“For centuries, one would-be conqueror after another marched his legions into the east, only to return in disgrace, or not at all. A few decades before Diocletian, there lived a Roman emperor named Valerian, a man from a fine old senatorial family. His army was annihilated not far east of the Euphrates.

Valerian was taken as a captive back to the enemy capital, where the Persian king, according to one ancient historian, amused himself by using the Roman emperor as a footstool for mounting his horse. When the erstwhile master of the known world finally died, his skin was stuffed with straw as a trophy.”

Everyone who has entered public service since Bush took office is suspect. We are going to have to “de-Ba’athify” the US government.

Warrantless wiretapping is illegal. Torture is illegal. Using government agencies and personnel for political purposes is illegal. These are felonies, more serious crimes than the “misdemeanors” standard for impeachment.

How in hell do these people think that any of the Democratic goals are going to be realized with the Republicans blocking everything in Senate, and the Shrubbery blocking what they pass? Nothing is going to get done until the roadblocks are cleared. How much intelligence does it take to see that?

Gore, Clark, Richardson, Edwards, no problem. I would vote for Mrs. Clinton if she won the nomination, but that’s it, unless she admits she made a mistake on the AUMF for Iraq. Obama can forget it.

No one hungers more than I to see Bush, Cheney, and the rest of the thugs who enabled them punished to the maximum, starting — not ending with — impeachment. But the reality is that impeachment will not happen in the remainder of Bush’s present term in office. Not with this Congress. Not with this Republican Party. Not with the disreputable state of the American press. Not with the spreading anomie of an American public increasingly disconnected with their government, sound public policy, and the ideals of democratic society.

Yes, with Watergate Nixon was successfully threatened with impeachment (such that he resigned rather than endure it) in slightly less than the time remaining, now, in Bush’s current constitutionally-authorized term of office. But that was then, this is now. The best we can hope for, realistically, is a new president and administration who chart a dramatic new course for the nation, educate the public by example, heal the many chronic cancers afflicting our public life, and then, perhaps, find a way to punish Bush and Cheney, but good. (I think, for example, of sending them on phony foreign missions where they can be arrested and tried for war crimes.)

it will take a new president with high intelligence, subtlety, patience, wisdom, enduring moral values, and great personal courage. That’s why I support Al Gore.

hipparchia… why not impeach Bush, with or without impeaching Cheney first? That four-part WaPo series made it clear that Cheney is in fact running everything anyway. Offhand, I suspect Cheney would be easier to convict if impeached; there’s a lot of evidence that has already come to light. But if we sit around tolerating unconstitutional and illegal behavior because it’s politically inconvenient to impeach, or waiting to impeach the bastards in some imagined “proper” order, we will lose the respect of the very Americans whose support we need… namely, those who still care whether their leaders obey the law and comply with the Constitution. Moreover, the longer Dems wait to impeach, the more time Bush and Cheney have to build their fortifications… destroy documents, construct false legal arguments, etc.

Back to topic: Obama’s reluctance to impeach bothers me a lot. I’m still trying to decide if that’s a disqualifying offense in my selection of a Democratic candidate to support. It certainly doesn’t help his case with me.

on the impeachment thing though, it is a bit of a problem. can’t possibly impeach bush first, that would leave us president cheney [not that it hasn’t always been like that anyway]. and if we get cheney out of there before we get bush out of there, no telling who would get appointed as the new vp.

we should impeach them both at the same time, as one unit, but that’s an unprecedented step. plus it would leave us with president pelosi, and not even the leftmost of the present democrats can bring themselves to think of actually having to say madame president.