I actually tend to agree that as far as Pelosi is concerned, impeachment is probably not what SHE wants or would prefer. She's of the generation of Dems who came of age in the party's declining years over the past few decades, following LBJ's decision to not run and the disasterous convention of '68. Nor was she involved in national politics during that brief Democratic comeback lasting from Watergate to the US embassy takeover in '79.

And like most Dems who came up during this time, she had learned (or chose) to adopt a cautious and non-combative (way too much so IMO) approach to politics that might have prevented them from falling into complete political oblivion, but was of no use in getting them back on top. Don't forget, Dems didn't win back the majority so much as Repubs lost it last year, and they are still a ways from asserting themselves as dominant in their own right.

And Pelosi is very much a part of this non-combative approach to politics. Nor is that likely to change, given her age and number of years in politics. So I wouldn't be surprised if she herself is against impeachment, but if sufficiently pressured and convinced by leading AND rank and file Dems AND the public that impeachment is the right AND smart thing to do (i.e. it stands a good chance of leading to conviction with minimal chances of blowback), will finally relent.

I think of her as that parent many of us had as teenagers who, when we asked them if we could do something, they at first resisted and said no, but eventually backed down when we convinced them that what we were asking for wasn't that radical or stupid, and that we were responsible and mature enough to handle it.

Back then it might have been attending a rock concert (or in my case joining the track team, believe it or not--since it required that I ride the NYC subway at night--which I ended up sucking at anyway but had a good time at nonetheless, thank you). Now it means impeachment. Very different "activity", same basic concept, in terms of getting "approval". And I am convinced that whatever her thoughts and feelings on impeachment are, if a strong enough case is made for it, she will allow it to happen. She might be cautious but she is not stupid--or cowardly.

Unlike the other side.

You do understand the concept of "subtext", I hope? As in:

any meaning or set of meanings which is implied rather than explicitly stated

So I'm not sure what kind of transcript you're looking for. When someone says "off the table" instead of "never going to happen", I'd say that there's a pretty rich subtext there to mine.

As in, I'm not supporting it now, but neither am I ruling it out entirely in the future. If she had wanted to be Shermanesque, she would have been Shermanesque.

As Bismarck once said, politics is the art of the possible. Was Pelosi a bit too artful for you?

If you expect Dems to tell you what they do before they do it, not keep their cards close to their chests, and telegraph their every intention, then you are basically expecting them to display political idiocy of the highest order.

Whatever the Dems do intend to ultimately do, surely you don't believe that they're so stupid as to tell the whole world what that is BEFORE they intend to do it? Because their failure to do so seems to be what's bothering you most.

Sure, I may be wrong, and it could well be that not only have Dems decided to not pursue a stealth path of impeachment, but they're decided that even if something happens to make it more possible than it looks now, they will still refuse to do so. But there is absolutely no way to tell if that's true at this point. Are you mind readers? I'm certainly not.

Instead, I'm looking at what I CAN see, which is Dems conducting oversight in a way that could well lead to impeachment--which does NOT, I can't keep stressing, require that they declare "Woohoo! We're gonna impeach the Bush! We're gonna impeach the Bush!" well ahead of their actually doing so. Do you actually think that they're that stupid?

Hey, you gonna pet all your chips, cuz I've got an inside flush that I'd LOVE to clean up with!

Che, you have some sort of bizarre obsession with and antipathy towards Pelosi that I'd just as soon not further explore, but how you KNOW that she will NEVER EVER support impeachment NO MATTER WHAT without being a VERY close confidante of hers is beyond me.

You can keep saying it over and over, but nothing that you have presented so far even begins to approach the open and shut case that you think that it is. Just a bunch of assumptions, half-truths and distortions that don't really amount to much more than your OPINION.

At least I haven't claimed that mine was anything BUT an opinion. But I also bothered to present some actual facts and logic in support of it (Miers and Taylor are low-ranking WH officials--how can I take anything you say seriously after that little bit of silliness).

What you would like will, I agree, never happen--i.e. impeachment NOW. What I would like might happen, and if it has any chance of happening, it can only happen in the general way that I have described (in a way that bears some relationship to reality).