The Impeachment Of Dick Cheney

Public perception can beat the shit out of political nuance. The Bush Republicans know this and they have abused it for their own nefarious ends. The Democrats, on the other hand, have somehow overlooked this very basic rule of 21st Century American politics, which is a shame since they would more often than not use it for the betterment of the nation.

After all, one year ago yesterday, we elected the Democrats in overwhelming numbers to amplify our screaming voices to a decibel loud enough to penetrate the unchecked corridors of power in Washington -- we hired this party to speak for us and to use this expressed authority to end the war and to hold this historically unpopular executive regime accountable.

To date and with the exception of some admirable investigations by a few standout lawmakers, the Democrats have done nothing to make good on their mandate from you and me.

It was yesterday, on the one year anniversary of the collapse of Karl Rove's thousand-year Reich, when the Democrats subjected themselves to both public embarrassment and public disgrace, and each within a few hours of the other.

The public disgrace was naturally Senator Schumer's and Senator Feinstein's votes to endorse the Bush administration's pro-torture policy. Make no mistake, despite their wet-bread excuses, that's what they did, say nothing of their endorsement of the regime's unitary executive theory. The reality of the committee vote -- the Democrats' failure to hold their voter-mandated high ground -- is what history will remember. Not the excuses.

As for the public embarrassment, I'm referring of course to the floor vote on whether to bury a resolution calling for the impeachment of Vice President Cheney. It was a one act tragic-comedy about how fucked up and bizarre our nation has become this decade -- all of it concentrated into a single hour of legislative insanity on C-SPAN.

Vice President Dick Cheney: the most subversive political villain of our time was let off the hook yesterday and the Democrats did all of the heavy lifting to make it happen. Dick Cheney: a man who has proudly committed innumerable high crimes, among them a trillion dollar fraud perpetrated upon the American people and the world -- a fraud which has resulted in nearly 30,000 American casualties and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi casualties. And now he's trying it again with Iran.

Yet there was Steny Hoyer desperately trying to bury this thing; the Republicans, meantime, overwhelmingly voting in favor of the resolution -- daring the Democrats to make it real.

Sure, you and I understand the backwards strategy behind the political theater. The Republicans thought that a debate on the impeachment of Dick Cheney would embarrass the Democrats. Run away! Run away! They said it'll embarrass us, so I guess it will! Run away!

But this begs the question, what made them believe they'd be embarrassed by the clown-car party of Brownie, Mark Foley, Larry Craig and Alberto Gonzales? Easy. Congressman Boehner made them believe it when he strategically rallied enough GOP votes to force a debate. They literally and brazenly dared the Democrats to allow an impeachment debate on the House floor. See, the Republicans still hold a collection of Democratic balls inside a cryogenic flask hidden somewhere on the Mall.

If only the Democrats were attentive enough to the people to realize that a majority of Americans, including a majority of independent voters, support the impeachment of Dick Cheney, they would've treated the resolution with a little more respect. If they acknowledged their mandate and discarded their predictably impotent political habits, they would have had the mettle to at least debate the resolution and entered into the record their collective objections to the vice president's malfeasance, as well as forced into the record the Republican Party's inexplicable support for the man's attempt to undermine their authority. History demands this.

Instead, by engaging in such an awkwardly amateurish fire drill on the floor of the House, Hoyer managed to inject his misguided capitulation into the national debate. He might not know this, but there exists cable news and internet blogs, both thirsting for material. Now, millions of people know that the House Democrats dropped their short pants and stumbled away from the task of holding the vice president accountable -- their trousers bunched around their ankles restricting normal locomotion -- simply because the Republicans dared them to act.

And so in trying to avoid a so-called public embarrassment, they publicly embarrassed themselves anyway.

The average voter doesn't have the time or the patience to analyze the bullshit parliamentary chess match -- the twisted Möbius Loop Beltway routine of asinus asinum fricat. What people know is that Congressman Kucinich introduced a resolution, symbolic or not, to impeach Dick Cheney, and the Democratic leadership crumbled under the weight of a Republican dare -- the House majority leader barely mustering the hand-eye coordination to kill it.

This is what you get when you acquiesce to the Bush Republicans. Under the new rules of American politics, Bush Republicans don't compromise. They don't meet anyone halfway on the important issues. They push back even harder. Popularity doesn't matter. Polls don't matter. To the neocons and Bush Republicans, logic, compassion, reason and rationality are the stuff of the "faggy" left wing.

When the Democrats acquiesce on torture or impeachment or anything that might reunite them with their balls, they're only succeeding in begging the right's aggression. There won't be any favors returned from the Bush/Cheney right wing. I don't think the Democrats fully understand who they're dealing with. And if they do, well then, how dare they play along. How dare they patronize us with I'm against this but I'm voting for it because I'm smart and important and you wouldn't understand anyway.

You stand up and vote NO on torture, Senator Schumer. You allow a debate about impeaching the vice president, Congressman Hoyer. And you sure as shit don't vote to support the administration's Iran policy, Senator Clinton.

In other words, compromising with the White House won't make the president go all limp and soupy -- it will in fact make him louder and more petulant next time around (more from Kos and AmericaBlog here). So please -- by the power of Grayskull -- stop him! We're begging now. I will be satisfied if I never hear his little-man voice and crackly fake twang ever again -- unless, of course, he's saying, "I will resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow."

Beyond that, and in the awesome words of Han Solo, "Shut him up or shut him down!"

That's what the American people are expecting. Any failure on that score leaves the Democrats in this pathetic ass-up submissive posture. When it comes down to choice of nuance versus aggression, the answer has to be aggression. Take on those bastards with the fury and tenacity these historically imperative issues demand.

We don't expect hand-holding and mutual masturbation between the Bush Republican White House and the Democratic Congress. No-one has ever assumed the president would compromise on anything anyway. But we assumed -- perhaps wrongly -- that the Democrats would stick him. We expected a fight, and that's why we voted for Democrats a year ago yesterday. And if they should ever decide to collectively stand up and fight, we will gladly elect more of them a year from now.

Comments

[johnie2xs]

Bob; To put it in the words of a drunken Massachusetts friend of mine, this piece was
"FUCKIN' A PISSA'

[princessofnowt]

So much to do, so little time.

Mukasey is now in, no thanx to the sneaky late night vote last night.

Here are some of the posts I found very useful, though if you are just joining us, it is well worth reading all the posts here.

From HearNoWeasel, post:2:57 11/8/07

"Numbers to write down and stick on your monitor:

- House Judiciary Committee, for Cheney
impeachment hearings: [phone]
- Speaker of the House, Pelosi: [phone]
- Representative and Senators offices:
www.congress.org, enter your zip code.

Call. Just do it, it only takes 2
minutes. Repeat a few days later.
Repeat for every topic worth standing
up for.

Also email [e-mail].
He'll deliver copies of all comments to
big-wig Democrats. "

From 'Research' posted 4:12pm 11/8/07
"It's always been the people who must stop the Tyrant. Impeachment is now in committee, not dead at all.
Help Dennis and 22 other house member impeach http://www.usalone.com/hres333.php333.php
Call your rep,
"Impeachment is not on the agenda," Hoyer said.
Hoyer's washington office number 202.225.3130
http://democraticleader.house.gov/

From Deidroni: posted 04:08 pm on
11/08/2007
"Go to www.capitalnews.org for a video
of Kucinich stating his resolution 333
for impeachment.

On that page it is located on "most
watched videos". Click on event on
Kucinich.
Kucinich has more courage than the rest
of the congress put together."

NB:capitAL not capitol for correct
link..

ALSO so important:

www.NI4D.us

The National Initiative for Democracy. You can vote to create the peoples branch of government. It is our constitutional right, and this issue is one that a popular vote WILL enact.
It will exist when we have 50,000,000 votes.

IT IS NOT A POLL, IT IS AN ACTUAL VOTE FOR THE PEOPLE TO BE ABLE TO MAKE THE LAW, & PROVIDE FOR CHECKS AND BALANCES.

SPREAD THE WORD ON THIS- IT IS THE ONE THING THAT CAN BE DONE BY US, NOW, TO ACTUATE CHANGE.

[stopfascism]

IMPEACH CHENEY.

ITS the MORAL, ETHICAL and AMERICAN thing to do!

[JohnCP]

Why must we have the simplistic lies, that "democrats" have failed us. Or that "we" put the democrats in power to satisfy the aims of a handful of lefties? What self-satisfied bullshit. You didn't put the democrats in power; millions of people, only a few of which share the intensity of your interests with you, together, helped the democrats to power. Get over yourselves.

And, what choice did you have? You had two choices: democrat or republican. Now you pretend that your actions were so magnanimous in pulling the lever for democratic candidates. You also pretend that conservative democrats like Feinstein and Schumer, appeared on the scene, just as you cast your vote. These conservative democrats have been in our party for years now, put there by the large constituency of conservtive grass roots democrats that put them in office, and expect to be represented by a conservative leadership; not as conservative as the republicans would demand, but nearly so. Stop the pretense and the pathetic excuse-making. The democratic leadership hasn't failed us; you've failed us. Yes, you. What have "you" done to make your leftish fantasies come to fruition; I mean, besides pretending that the democratic leadership is reponsible for your inability or unwillingness to bring the people around you to support your views.

There are democrats, there are republicans, there are independents, and then there are you insufferable snobs, that sit on your moralistic thrones and hurl angry thunderbolts against the mortals, that offend you with their shortcomings. The behavior that you bemoan in Feinstein and Schumer isn't the behavior of "democrats," as charged by the near mentally disordered Ralph Naders of the world, would, with astonishing arrogance and appalling naivte, have us beleive, it's the behavior of imperfect human beings, that also happen to be democrats. Since FDR, the democrats have given us so much better a deal, than the republicans, I don't even hesitate to vote demoratic. Spare us the scapegoating.

[Guitarsandmore]

The Republicans have left our country a mess with damage to the economy, our esteem in the world community, our chances for peace, and most of all our loss of freedom and Democracy. We must put the Constitution back together again but the guilty must not go unpunished. Impeach Dick Cheney and then George W. Bush. Show the world what we stand for.

I realize the calendar is full with worthwhile agenda items and there is much damage control that needs to be completed but the rule of law must be upheld and the criminals must be given their due process. Dick Cheney and George W. Bush must be impeached.

We did not suspend the Constitution for the war on drugs, or the war on poverty, or the war on crime, and we should not permanently suspend the Constitution for the war on terror. Permanent loss of the Bill of Rights and the Geneva Convention is just not acceptable.

All employees of the government are required to follow the code of ethics with no exception. We must impeach Dick Cheney and George W. Bush to prevent a further slide into a fascist type of corrupt government where only profits and business for a few take precedence over the common good for the many.

[Tangento]

John Conyers needs to hear from ALL of us that
impeachment hearings MUST take place -- ASAP.

http://www.tangento.net/

[lulu]

i vote that the Democratic Ladies put on their "big girl panties" and show them boys how to shovel out the shit.

[pjwertz]

The House, according to our beloved Dem leaders, does not have time to deal with impeachment hearings on Cheney's crimes. It's too busy with other matters. So, here's what CSPAN had the House doing this morning:

"Taking a procedural vote now on whether to vote on the rules for debating the Defense Spending Bill."

Can't let those procedures slide for petty matters like the vice president's destruction of America, now can we?

[Handyvan]

"...we hired this party to speak for us and to use this expressed authority to end the war and to hold this historically unpopular executive regime accountable."

So the anti-war crowd claims the title of THE faction that enabled the Democrats to gain control of Congress? I don't think so, even thought that's an admirable goal.

Some of us who helped elect Veterans and veteran-advocates to the House and Senate wanted them to reaffirm this nation's commitment to veterans. We lobbied for passage of a number of bills, chief among them the Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Act, the Wounded Warriors Act, and a bill to end the deplorable discrpancy between the disablility rating from the DOD and that of the VA. This Congress has passed those acts!

You want to start impeachment? More power to you! But that is not what this Veteran wants this Congress - and its leaders - to focus on. So do not presume to speak for me when you say what "we" hired this party to do.

Next on my agenda for this Congress to end homelessness among veterans. Latest reports indicate that 25% of our current homeless population are veterans. What are you doing about that - or is that not your concern?

Van Doren
Dustoff Medic
Vietnam, 65-66

[poppycock]

We have hundreds of thousands of service men and women who are quite prepared to die for their Country.

We have hundreds of Democratic representatives who are not even prepared to risk losing an election for their Country.

[poppycock]

The USA - a Nation of outlaws not men

Sorry it's corny - but unfortunately true

[poppycock]

The Democrats have more important things to attend to than the survival of our Democracy and our Country.

I've no idea what these are but they must be so important (and so secret) that we are not allowed to know what they are.

[Janelynne]

Your analysis is inspired and thoroughly accurate. The one thing you left out is that the uncertainty of the Democratics at the top make people anxious and insecure. Americans are yearning for strength, and even the wrong headed strength of the GOP has allure. Even though they are evil and destroying the Constitution, they act like they know what they are doing, and that has cache. If the Democratic leadership does not soon offer strength, people will begin to acquiesce. Imagine if the Democrats stopped bothering to stay involved.

[cadawa]

Absolutely correct! The Democrats limped away with their "political strategy" between their legs, begging to be humiliated on another day.
I have never seen such a display of collective cowardice. And a whip or chain in sight.
It was pathetic, immoral and just plain wrong.

[coolaid]

What is at stake? More of the same vs. something worse with more of the same response? It doesn't really matter does it?

I'm getting sick and tired of the "rubber spine" party. I will not vote for a republican unless its Ron Paul, but you can bet I am not going to vote for "Bush-Lite" Hillary Clinton. The democrats could stop this war if they weren't so afraid of the Chimp and his party of dirty tricksters. Screw Em! I'm voting for Kucinich in the primary and independent in the General Election!