and press (and the two have always played off of each other, neither willing to go much beyond where the other was willing to go in terms of their interpretation of and reaction to the news of the day) have grown increasingly apathetic, cynical and jaded about politics in recent decades, and more inclined to ignore its substantive aspects and fixate on its trivial ones (e.g. wrongfully fired USA's not "interesting", $400 haircut "major news"). Even when both instinctively realize that something is likely seriously wrong, they don't seem able or willing to get too worked up over it. It's just a reflection of the times that we live in, far less than any mustachio-twisting, cigar-smoking cabal pulling strings from some smoke-filled back room. The public just stopped caring, and so did the press.

I still see this, in my family and friends, all of whom realize that things are messed up, but who from their remarks and body language still don't seem to care enough to really give a damn. They're too wrapped up in their day to day lives, and in pursuing mindless entertainment and diversions, to be concerned with what we here rightfully view as a serious threat to our republic. And it's not like peoples' DNA suddendly changed. Something happened over the past few decades to make people stop caring and paying attention. My guess is that it was some combination of Reaganomics, which bought off the better-off and burnt out the less well-off, the increasingly pervasive role of the mass media and consumer culture in distracting people with mindless entertainment (when it wasn't brainwashing them with pro-right and anti-left bias), and the relentless smearing of the Clintons, which turned most people off to politics.

But as hopeless as this seems, I think that things are finally changing for the better. Actually, they have been for several years, as Bush and the GOP's numbers have steadily fallen, and voters finally put Dems in charge last fall, disgusted with the GOP's corruption, dishonesty and incompetence. More and more people are waking up to how bad things have become, and who's responsible for it. It's just taking longer than we'd like. It's not unlike turning around a supertanker. It takes a while. It took the public years to lose interest in or care about politics, and it has taken it years to start paying attention to and caring about it again. And we're not quite there yet. But we're getting closer.

And with respect to impeachment, we may yet reach sufficient critical mass to make it possible fairly soon. Things are finally starting to heat up with all these scandals and revelations, and the ongoing Iraq War debate. I don't see it happening anytime soon, but I think that we're getting there.