MY DOGMA CHASED YOUR KARMA--AND CAUGHT IT
I've seen some writers describe the election as the result of a "perfect storm." The war has been going spectacularly badly; Tom Foley got caught sending dirty e-mails to the pages; Reverend Haggard bought meth from a gay masseur--well, you get the picture. If the US had a parliamentary system like that in most European countries, Bush would have lost a vote of confidence and we'd have a new president too, but let's not get greedy. After all, Rumsfeld got canned, and the Democrats have taken both houses of Congress.
So where do we go from here? Nancy (the Speaker presumptive) Pelosi says the main thing Congress has that really matters is subpoena power. Apparently a lot of Democrats are thirsting for hearings and investigations, mostly about the war. Nobody has yet uttered the "I" word, and I'm conflicted about whether they should. Impeachments cost a lot of money, create a lot of rancor and blood feuds, have a lot of unintended consequences, and rarely accomplish their original goals. A strong case can be made that the Clinton impeachment battle was just the GOP's delayed revenge for the Nixon impeachment battle. Do we really want to go that way again? More to the point, can we afford it? We're in the middle of a disastrous war, a Middle East crisis, and a 10-year window for doing something to alleviate global warming before climate change spins out of control. Congress has much better things to do with its time than impeach a president who is now the lamest of ducks, with only two years left to serve anyway. If he starts vetoing everything Congress sends him, they may have to do it or become lame ducks themselves. But if he makes even a pretense of cooperation, they need to take it and run with it.
And yet..... Why is it always liberals who are required to transcend the baser passions of partisanship and work for the common good? We've chased the car and caught it--why can't we take it home to the kennel and gnaw on it for a while?
I guess the main reason we can't is that the next two years have to be seen by everyone as a dress rehearsal for a Democratic administration after 2008, and that means we have to offer the American people more than the titillation of laying bare the sins of the GOP. But damn! wouldn't it be fun??
So where do we go from here? Nancy (the Speaker presumptive) Pelosi says the main thing Congress has that really matters is subpoena power. Apparently a lot of Democrats are thirsting for hearings and investigations, mostly about the war. Nobody has yet uttered the "I" word, and I'm conflicted about whether they should. Impeachments cost a lot of money, create a lot of rancor and blood feuds, have a lot of unintended consequences, and rarely accomplish their original goals. A strong case can be made that the Clinton impeachment battle was just the GOP's delayed revenge for the Nixon impeachment battle. Do we really want to go that way again? More to the point, can we afford it? We're in the middle of a disastrous war, a Middle East crisis, and a 10-year window for doing something to alleviate global warming before climate change spins out of control. Congress has much better things to do with its time than impeach a president who is now the lamest of ducks, with only two years left to serve anyway. If he starts vetoing everything Congress sends him, they may have to do it or become lame ducks themselves. But if he makes even a pretense of cooperation, they need to take it and run with it.
And yet..... Why is it always liberals who are required to transcend the baser passions of partisanship and work for the common good? We've chased the car and caught it--why can't we take it home to the kennel and gnaw on it for a while?
I guess the main reason we can't is that the next two years have to be seen by everyone as a dress rehearsal for a Democratic administration after 2008, and that means we have to offer the American people more than the titillation of laying bare the sins of the GOP. But damn! wouldn't it be fun??
posted by WiredSisters at 11:35 AM
1 Comments:
Sometimes reprimanding a child (President) doesn't make the family (Washington) a happy place. But you still have to do it so the child and his siblings (future presidents) learns about accountability. Holding government officials accountable for their actions strengthens our democracy. Letting lawlessness stand weakens it. Impeachment is horribly UNDERUSED. Which is part of why there's so much corruption at the top. They must learn to fear it.
Bush will veto/use signing statements on any Democratic bill passed. Bush could still appoint more Supreme Court Judges. Also, The Union of Concerned Scientists has estimated that the death toll from a "tactical" nuclear weapon of the kind Bush is contemplating using in Iran would be at minimum 3 million men, women, and children. The path of death would stretch across country boundaries into India.
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