It seems clear that as the electorate adapted and began to clean out partisan secretaries of state like Kenneth Blackwell, Karl Rove started maneuvering to put corrupt US district attorneys in place who would play a similar role in giving the GOP an illegal electoral edge.
It is very bitter to lose a tight election, particularly to right-wing authoritarians. But those of us who respect democracy tend to suck it up. We try, as the Honorable Justice Scalia suggested not too long ago, to "get over it." We work to find a better candidate, we register new voters, we march. We even accept the winners' right to select Supreme Court justices and appellate judges who will be around long after the victors are out of office.
But not when the "winners" never won. Not when the system is rigged. Not when the voting machines are sending data to the RNC to manipulate. Not when US attorneys are partisans.
Nor does the 2006 election prove that we've restored a meaningful connection between government and the will of the people. All it proves is that Democrats were able to overcome pervasive vote fraud with a sufficiently large national majority and a last-minute surge. That's not exactly democracy.
Furthermore, accepting any electoral victory as our only redress for eight years of illegal leadership only legitimizes BushCo's multiple, layered, ongoing crimes against the Constitution, humanity, and the planet we live on.
That's why it isn't enough for Democratic candidates simply to campaign for office; they have to lead. John Edwards has done that by refusing to debate at Fox-sponsored forums and by coming out against electronic touchscreen voting machines-the latter being of particular importance, given that congressional Dems still don't understand the critical distinction between a paper trail and a paper ballot.
Mike Gravel did it in a recent debate by telling the truth about Iraq.
But most of all, Dennis Kucinich is giving the people a voice by submitting articles of impeachment against Dick Cheney.
The push for impeachment acknowledges two simple truths: we can't wait for 2008, nor can we live with BushCo's legacy. That is to say, we must not only remove GWB, but we must remove all the devices and stratagems his administration has used to subvert the Constitution including: signing statements and the concept of the unitary executive; the abrogation of the Geneva conventions, the concept of enemy combatants, extraordinary rendition, and Guantanamo; pre-emptive military attacks; warrantless spying on citizens; the unlabeled exchange of government propaganda for news; and much more.
These illegal maneuvers should not be available to future presidents of any party. Just as SCOTUS explicitly said that their ruling in Bush v. Gore could not be construed as a precedent, so the entire Bush presidency must be stripped of its power to set precedent-and nothing would go further toward that goal than impeachment.
Impeachment would also send a powerful warning to the Roberts' Court that they, too, serve at the pleasure of the people.
Impeachment is the people's powerful roar.
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