Impeachment or Plan B. Brilliant.

[Hamlette]

Impeaching them both together, . . . won't work. Conviction on impeachment requires seventeen Republican votes (counting Lieberman as a Republican). I don't think those votes are there, under any circumstances. No Republican is going to vote to change the party in control of the White House in mid-term, and I doubt most voters would be inclined to punish them for standing on the results of the 2004 elections.

snip

As an alternative, consider Plan B.

Congressional Democrats create a crisis around the executive privilege/contempt citation issue by issuing a subpoena to Libby (with a grant of immunity), voting a contempt citatation when he doesn't show up on Bush's orders, making a referral to the U.S. Attorney that Bush blocks, and then voting a Congressional arrest warrant.

So either Libby turns himself in and either testifies or sits in the DC jail, or he stays out, a fugitive from justice. Since LIbby doesn't have Secret Service protection, the arrest warrant could be served without an armed confrontation. Either way, he's not a sympathetic character.

In the meantime, one of the two Appropriations Committees zeroes out Cheneys White House office (leaving him his Senate office) and takes 95% cuts in the White House press office, political affairs office, personnel office, and whatever unit holds the agency liaisons, and forbidding details to any of the units getting a cut. That actually works, meaning that Bush and Cheney have much less actual capacity to do harm. Constitutionally, no one doubts Congress has the power to refuse to appropriate money. Substantively, the cuts are fully justified by the fact that the units being cut are units over which Bush says Congress can't exercise oversight, because of his claims of executive privilege.

Can anyone think of an advantage — either substantive or political — of impeachment over Plan B? I can't.

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/gwb_the_beloved_leader_/2007/07/plan_b.php

It could work. It's smart, its sympathetic (who CARES if Tony Snow has a job at this point, the whole country is laughing at what a liar he is) and it works.

[rucky]

1. Can't we do both?

two separate crimes. two strategies. no quarter.

[3waygeek]

2. I don't think cutting funding would work...

remember that the Treasury Dept. is in the executive branch and has, like every other executive branch agency, has been stocked with loyal Bushies. Bush & Cheney would just order Treasury to give them the money, and it'd be there.

These guys have absolutely no respect for law or the Constitution -- I'm not even sure impeachment will remove them at this point.

[ThomWV]

3. One little fly in the ointment. Subpoena Libby for what?

It may have been overlooked in this grand scheme, but Libby has already gone to court and been found guilty. Everything he wasn't charged with then he won't be charged with now and nothing he didn't say then is likely to be said now.

Find another sucker to subpoena, maybe someone like Harriet Miers. Oh, wait a minute, we've already done that.