But what about Scott's claim that the toxic word "Impeachment," forever poisoned by the Republican attack on Bill Clinton, would slow investigations down? Well, subpoenas are not working. Contempt and criminal charges are very unlikely to work. And the special prosecutor route has been tried. What happened? Cheney organized a coordinated campaign to obstruct the investigation. Scooter Libby was convicted of obstructing justice, and Bush commuted his sentence and is almost certain to pardon him in 2009. Where are the investigations speeding off to? I don't see it. The public doesn't see it. This could be part of the reason Congress is even less popular than Bush. Exposing crimes and not holding the top criminals accountable, just persuades us that Congress is weak. In fact, Scott himself argued that it's hard to find witnesses willing to testify to Bush and Cheney's crimes, because they have shown how fiercely they exact retribution against whistleblowers. I would have thought this sort of situation was exactly the reason Congress had been created as a separate branch of government with the power to impeach.
As far as passing useful legislation in cooperation with Republicans, one has to ask: what useful legislation? And won't it be vetoed? The Democrats ought to be bringing Republicans on board with impeachment, not behaving as if they – the Democrats – were still in the minority.
In the only poll ever done on impeaching Cheney, 76% of Democrats said they favor it (and 54% of all Americans, with 40% opposed). But Scott is worried that joining 15 Congress Members in support of impeaching Cheney would "marginalize" him.
Scott's office, like every office in Congress, has been flooded with Emails, phone calls, and letters backing impeachment. While we were meeting in his DC office, some of his constituents in Virginia were standing outside one of his district offices holding Honk-to-Impeach signs; and the cars were honking!
But Scott openly told us that the only thing politicians care about is elections. Scott typically runs unopposed in his primary and in the general election. Maybe it's time someone who has given the Constitution a good read stepped up and challenged him. Otherwise, for the sake of this country and those it impacts, someone is going to have to explain to Scott and others like him that another year and a half of "investigations" is going to lead only to Republican victories next November.
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