It's All About "I"
My version of a quick post here. I'm on early AM airport dropoff duty and running on fumes already - that may be good as it will perhaps allow for falling asleep hrs earlier than normal with any luck. For that matter, current reading, viz. Alterman's "When Presidents Lie," while chockful of useful insights, education, and stimuli for more (e.g., I was not content until some map research found me locales of Yalta and Potsdam), as I found on busride home today can have a certain tranquilizing effect.
"I" is for Impeachment, of course. Yeah, yeah, try to turn off your scorn and cynicism for a bit here. That's not helping you, me, us, or what's left of democracy. That junior high school cool, never letting down your guard so you can't be found wrong doesn't become you anyway at your age. What if you actually suspended disbelief and considered openly supporting and not dissing the idea of impeachment, leaving aside the technical difficulties? You'd risk what, embarrassment in front of more-cynical cronies? Don't try to tell me the cynicism works to protect your own state of mind. You know yourself - and how bad you are at selling yourself such a crock - better than that!
I for one will not go quietly. As Windmill Pete's tune has it "We're Not Gonna Take It!" You'll be hearing more from me on this. For now, have a taste of this article, tellingly entitled "Bush's Last, Best Hope: the Democrats." The theme is Democratic legislator spinelessness despite multiple polls showing strong public support for impeachment of a president with an addition to lying. I believe those folks in the bubble back in DC need to be hearing from us, perhaps reminding them explicitly of the multitude of potentially impeachable offenses of our little trick-or-treat cowboy. The article continues with a good handful of candidates:
The prevailing "wisdom" of our corporate media is that impeachment of President Bush is a left-wing fantasy. As a result, there is virtually no coverage in the media of either the majority sentiment for removing Bush from office or even of the key issues that make this president a poster child for impeachment.
Take the several polls by Zogby International on the impeachment issue. Last June, Zogby polled Americans across the country and found that some 42 percent favored impeaching the president if it were found that he had lied about the threat posed by Iraq in order to justify an invasion. That is a higher percentage of people in favor of impeachment than there ever was for the impeachment of former president Bill Clinton during his entire impeachment ordeal. Yet the poll was not mentioned by any major media news organization.
In November, Zogby repeated the poll. This time, 53 percent of respondents from all over the nation said they thought the president should be impeached and removed from office if he lied about the war. That poll to was totally blacked out.
A third poll early this year found 52 percent of Americans saying Bush should be removed from office if he broke the law and had the National Security Agency spy on American citizens without court warrants. Well, of course he did do that-the president has admitted he did so and says he will continue to do it--so the latest poll was really saying that 52 percent of Americans think he should be sent packing.
That poll too was largely ignored by the major corporate media.
Left-wing fantasy? Are we saying that the majority of Americans are left-wingers?
I don't think so.
But the media are not the only ones who are trying to dismiss popular sentiment for impeachment.
The leadership of the Democratic Party is doing the same thing.
While researching our book on impeachment (The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing George W. Bush from Office, St. Martin's Press, due out in late April), my co-author Barbara Olshanshky and I have found that members of Congress-even firebrands like Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Cynthia McKinney (D-GA)-have been strong-armed behind the scenes by the Democratic National Committee not to introduce an impeachment bill in the House. Rep. John Conyers, the ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, where such a bill would be considered, has submitted three bills that relate to impeachment-a proposal for a special committee to investigate possible impeachable crimes by the administration and bills to censure both the president and the vice president for refusing to answer questions from Congress on impeachment-related issues--but that's as far as the Democratic congressional leadership is willing to go.
As the Wall Streeet Journal reported in a March 6 article on the impeachment issue, Democratic Party leaders fear that party support for impeachment could lead to a backlash as happened to Republicans who supported Clinton's impeachment.
This is of course nonsense. The effort to impeach Clinton over his sexual escapades was always viewed by the majority of Americans, Democratic and Republican alike, as a farce and an embarrassment. As the Wall Street Journal notes, support for Clinton's impeachment never rose much above a quarter of the electorate--the hard right element of the Republican Party.
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"I" is for Impeachment, of course. Yeah, yeah, try to turn off your scorn and cynicism for a bit here. That's not helping you, me, us, or what's left of democracy. That junior high school cool, never letting down your guard so you can't be found wrong doesn't become you anyway at your age. What if you actually suspended disbelief and considered openly supporting and not dissing the idea of impeachment, leaving aside the technical difficulties? You'd risk what, embarrassment in front of more-cynical cronies? Don't try to tell me the cynicism works to protect your own state of mind. You know yourself - and how bad you are at selling yourself such a crock - better than that!
I for one will not go quietly. As Windmill Pete's tune has it "We're Not Gonna Take It!" You'll be hearing more from me on this. For now, have a taste of this article, tellingly entitled "Bush's Last, Best Hope: the Democrats." The theme is Democratic legislator spinelessness despite multiple polls showing strong public support for impeachment of a president with an addition to lying. I believe those folks in the bubble back in DC need to be hearing from us, perhaps reminding them explicitly of the multitude of potentially impeachable offenses of our little trick-or-treat cowboy. The article continues with a good handful of candidates:
The prevailing "wisdom" of our corporate media is that impeachment of President Bush is a left-wing fantasy. As a result, there is virtually no coverage in the media of either the majority sentiment for removing Bush from office or even of the key issues that make this president a poster child for impeachment.
Take the several polls by Zogby International on the impeachment issue. Last June, Zogby polled Americans across the country and found that some 42 percent favored impeaching the president if it were found that he had lied about the threat posed by Iraq in order to justify an invasion. That is a higher percentage of people in favor of impeachment than there ever was for the impeachment of former president Bill Clinton during his entire impeachment ordeal. Yet the poll was not mentioned by any major media news organization.
In November, Zogby repeated the poll. This time, 53 percent of respondents from all over the nation said they thought the president should be impeached and removed from office if he lied about the war. That poll to was totally blacked out.
A third poll early this year found 52 percent of Americans saying Bush should be removed from office if he broke the law and had the National Security Agency spy on American citizens without court warrants. Well, of course he did do that-the president has admitted he did so and says he will continue to do it--so the latest poll was really saying that 52 percent of Americans think he should be sent packing.
That poll too was largely ignored by the major corporate media.
Left-wing fantasy? Are we saying that the majority of Americans are left-wingers?
I don't think so.
But the media are not the only ones who are trying to dismiss popular sentiment for impeachment.
The leadership of the Democratic Party is doing the same thing.
While researching our book on impeachment (The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing George W. Bush from Office, St. Martin's Press, due out in late April), my co-author Barbara Olshanshky and I have found that members of Congress-even firebrands like Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Cynthia McKinney (D-GA)-have been strong-armed behind the scenes by the Democratic National Committee not to introduce an impeachment bill in the House. Rep. John Conyers, the ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, where such a bill would be considered, has submitted three bills that relate to impeachment-a proposal for a special committee to investigate possible impeachable crimes by the administration and bills to censure both the president and the vice president for refusing to answer questions from Congress on impeachment-related issues--but that's as far as the Democratic congressional leadership is willing to go.
As the Wall Streeet Journal reported in a March 6 article on the impeachment issue, Democratic Party leaders fear that party support for impeachment could lead to a backlash as happened to Republicans who supported Clinton's impeachment.
This is of course nonsense. The effort to impeach Clinton over his sexual escapades was always viewed by the majority of Americans, Democratic and Republican alike, as a farce and an embarrassment. As the Wall Street Journal notes, support for Clinton's impeachment never rose much above a quarter of the electorate--the hard right element of the Republican Party.
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posted by Sir Gumbo at 10:07 PM
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