Impeachment Watch

While most Democrats don't want to call for impeachment because they feel they can't win, I refuse to believe that my fellow citizens of the Republican persuasion would put the interests of their party about the interests of their country. I say, call for impeachment. Call their bluff. Find out if we are a republic guided by laws, or a covert dictatorship.

Meanwhile, the cries for impeachment become increasingly more mainstream every day:

From today's Philadelphia Inquirer:

So far, 11 town councils have taken up resolutions supporting impeachment; eight have passed, the largest being in San Francisco. State Democratic parties have adopted similar resolutions in California, Nevada and Wisconsin. ImpeachPAC, a political-action committee devoted to supporting pro-impeachment candidates, lists 14 Democratic candidates mounting congressional campaigns centering on impeachment. One of them, Carl Sheeler, who is running for the Senate in Rhode Island, recently paid for a billboard along Interstate 95 that reads: "Be Patriotic, Impeach Bush." He says he has received an overwhelmingly positive response.

...Impeachment is still in the distance, but make no mistake: Eventually the circus is coming to town.

Global Research in Canada has this to say:

The Articles of Impeachment make clear that this is no longer just about President Bush. Rather, it is about preventing the executive branch from obtaining carte blanche to disregard the two other branches of government. This is a paradigm shift that has already gained substantial footing through this administration's steady erosion of legal precedent.

There is no shortage of diligent documentation of this president's violation of laws and misleading of the public -- from the 1,284-page Torture Papers to congressman John Conyers' 273-page compilation [PDF] of the lies leading to the Iraq war. But behind this incredible ongoing compendium of evidence against President Bush lurks the realization that publicly pointing to criminal behavior is not synonymous with bringing it to an end:

It is the ultimate case of missing the forest for the trees. Behind this massive body of evidence, behind each new report of this president’s transgressions of the law, is the threat of the one and only story that Americans will read for the rest of this presidency, and presidencies to come: The abuse of power, and the destruction of our Constitution.

Just last week, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, appointed by Ronald Reagan, gave us this warning:

"It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."

If I had time, and I don't right now, I'd draw parallels between the backroom deals that brought the less-than-popular Adolph Hitler to power. One need only think of how Bush got into office in 2000 and 2004 to see a connection. Once there, they turned their minority position into the majority one:

Hitler's deal did not even give him a majority in the Reichstag. His coalition of Nazis and Nationalists had only 247 out of 583 seats in the Reichstag, still not a majority. But Hitler wasted no time using his newfound powers to start eliminating his competition. New elections were scheduled for March 5, 1933. Goebbels was completely confident now of success. "Now it will be easy to carry on the fight, for we can call on all the resources of the State. Radio and press are at our disposal. We shall stage a masterpiece of propaganda. And this time, naturally, there is no lack of money."

This President wants to be a dictator. He's made that abundantly clear. What remains to be seen is whether the people will roll over and play dead, or fight, with eloquence and passion, to ensure we remain a government of the people, plural.

Is the circus coming to town, or will Rove's minions win the battle against our Constitution? I'm praying for the former even as I'm on the watch for the latter.