Land of Make Believe

George W. Bush has signed himself into the position of Supreme Crusader. He refuses to be bound by legislative action, and this Congress has not yet managed to muster any legislation of substance to challenge him.

Vermont Congressman Peter Welch refers to legislation with troop withdrawal timetables that passed in the U.S. House as his greatest achievement thus far in ending this war. The timetables didn't even make it out of committee with the Democratic Senate, and so were spared the President's veto. The Congressman thinks that this is real progress, but is unable to articulate why. He is also certain that impeachment proceedings would prolong the war, but offers only his judgment as evidence.

Only after impeachment investigations against him had begun did Richard Nixon start the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam. George Bush is still operating from an undeserved but nonetheless standing power base. Congress can't pass a law that he feels compelled to obey, but they can impeach him and remove him from office and he can't do a thing about it.

Bush thinks we're winning a war. Democrats in Congress think that they're ending it. While Nancy Pelosi keeps impeachment off the table, it's showing up everywhere else. Impeachment is the only remedy when the executive usurps legislative authority. But this Congress doesn't want to tackle that. No, these legislators are happy as clams, taking bold stabs at wrongdoing around the outer edges of the administration, uncovering political meddling in the Department of Justice, Republican politicking being done on the people's dime, failures at Walter Reed. In the meantime, they do not have a single investigation of Bush or Cheney about the war, or torture, or signing statements, or violating FISA and the Fourth Amendment, or anything at all that would lead to their removal from office.

The Democrats just want to see Bush and the Republicans twist in the wind until the '08 elections. The Constitution, American soldiers and the Iraqi nation can be damned in the meantime.

Our house is burning down. We're asking our representatives to pass us a water bucket, but they're only excited about their project to dig the fire pond deeper. Just wait until it's all designed and built, they say, and then we'll really be good at putting out those fires. Only when they discover their own pants burning will they pull their heads out of their plans and go for water.

We're looking for a measure of competence and honor from our leaders. If they don't have it in them, we will instill it. If Peter Welch wants us to believe that he's ending the war, he should tell us how he's doing it. If he can't give a reasoned answer why we shouldn't impeach, he should support our efforts. If he wants to end this war, he should stop protecting Bush and Cheney from being held accountable and help us end this administration's rein of destruction.