The Congress had enough on Reagan with Iran Contra to impeach. But "the country couldn't take another Watergate." Thus the republicans, in particular a young Congressman named Cheney learned that the Democrats would never impeach a Republican. Now impeachment is off the table and there are no watchmen in the night.

Made the entire process seem silly and arbitrary. The Republicans managed to compromise and render meaningless what impeachment meant.

After that debacle calls for the impeachment of Bush are met with snide comments by Republicans that it’s simple partisan payback for the Clinton years.

Of course the other major difference between those years and today is the lack of a strong national voice on the Democratic side advocating impeachment. Reid and Pelosi have squashed any all efforts to begin an impeachment process against Bush. Why would any Republicans defect when there is no one to defect to?

There is strong opposition in both parties to impeachment of the current President, and I would assert that the role of party loyalty is much less important in the calculus of today than other factors for several reasons.

The recent shift that needs to be discussed is why we see so much continued allegiance between both Congressional House and Senate leaders and the administration itself, as if one cohesive party still ruled. A continued Iraq war. Approval of executive nominees who will further the unilateral application of executive power. Continued advancement of the US government as an ever more intrusive part our lives, and indeed lives around the globe. This is a real and recent measurable shift towards both statism and authoritarianism by those in this circle, Democrats and Republicans alike.

There is also substantial philosophical and policy agreement between the "leading" Democratic and Republican candidates for president, and daily affirmation in the media that these leaders appropriately represent the world of ideas and policy that should be in public discourse. To this writer, there is really little difference between a Clinton or Giuliani, except perhaps which part of the industrial complex is now putting the most money into PACs and expecting to reap government contracts or tax and market benefits in exchange for the next four years. The real question is whether or not this kind of tacit exchange should be happening at all.

At the core, I suspect the real motives for failing to impeach Bush and Cheney lie in the coziness and alliances within of this elite ruling class running our government, the promises and protections granted within this circle, and perhaps the individual human desire for power in whatever realm we inhabit. These motives aren't changing, nor is the world of ideas on governance we hear about.

Even with an election coming this nation is sedate and perhaps economically comfortable enough to ignore the risks to expanding, prolonged wars, a coming financial crisis led by collapse of the dollar, or a world that would increasingly prefer to marginalize and perhaps isolate the United States if it could. Until we see a shift in the media tone, there will be no chance that impeachment becomes possible, nor even any hope of escape from the grip of this ruling class.

...implies an answer to the question is forthcoming. *That* could have made for an interesting article. Instead we get this Watergate rehash and the provocative implication that today's Republicans just don't measure up (From the pages of Salon. Imagine.).

Another good article might address the question that if Republicans of yore could pursue impeachment against their own party, then why can't today's Democrats pursue impeachment against the other side, if impeachment is warranted?

What do they teach in journalism school, exactly?

I wouldn't underestimate the psychopathic level of bullying of members of the senate and congress by the GOP, they have ways of keeping you in line, helping you to put your nose in the troth or killing your reputation with their media cronies[exposing your financial misdeeds/peccadilloes] either that or they send you letter with American-sourced military grade Anthrax in it.

It's really not that complicated when you plot it on a curve, bullies everywhere succeed wildly at first by spreading intense fear of 'consequences to any defiance' until they make too many enemies and are then themselves deposed, sooner or later, the GOP will implode, no entity in the universe can contain so many contradictions and prosper.

Vincent,

Pols on both sides hide behind the "public doesn't want this" mantra to justify keeping impeachment off the table. How about a little follow-up to show us how these politicians who courageously voted for impeachment fared in their next elections?

I had just joined the Peace Corps in June 1974. In July, the country director, a Nixon appointee, visited us trainees, trailed by USIA cameras. He wore shoes, the trainees, respecting local custom, had left us at the door. He sat on a chair, we sat on the floor. As the cameras rolled, he told us how much he appreciated "supporting our president in his hour of need." I stood up, cameras rolling, and basically said Nixon was a bastard. I was later exiled to the roughest area in the country.

I point this out only to illustrate that Bush, like Nixon, will have their die-hard supporters. These supporters have, unfortunately, various media and Internet microphones. They will frame the issue as an attack on our president in a time of (so-called) war. Americans traditioanlly rally to the president in times of need. This will distract Americans from how Republicans have run the country into a ditch.

Yes, I would live to see Bush paraded out of the White House in an orange jumpsuit. But it is more important to elect a Democratic president and Congress. That task will be harder if an impeachment effort is made. Let us keep our eye on the prize, and forgo impeachment for now. Later, we can go after a war crimes tribunal.

At the core, I suspect the real motives for failing to impeach Bush and Cheney lie in the coziness and alliances within of this elite ruling class running our government...

I have promoted impeachment for several months now, writing letters, circulating a petition, and demonstrating. I personally despair of having this happen, even though the polls show that a majority of the American people favor impeachment of Mr. Cheney if not Mr. Bush. The failure lies in the disconnect between the interests of the ruling corporate elite and the American people. There few thousand individuals making up this elite shuttle back and forth between public office, elective and appointive, and membership on corporate boards of directors. They've never had a president as useful as Mr. Bush, who is so bereft of insightful thinking that he appears to take his marching orders from conduits like Cheney and Rove without question. The last thing they would want to do is see him seriously embarrassed or removed from office, as he has been an extremely useful tool for advancing their agenda. So we see every kind of roadblock put up to frustrate the will of the people and the mandates of our Constitution, the document that they treat with contempt.