Dumping Darth

the latest revelations about the shootist's dark deeds prompt major danby to become somewhat (in his measured fashion) shrill...

What politicians think about impeachment:

I think that the questions that politicians ask in a situation such as this are:

1. Is what we're doing right? That is, is it constitutionally justified? Is it necessary, which means that the precedent we set cannot be easily abused in the future, but can instead be applied to relatively narrow circumsances?

2. Will this play well with the voters? Will they understand what we are doing and ascibe righteous motivations to our actions?

3. Will this action been judged to be righteous by history, like the Democrats in 1974, or will we end up looking as bad as the GOP in 1998/99 or as self-serving as Benjamin Wade in 1865?

4. How likely is it that we will succeed? Politicians may require more than I do on this point. I don't require a guarantee of success, but merely that the answers to the first three questions are "yes" and that those who disagree with us will therefore suffer.

Why Cheney is now impeachable:

If these reports are accurate, Cheney has asserted a legal theory that, if accepted, would put him beyond legal control. Congress can't control him (he's partly in the Executive), the President can't control him (he's partly in the Legislative), and the courts won't control him (see the Supreme Court case over his records of meeting with oil executives.) In other words, there is no remedy for his wrongful political actions.

Now I'm confident that he's wrong about his theory. But that almost doesn't matter. Even if he's right, we have the right to demand of our Vice Presidents that they don't exercise this enormous power.

[...]

What Cheney has done here is to force members of Congress to decide whether they are men and women or mice. Hearings won't take long; the facts are not in dispute. Cheney's lawyers should be able to make their case before both the House Judiciary Committee and the Senate; 363 tons of Constitutional Law experts and former Vice Presidents (another moment in the sun for Walter Mondale! And would Dan Quayle like some revenge? And hello, Al Gore!) will rebut the argument until everyone can see how disgusting and wrong it is. And it doesn't matter if Cheney abandons the argument now; if he acted on it for five years, that's the only "high crime or misdemeanor" we need. If he is not impeached and removed, he could reassert this right again later. There's only one way to stop him and discredit his offensive theory. Remove him.

god knows, i support it... whatever can put a stopper on continuing constitutional dismemberment gets my vote...

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