It is impossible to exaggerate the stark difference between the impeachment of President Clinton and the impending impeachment of President Bush.
There is currently no talk of impeaching President Bush or Vice President Cheney in the US House of Representatives, but there are measures moving through the state legislatures in at least three states, Washington, Vermont and New Mexico. Hopefully more states will take up similar legislation.
This grassroots movement around the country to bring law and order back to our executive branch is precisely the opposite type of proceeding from the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. President Clinton's impeachment was initiated at the top levels of the Republican elite hierarchy, and pushed through the House by rich, white, ultra-conservatives without significant public support. By the time those proceedings were done, President Clinton had an approximately 70% approval rating with the public.
President Bush's current approval rating is approximately 30%, and even that hard core conservative base of 30% is very uneasy about President Bush's capabilities and proclivities. There is currently little impetus in the House of Representatives to initiate impeachment proceedings, but the grass roots movement is expanding rapidly. If enough states pass joint resolutions to initiate impeachment proceedings, it may force Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats to take up impeachment hearings in a serious way.
This is the big difference between the Republican and Democratic parties, Republicans are authoritarians who do things from the top down, whereas Democrats and progressives are populists and do things from the ground up. It will be a wonderful expression of our democratic society if the impeachment of Bush and Cheney are brought about by the actions of hundreds of thousands of patriotic Americans who want to reclaim their country from the corporate, Republican elite.
Dr. John Moffett is an active research neuroscientist in the Washington, DC area, who has published articles on the nervous and immune systems. Dr. Moffett is also the author and webmaster of the political opinion website www.Factinista.org, and is a Managing Editor at OpEdNews.com.
This is the right way to go.
When Conyers and Pelosi said impeachment was off the table, they meant that it was not politically possible. They are right, as far as top-down, congressional action. In the current political climate, they couldn't reasonably expect to succeed in the Senate and losing at that point would act as exoneration. It would escalate partisanship and envigorate the Wingnut base. Meanwhile nothing moves on the floors of Congress. Meanwhile Bush continues unimpeded on his way to start WW4.
Several states and many municipalities are calling for or considering Impeachement. It is a movement. When it reaches critical mass, Congress will have no choice but to act. By that time, it is crucial that enough constituents of enough Republicans have gotten the message and passed it on to their Congress members. We can not expect impeachment to succeed until 2/3 of the Senate are on board. That means 1/3 of the Republican Senators have to be convinced. A successful grassroots effort in their states will make it political suicide NOT to impeach.
Until then, stay on Congress to stop the Bush/CheneyCo nightmare. Get behind Jack Murtha's plan to attach conditions to the Supplimental, Dodd's bill to restore Habeus Corpus, and the people looking into whether the AUF has expired or needs to be repealed. Finegold is introducing a bill that specifically prohibits attacking Iran. All of these measures have some bipartisan support, Impeachment proceedings in the House would end these other, crucial efforts. Channel your support for impeachment into the local and statewide efforts, take a page from Howard Dean, a 50-state strategy, use impeachment as a grassroots organizing tool.
by
CV (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 6 comments)
on Saturday, February 24, 2007 at 1:38:27 PM
I posted this over on Dave Sirota's blog on the 21st -- it bears repeating here--
The Democratic Republic Will Prevail
When you look at various articles online, you can see that one of the main dividing guidelines between the forces at work today is the top-down (GOP) versus bottom-up (Democratic) approach. On the one hand, recent articles tell of the GOP Unitary Executive (read "monarch" -- both expressions mean "sole chief") form of government increasing the issuance of executive directives, rule by fiat. On the other hand there are the articles pointing to the many individual citizens, townships, cities, states, on up into the national Congress that are speaking out. This is the democratic republic in action, creating the pressure needed to enforce the laws and the dictates of the Constitution so as to bring about the end of an illegal war and the impeachment of illegal executives, in this most recent revolution, one in a string of revolutions foretold by Founding Father Thomas Jefferson. All is proceeding as would be expected -- and in the end, Republic will win out over Monarchy, as it has done before and will do so once again -- so long as America is America.
--RicKelis
by
RicK (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 4 comments)
on Sunday, February 25, 2007 at 3:27:33 AM
Until the American people see the numerous things the Bush Administration has done, how it has left this country militarily crippled, morally and financially bankrupt, they will not cry out for impeachment.
I do not believe that will happen until the hearings begin to overpower the corporation media into handling it as news.
by
pratliff94 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 940 comments)
on Tuesday, February 27, 2007 at 9:27:46 PM
