It must get rather irritating and boring to have to keep explaining why impeachment, no matter how justified, desirable and necessary, should only be pursued, and can only succeed, under certain circumstances, which at present do not exist. Namely, there just aren't enough votes in the senate, and quite possibly even in the house.

For practical political reasons, impeachment is something that should only be pursued, and can only succeed, if Dems and the rest of us can somehow make the political case that it's both warranted and necessary. We just ain't there yet. Which means one, getting the public to overwhelmingly and eagerly support if not clamor for impeachment, and two, convincing those 16 or 17 or more Repubs in the senate that they simply have no choice but to vote to indict, or else condemn themselves and their party to massive defeat.

Making the legal case will hopefully get the public to support it, and making the public case will hopefully get these Repubs to support it. But until then, it simply makes no sense. But if we ever do get there, it'll only be through the continued pursuit of congressional and legal investigation. It's a process, a political, legal and PR process, that has to be pursued methodically, if it's to get us there. There simply are no shortcuts that make sense.

It does seem pretty far-fetched at this point, I must admit, thus the frustration on our side, especially with people who call for impeachment NOW. And it is a long shot, I believe. But then again, things tend to turn on a dime in politics, as in life. Until a few months before last fall's election, most people thought we wouldn't retake either house. Then came Macaca and Foley and a bunch of other GOP snafus, and we retook both.

I take heart in the realization that there are literally dozens if not hundreds of shoes ready to drop in DC, and that it's only through massive stonewalling, efforts and arm-twisting by the administration, the slow nature of the oversight process, and various other in advantages in today's political infrastructure that they can exploit and rely upon (right-wing judges, lazy, compliant and right-leaning MSM, gutless Dems, apathetic and distracted public, etc.), that they have been able to avoid impeachment proceedings till now.

But they can't hold out forever. Day by day their vast edifice is being chipped away and bricks are coming loose. New scandals and revelations emerging, resignations of key staff, emails and documents discovered, new hearings, oblique remarks by Repubs hinting at massive dissatisfaction, etc. They cannot hold together much longer. They might seem to be cohesive and in control, but behind the curtain I believe that they are coming apart. We just can't quite see it yet.

Forgive me this analogy, but think of it as a the twin towers after they were hit. They still stood for a while, apparently strong enough to survive the blows, but inside they were coming apart, as crucial girders and beams were weakening under the stress and load and fire. And then, suddenly, but not really, they fell, spectacularly, one after the other. But it didn't happen all at once. First the planes, then the internal structural unravelling, and then the collapse.

(This is, of course, assuming a non-9/11 conspiracy theory take on their collapse, on that I happen to not subscribe to, but that's neither here nor there for the purposes of this analogy).

Well, think of Bush and Cheney as those twin towers. Instead of having been hit by massive planes, they're being hit by a series of small to medium-sized missles, in the form of hearings, investigations, scandals, revelations, news stories, resignations, eventually subpoenas and legal investigations, etc. They simply cannot withstand this relentless pressure forever. Sooner or later, they will collapse. Whether it'll be by impeachment, resignations, or complete and utter lame duckhood, it will happen, even if it doesn't seem so now.

Game this out, like a chess game, and I simply don't see any other outcome. They are nearly in check now. They're just trying to maneuver to avoid it, but there's almost no way to do that at this point. They're running out of moves, and the only ones they still have at this point are simply delaying moves, that might take out a couple of our pawns, but can neither do us serious harm, nor save themselves.

We nned to just be patient and let the process proceed, and do what we each can to move the public debate forward towards impeachment, and it may well happen, AND succeed. If there's any chance that it will, it will only be this way.