R House voted to impeach Clinton on 12/19/1998. Then Rs won elections

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in 2000, 2002 and 2004. Therefore voting to impeach Clinton did not harm Rs at the polls in the next few years.

Ds have an opportunity to vote to impeach Bush in 2007, even if it wouldn't make it through the Senate, it still could pass in the House. I don't buy the argument that it would hurt the Ds in 2008, since it didn't seem to hurt the Rs in the subsequent 3 elections.

Moreover, if the House Ds do not vote to impeach Bush, then what are these people made of? What did we send them to Washington for? To vote to impeach Bush in 2007 would not be an act of "revenge" for Clinton's impeachment but to show WHAT WE ARE MADE OF. Are the Ds a bunch of wimps who will let the bullies (Rs) do anything they want, and not fight back, even symbolically? Are the Ds still convinced that politics in the U.S. is a gentlemen's activity?

Does ANYONE here agree with me on this?

[obxhead]

1. well said

[Ignacio Upton]

2. By 2000 memory of impeachment faded

However, many people who voted against Gore did so as a way of voting against Clinton symbolically. WHile CLinton (and Gore as well) had high job approvals, Clinton had a low personal favorability rating. Also, people in 2000 were voting for the man as much as the party in someone like Bush, who pretended to run a Clintonesque campaign, but with faux triangulation instead of real triangulation.

[katsy]

7. But Gore won!

I agree with you that many people did vote as a symbolic spanking (idiots) to Clinton... but Gore did not lose.

[Ignacio Upton]

8. But it shouldn't have been so close

Clinton by most measures was a competent and sucessful President on policy (although NAFTA is one area where most of us here would disagree.) Had it not been for Monica, Gore running a less than stellar campaign, and Rove's/Jeb's/Cruella's/Nader's/MSM's bullshit, then he would have won...but a desire to overcome "Clinton fatigue" was a primary reason for voting for Bush in 2000. Unfortunately, with Bush masquerading as a "compassionate conservative," a lot of people thought that he would only be slightly more conservative than Bill Clinton.

[Swamp Rat]

3. yep

[mom cat]

4. If the Dems blow this mandate, they deserve unemployment.

[w4rma]

5. One note. All (or nearly all) the impeachment managers have since been voted from their seats.

I think he should be impeached, but I also think that we should begin the investigations without impeachment being a foregone conclusion.

[Ravy]

6. They lost in 98, during the impeachment.hearings

Only the second time in history that the president's party has gained power in a mid-term.


Edited: the official impeachment vote wasn't taken until after the election, by the lame duck Congress.

[Ravy]

12. Republicans also lost seats in the House and Senate in 2000. (nt)

[casus belli]

9. Because it wasn't a waste of time then, either?

I didn't expect to find logic this faulty on a progressive forum.

This is Pelosi's take on it.

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/scp_v3/viewer/index.php?pid=16598&rn=49750&cl=1137340&ch=334515&src=news

I happen to agree with her. You may not, that's your decision.

Yay, let's cannablize the Democratic party from within over IMPEACHMENT, because the good Lord knows, there isn't anything more important for us to be focusing on. :sarcasm:

[Laelth]

11. The waste of time argument, again.

Well, here's my reply ... again.

I hope I never consider standing up for the Constitution of the United States of America to be a "waste of time."

I hope I never consider resisting fascism a "waste of time."

I hope I never have to tell the families of soldiers who perished in a senseless war that to indict the people who sent them off to die would be a "waste of time."

You have got to be kidding me.

I simply cannot believe I am hearing this argument here, of all places. Standing up for what is right is never a "waste of time." Who cares if we can convict him before Nov. 2008? People want justice, and they want it now. Justice may not work conveniently on our electoral calendar, but what's more important, really?

... in utter frustration ...

Do you have a response, or will you just keep spreading the "waste of time argument" and letting me have the last word on it?

:dem:

-Laelth

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13. At the very least, to have it on the record: "George W. Bush was impeached"

forever and ever, would be enough reason for me to do it, and not consider it a waste of time.

[Laelth]

10. Hear, hear!

I fully agree.

More here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2657058

:dem:

-Laelth