There is little question in my mind that the president should not be allowed to be above the law, and George Bush,jr pretty clearly feels that he is. The problem, as I see it, is that the last impeachment has effectively rendered it a joke, an empty gesture that no longer has moral weight.

Clinton was impeached. He was caught in a lie, he apologized, and went on about his business, governing for 2 more years. In the unlikely event Bush,jr is impeached, I imagine he will also go on about his business and stay in office. Only instead of apologizing, he'll be indignant.

What's needed is the political will to impeach him and either remove him from office and imprison him, or remove him from office and offer him a deal to rat out puppetmasters Cheney and Rumsfeld, so that they may be put in prison. He is a coward and he would do it.

Is it ghoulish to suggest that this won't happen unless we get to 10,000-15,000 American servicemen deaths in Iraq?

I think Goldberg's premise, that while there is plenty of evidence to impeach, there is little will and therefore it won't happen, is premature. The facts of the case are beyond question. Even conservative scholars agree that Bush broke the law. The fact that this story broke so late in the year, when many people are on vacation and/or focusing on other things besides White House politics, has lessened the impact of this story somewhat. Even so, the reaction to it has still been tremendous.

A big problem for Bush is that mid-term elections are coming up. I would hate to be a Republican Congressperson up for re-election who has to explain to voters why Bush's actions do not warrant impeachment. If I were a Democrat running for office, a pledge to push for a trial might be just the thing that gets the vote out. As more facts are revealed next year, a Democratic majority might not be needed.

And I don't buy the Impeachment Fatigue argument. The Repbulicans and their Contract on America worked overtime to get Clinton. To let far more serious crimes slide would be the height of irresponsibility.

As I see it the problem is not so much that Bush broke the law, but that he operates under a theory of presidential power that would permit him to break virtually any law as long as he does it in the role of commander-in-chief.

In other words, I think that in the devastation and aftershock of 9/11 most people would give him a pass on a few well-meaning but ill-conceived illegal wiretaps. But we're talking about a pattern and practice of illegal activity that continues to today. Worse yet, it is a pattern of illegal activity for which he does not apologize, and promises to continue. But even worse than that, the justification -- his invocation of plenary or inherent powers -- of that illegal activity could be used to justify virtually any future crime committed in the name of the undeclared "war on terror."

It's one thing to commit a crime. It's another thing not to apologize for it. It's yet another thing to promise to continue criminal activity. But it's unthinkable to have a president whose perception of his own power would excuse any future crime.

If that's not an impeachable offense, then what is? And if the Republicans can't understand that, then it's up to the people to deliver that message to them in the streets of every city in America.

Let's say impeachment is a possibility. What happens then? President Cheney? How do we get the whole LOT of them out before they spend the next two years wreaking havoc? Seriously. Can someone explain a course of action that would get both Cheney and Bush out so we could have a hope of something better?

I'm troubled that Post pollster Morin requires a cue from political leaders to ask about impeachment. Politicians watch polls to see when it's OK to make such calls - hopefully not not the other way around. If both are waiting for the other to raise serious opposition... well, come to think of it, that would explain some things.

Because the deal is, the people reading this article are not the ones who need convincing. Those of us who do not agree with the administration, and who have seen Bush and Cheney as usurpers and liars and dangers to the republic from the beginning are powerless, as we have been since Bush first came into office.

Are the conservatives, the REAL conservatives, and the independents, and the people he conned into voting for him seeing this? Do they care? Because the only people who can save us from this mess are the ones who voted us into it.

I wish I had hope that they could see him for what he is now, when they wouldn't or couldn't before. When will the real conservatives stand up?

Arguing that Morin should be polling impeachment because John Conyers has mentioned it is like arguing he should be spending time polling the transition to a worker's paradise. Conyers is irrelevant, he's got notably less influence than most of DC's homeless. There are Republicans arguing for a death sentence for doctors who perform abortions - should we be adding that question to abortion polls as well?

They've been arguing that political opposition itself represents a national security threat for years: http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/09/07/cheney.terror/

Indeed, if the President has the authority to go to any end to prevent a terrorist attack and, as Cheney declared, electing Kerry would provoke another terrorist attack, then is it such a stretch to believe that they would try to argue that using any measure available against Kerry, regardless of its legality, was an extension of Bush's executive 'duty' to 'protect Americans'?

All these wonderful letters and ideas are wasted if we don't tell our congressmen and women that we are mad as hell and we aren't going to take it anymore and that this president has finally stepped over the line. I have already written my Senators and Representative. Have you?

We don't have to wait for the mid-term election to voice our displeasure. I'd like to believe that the entire government hasn't been hijacked by this administration and that ultimately Representatives and Senators still have to answer to their constituents and their consciences.