Letters to the Editor
kovie
Published Letters: 688
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Karen M
[Read the article: Bush's magical shield from criminal prosecution]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I still agree with your logistical points about impeachment, but am now thinking that that doesn't mean we can't be out on the street corners with signs, etc.
Of course people can do this if they feel that it would help and are in a position to do so. I'm not advocating just one approach, but a combination of them, each as per their abilities and inclinations. What congress is doing is just as important as what MoveOn is doing or what Glenn and the rest of us are doing here, in each of our own ways. Hell, even taking the time to enjoy dinner and watch a funny movie can help if it keeps people sane and energized. :-)
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ondelette
[Read the article: Bush's magical shield from criminal prosecution]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I didn't think that I was advancing a "law of the excluded middle" position, which is not what I'm trying to advance. I think that there are multiple ways to stand up to Bush, as I wrote to Karen M just now, and that we should be employing as many of them as possible (even though I don't necessarily agree with some of them myself).
Nor does my overall approval of congress's approach mean that I agree with every facet of it. Sure they've made mistakes, some quite stupid. But people are fallible and everyone makes mistakes, and having been out of power for so long and not having had experience with such a mendacious administration for so long, I think it's reasonable to cut them a little slack as they figure out how to do this, and what is most likely to work. For example, it's been ages since inherent contempt was attempted, and 30 years since legitimate impeachment was tried.
So yes, we should keep the pressure up, but at the same time screaming at them and calling them names (as seems to be the fashion right now for some on the left) isn't going to make them budge. Rather, it'll make them shut us out, and what good would that do? To use a perhaps flip analogy, I view it as being a loyal and dedicated sports fan, where you cheer your team on when they do well, jeer at them when they don't, offer suggestions where possible, push for replacements when necessary, but never make it vicious or personal, because that won't get you anywhere. And you don't give up on them, because what else is there?
Put another way, we ALL want to see congress do something major NOW. But the constitutional process and various other constraints basically prevent that. They could jump up and down and scream bloody murder and issues contempt citations and initiate impeachment, and still these constraints will get in the way and slow things down. So instead of fighting these constraints, I think that we need to figure out how they work and find the best way to work within them.
As I've written before, it took these people 40+ years to get to where they are now, and they were never going to be taken down--if at all--in 6 months. To try to do that anyway is to throw away whatever chance we have for actually taking them down at SOME point. And, again, I will remind everyone that less than 2 years after having won one of the biggest landslide reelection victories in US history and just over 2 years after the Watergate break-in, Nixon resigned as the result of the very process that I'm advocating for having worked. Yes, there are important differences between then and now, but political realities have not changed, in the sense that the closer that we get to '08, the more panicked Repubs will be about continuing to support Bush.
And that, I believe, will make all the difference--provided of course that Dems are serious about oversight, and pursue it as aggressively and smartly as possible. They could stand to be more aggressive, but on the whole I think that they're more or less doing the best that they can, under these constraints. Maybe I'm wrong. I never claimed to absolutely be right. But this is how I see things right now. Suggestions for how to realistically move things along faster and more productively are always, of course, welcome.
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L.W.M
[Read the article: Bush's magical shield from criminal prosecution]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So, I'm inclined to agree with you, as much as it galls me to acknowledge it.
Galls because it's me, or galls because you wish it weren't so? Or perhaps both?
And, of course, Nixon was not impeached. But he almost certainly would have been, had he not resigned, which is of course why he resigned. And then, as now, Repubs hold the cards. Then, principle might have played into it (although I would guess that so did politics). Now, though, it's mostly if not entirely politics. But whatever, if Dems can make it happen, I don't care how they do it so long as they do it. And the way to do it, I think, is to keep the pressure on, and actively persue a calculated showdown with the administration that will make Repubs want to flee in horror. Make Bush so radioactive that even Repubs start to whisper the I word.