Without Impeachment, Bush has nothing to fear

[martymar64]

Impeachment is the only way to remove Bush from office and to stop this country's quickening slide into Fascism. Without that available option, what does Bush and his minions have to fear. Investigations have proved useless and toothless. Congress as a whole has refused to confront this regime in any but the mostly symbolic ways.

So, the question is, what's Bush got to fear?

[Mme. Defarge]

1. Eternal damnation

of his immortal soul?

[bowens43]

2. with impeachment he has nothing to fear.

Even if impeached, there will never be a conviction.

[martymar64]

7. Sadly I agree that he wouldn't be convicted

I think that by exercising the impeachment in the House where it only needs a majority, it will be an indelible exposure of the Bush regime's crimes. It will be enough to ensure that Republicans will be swept out of the corridors of power on the Congressional and the Executive Branch all in one fell swoop. So I can be accused of wanting to use impeachment to influence an election, but I could say it just happened that way.
Consider this as well, it may be relevant or it may not be. When Clinton was impeached yet not convicted, what Party won the White House in 2000? The Republicans, the ones who initiated the impeachment. They impeached over infinitely more trivial issues than what this congress is facing now.
I can understand the thinking that because they impeached last time, we wouldn't want to put the country through that again since it could be seen by the opposition as simply impeachment as revenge.
My line of thinking is that because impeachment is not being presently considered as an option by the House leadership, then we are deprived of a tool to bring everything hidden to light and to ensure that Republicans as a party are discredited and sent to the margins where their outdated dogma belongs for at least a generation. George Bush Sr. was once quoted,and I paraphrase, "if they knew everything about what we've (the CIA) done, the people would probably hang all of us".
Just as Krushchev gave a full accounting of the horrible excesses of the Stalin regime after Uncle Joe was dead, A similar analogy would be when the German people were forced to confront the crimes of their nation in the concentration camps.
America needs a full accounting of all we as a nation have done in the name of freedom, the good the bad and the ugly. Only then can we grow as a nation. I think the process of impeachment will do that. And that is reason enough for it. The arc of justice is slow but it arcs upward.

[MonkeyFunk]

9. we can expose

all the crimes we want NOW through investigations. Impeachment hearings don't have any special power.

[martymar64]

12. I wish that were true

but impeachment would be the BIG investigation. It would be a chance to bring ALL of it out. Present investigations have just been nibbling at the edges, without going for the underlying cause of the cancer in the WH. Kind of like using a garden hose on a warehouse fire.

I know that most of us want the same result, to get that pinche pendejo out of the WH. Sometimes, on this site, we all get emotional about this and other issues. I'm just as guilty of that as almost everyone else here. But if we can unite on a common purpose that will benefit the nation as whole, then all the other disagreements can be tolerated easily.
Under any other presidential term in recent history, the investigations would be plenty. But that was then, this is now. We now have the Executive Branch in open contempt of Congress just daring us to do the one thing that can stop him. Sadly, these small investigations are just opportunities for bush to stonewall and laugh at our ineffectiveness.
Another thing to consider, once proceedings starts, some of the revelations that come out could build momentum for the issue and raise the pressure for the Senate to remove him from office. Of all the things we know that they have done these past seven years, what about the things we don't yet know about that could be revealed in impeachment proceedings?
The only other option is just to sit on ours hands and bite our tongues for the next two years until we win the next election. But the downside of that is that, we will have troops in Iraq until at least January 2009. They won't come home until then at the earliest. Some of them there won't come home at all.
It also means that the rule of law in this country is meaningless. If the executive Branch doesn't like a law written by Congress it can now just ignore it and congress will do nothing.
I can understand your belief in investigations, but I don't share your confidence in there effectiveness. The only "success" has been Scooter Libby and even that was a washout.

[Name removed]

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[pinkpops]

4. Start with Alberto. He is bite-sized.

[cynatnite]

5. Maybe bush isn't afraid of impeachment...

because it doesn't automatically remove him from office. House can impeach. Removal can only happen from the senate if they vote to convict.

Clinton was impeached and still completed his term.

[martymar64]

10. But the Republicans won the election right after that in 2000

He may get to complete his turn but impeachment would expose the entire republican system and ethos as the cause of this country's present slide and banish them from power for the next generation.

I think it's almost a shoo-in that Democrats will gain even more power in the next election. But the question is, do we want their sick ideology to come back in 8 or 10 years. I'd rather that the Republican Party go the way of the Nazis or the Stalinists or Maoists, to where decent people would be repelled by the very mention of their name for the next century or so.

I think the situation is starting to reach critical mass.

1. The dollar is falling like a stone.
2. We're mired in a war that has no foreseeable end yet,at least until we run out of men or money.
3. Many of our former allies are now not so friendly.
4. Our social infrastructure is being systematically dismantled.
5. The effects of Global warming are increasing every year.
6. We're going to run low on oil in the near future, maybe 10 years from now it will be at crisis level or beyond.

My point is that this country is in for a big fall, just like when the Soviet Union collapsed. There was a decade or so where new nations formed and Russia struggled to get back on its feet. But it did and maintains mostly good relations with its former republics.
We need to think ahead to mitigate the damage that will result from all of the above listed factors. If we expose the crimes of the republicans, they will be in less of a position to cause further damage for much longer than if we hadn't impeached.

[porphyrian]

6. You don't have to convince me. - n/t

[ThomWV]

8. The only fear he has is for Gonzo to turn on him and Rove to abandon him

Rove won't and Gonzo doesn't think Bush will.

[Sam1]

11. Impeachment will not work unless it is

driven by the outrage of the American people. The call for impeachment must be loud, clear, and near unanimous. If it come it will be from some action such as the friday night massacre that lead to the resignation of Nixon. And, it will be an irresistible title wave.

I think the investigation that is most likely to produce such a spontaneous reaction is the one dealing with the friendly fire death of the football player in Afghanistan .(senior moment - can't remember the name. It is simple, easily understood, and outrageous.