Nay, do it not ye Dems of the new majorities.
However little doubt you may have that those criminal miscreants deserve such fates, the agenda of the 110th Congress must not and will not be consumed with recriminations, but rather with doing the necessary business of this nation which has been so woefully neglected over the last six years.
At this time, expedience must trump justice. The not-so-perilous Nancy Pelosi realizes it well, and in spite of the hue and cry from the right over her misperceived extremism, all indications are she gets it, and will successfully negotiate the balance between overplaying the Democrats' hand and governing too timidly.
Investigations will occur, and rightly so! But the emphasis will be (or should be) on uncovering corruption that has remained hidden, not on targeted witch hunts of particular individuals.
Front and center instead will be popular measures like raising the minimum wage, retracting the ban on negotiating prices with big pharmaceuticals, breaking the link between lobbyists and legislation, and finally enacting all the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. "Drain the GOP swamp", Ms Pelosi, America won't find it so controversial.
As for the title actions of this post? Well this observer suspects Rumsfeld may see the writing on the wall and take care of the first himself by resigning without giving Bush a choice in the matter. Calls for his resignation or dismissal are already much broader than ever, coming from scarcely ideologically driven sources. Bringing our Vice President to justice for his lies and reckless policies may never happen. He will be shamed by history, however, when all is said and done, as will his boss who delegated his responsibilities in foreign policy to a naive band of fools whose hubris led to a destabilization of the Middle East which we will have to live with for years to come. I'm afraid the Dems don't have the magic glue for fixing that pot, much less the authority to do much if they did.
Still I will savor this moment, knowing that the repudiation of the power corrupt Republican leadership was shared by liberals, moderates, and conservatives alike. This is still, on balance, a conservative nation, but we learned last night that shutting out voices of reason from the other side can only last so long. I don't think Democrats will make the same mistake, at least not now. And perhaps conservatives will learn in the next two years that the principled cravings of progressive Democrats are not as out of touch with mainstream American values as they have been led to believe.
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3 comments:
Methinks "Causal" read my title and not the entry.
I didn't expect my words "this observer suspects Rumsfeld may see the writing on the wall and [resign] without giving Bush a choice in the matter" to be so immediately prophetic!
When I reposted this to WatchBlog, I had to edit it to account for the news. Some interesting discussion ensued over there among those who agreed with me, some who though, like Causal, that impeachment should be sought immediately, and some who think impeachment is preposterous.
I did read the title and the body. Two questions:
1) Do you realize that the choice between impeachment and pursuing the other goals you list is a false choice?
2) After having seen that the Bush administration will do whatever it can to obstruct Democratic leadership, do you still feel impeachment is a lesser priority?
I encourage you and your readers to take a few minutes and see:
http://www.usalone.com/cgi-bin/transparency.cgi?paper=1&qnum=pet45
It's a list of the 25 most recent comments made by real Americans participating in an online poll/letter-writing campaign concerning the impeachment charges recently filed against Vice President Cheney, which are now being evaluated by the House Judiciary Committee. The participation page is at:
http://www.usalone.com/cheney_impeachment.php
Since this campaign began, three members of Congress have signed on as co-sponsors, in part due to hearing from their constituents.
Are you the same commenter from 6 months ago?
FWIW, six months is a long time, and I'm not so convinced any more that impeachment should remain off the table. The Comey/Gonzales/Ashcroft story may give it legs.
I stand by assertion nonetheless, that the demand for impeachment needs to emanate strongly first from sources outside of Congress, in order for Congress to pursue it in a way that can be taken seriously and not be dismissed too readily as a mere opportunistic coupe.
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