Over the past two weeks there have been any number of news and opinion articles published that purport to understand the politics of impeaching George W. Bush and his friends. Last Friday's Washington Post contained such an article, written by the good soldier Charles Babbington.

Other articles, to which I will not link because they too are not worth the electrons to paint on your computer screen, have jumped all over Mrs. Pelosi for her "dumping the Constitution," collusion with President Bush, and working for the RNC. To all these people whose editors do not give a damn what they say (or tell them exactly what to say), I say, y'all need a little lesson in humility and a big lesson in arithmetic. You should give up journalism and get a job!

The minority party in the House and the minority party in the Senate do not chair any committees. They have "ranking members" in committees, but "ranking" is not Chair, and not being Chair (or majority party) means that you have virtually no control over the agenda or conduct of that committee. The work that Rep. Conyers is doing amounts to private staff work at this point ... and, make no mistake, it is valuable work, nevertheless.

The minority party does not win committee or floor votes along party lines. That's what being the minority means. It means you come in second; even if you "try harder," you will not be able to pass your resolutions, bills, articles of impeachment, etc. So, DUH!

What do you expect Nancy Pelosi or any Democrat to say as the long hot summer before an election begins? Nancy Pelosi will probably become the first femme Speaker of the House of Representatives if the Democrats win in November. Not only will she be able to appoint Democratic chairs to committees, but she will be able to set committee agendas and will be able to maneuver agendas onto the floor when she and the Party believe they Constitutionally belong there. That is all you can say at this point.

Until November, though, anything she says is going to be taken up by Republicans as the rattling of sabres and beating of war drums. She does not need to get Democrats into a frenzy over impeachment ... we are already pretty pissed off and our teeth have been clenched for well over five and a half long years. And, she does not need to get Republicans ... who are presently stunned at the utter wasteland that George Bush & Co. have made of their party ... up in arms and out recruiting votes for their candidates.

The final inexorable mathematics of this is that Democrats have to win in November. With Rove about to be indicted (they say), we hope, and Dick Cheney's skin being measured by the local taxidermists at Justice, too, we suspect that the Republicans will continue their melt down all the way to through to 2008 or further and that Democrats could be looking at a landslide. Why screw that up!

In other words, you jackals and hyenas of the blogs and press, do you really think that the American public is that moronic? People understand the arithmetic, even if you do not.

James Richard Brett