I certainly hope that you have been sharing your thoughts on the strategy outlined in the post with staffers for Rush Holt, Russ Feingold, Chris Dodd and others. Proposing the simple, directed fix for the one true problem really would highlight the duplicity of Bush, McConnell, Bond and Rockefeller, while allowing Democrats to occupy the position of strength and leadership. Please let us know if there is anyone in particular who seems interested in this approach and could use our encouragement.

As for the the OT impeachment discussion, I would just point out that today has been a busy day for those who are involved on a variety of issues. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing today on torture that occupied my attention much of the day (along with many who participated in the liveblogging of it at Firedoglake). Yet, around the edges, many of us also found time to make a few phone calls about impeachment. When I called Kucinich's office this morning, it sounded like a very huge phone-banking operation was underway, as I heard many lines ring in the short time I spoke to the nice young lady who answered my call. When asked what we could do as citizens to help the process along, she replied that Kucinich was still in the process of getting organized on this particular effort, but they were taking names and addresses of those who called today. I got the definite impression that a late-night recitation of charges in an empty chamber is not where this would end. For those of you who rely on numbers, there are 220-some days left in Bush's term. Impeachment of Clinton took 180-some. There is still plenty of time to do this.

I stand corrected. Commission of perjury would be lying under oath, and if I am not mistaken Bush did not want to be put under oath. I guess you can then lie, and it isn't perjury. You haven't made a convincing arguement against him committing treason, though.

Has he not contravened the Geneva Conventions and committed the most serious of War Crimes, the initiation of a war of aggression againt an adversary that was not in any way threatening the United States? If that is not a high crime, then it is hard to imagine what is.

Your rationale for not proceeding with impeachment is idiotic. When the house is burning down you don't decide to do your taxes, you get out of the House.

Your house is burning down. Do you want to sit around when the arsonist still has the matches, or do you want to catch him and put him on trial?

If I recall correctly, it was the 9/11 testimony during which Bush would not be deposed under oath. Is there another reason not to testify under oath, except to lie and avoid perjury charges later? If so, please advise oh wise master.

Americans have a chance to retsore their great country, but that road is only through impeachment. Get on the bus, or get the hell out of the way!

http://www.wexlerwantshearings.com/

http://www.wexlerforcongress.com/

Time is running out so we must work together to spread the message and apply pressure.

First, please encourage your friends and family members to sign up at WexlerWantsHearings.com – as it will allow us to keep in touch with you and speak to a wider audience. If you haven't yet put in your phone and address, please sign up again, as we will be doing telephone town halls in the near future.

Second, call your representative and urge them to support Impeachment hearings.

Finally, contact newspapers, news stations, and your favorite bloggers and urge them to report on this movement. We need to keep Impeachment a significant news story until the Democratic leadership sees the value in it.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/10/165049/461/377/533558

I am asking Glenn. When you have the time of course.

After having originally broken the story about warrantless wiretaps over 2 years ago, along with his (still very credible but sadly no longer as prolific) NYT colleage James Risen (whose book State of War is a must read), Lichtblau has steadily proven himself to either be sympathetic to the far right in its shrilly and transparently propagandistic attempts to mischaracterize this debate as being about national security, when in fact any honest and informed person can see that it's about executive power, or else a pathetically weak stenographer-journalist who has succumbed to some combination of brainwashing, coersion and enticement by the right.

In his several media appearances over the past few years, he's always struck me as especially passionless and detached, like there was no "there there", on a personal level. Now I think I know why. This was always just a story to him, a way to build up his professional reputation, and not something of inherent importance and relevance. When the political winds were generally against warrantless wiretaps, his reporting reflected it. Now that they're moving back towards warrantless wiretaps, his reporting is reflecting that. Lichtblau is, apparrently, like so many of his establishment media peers, simply following the narrative that he think he has to follow, to please higher-ups and not rock the boat. What an ass, and a discredit to his profession.

And yet another example of why Pinch Sulzberger is one of the biggest assholes in the media today, an establishmentarian enabler only interested in succoring the favor of his powerful friends in government and elsewhere, and eagerly doing as he's told, like the good little lapdog that he is. He has staffed his paper with some of the most contemptible steno-journalists and opiners today, such as Nagourney, Gordon, Miller, Selye, Bumiller, Kristol, Brooks, Dowd and Friedman. All Deep Villagers, protecting themselves against the unwashed hordes, who are so laughable as to still believe in and demand journalistic integrity and government accountability, competence and honesty. How they must laugh at us daily.

Ok, enough ranting. It's now up to Obama, and a handful of principled Dems in both houses of congress, to ensure that this doesn't happen, and then do whatever needs to be done to ensure that the people responsible for this endless caving into and enabling of the far right's agenda are deprived of the ability to do in the future. Yes, we need a leadership change in congress. Reid is a coward and Pelosi is a clueless idiot, and both need to go ASAP, if not sooner.