Democratic Party leaders like Dean and Pelosi have spent the last
two weeks promising not to impeach Bush if they retake Congress, and
now even John Conyers is publicly backing off from impeachment.
In an editorial title “No Rush to Impeachment” in yesterday’s Washington Post, Conyers wrote:
As Republicans have become increasingly nervous about whether they
will be able to maintain control of the House in the midterm elections,
they have resorted to the straw-man strategy of identifying a parade of
horrors to come if Democrats gain the majority. Among these is the
assertion that I, as the new chairman of the House Judiciary Committee,
would immediately begin impeachment proceedings against President Bush.I will not do that…
…rather than seeking impeachment, I have chosen to propose
comprehensive oversight of these alleged abuses. The oversight I have
suggested would be performed by a select committee made up equally of
Democrats and Republicans and chosen by the House speaker and the
minority leader.The committee’s job would be to obtain answers
— finally. At the end of the process, if — and only if — the select
committee, acting on a bipartisan basis, finds evidence of potentially
impeachable offenses, it would forward that information to the
Judiciary Committee. This threshold of bipartisanship is appropriate, I
believe, when dealing with an issue of this magnitude.
Let’s take this apart.
First off, Conyers and other Democrats are basically saying the
Republicans will fight and we won’t. Yes, Republicans might use
the threat of impeachment to call out their base, but why not turn it
into a two-sided fight for once?
Second, many of the Bush regime’s actions are obviously criminal and impeachable (just check out the testimony from the Bush Crimes Commission),
so the excuse of “we have to wait and see what really happened” really
doesn’t cut it, and only let’s this regime commit more crimes and
cement new fascistic measures into place.
Third, how is what Conyers suggesting every going to get
anywhere? If there is not an unequivocal drive to impeach,
indict, or force resignation on Bush, what bi-partisan committee will
move toward impeachment or even seriously investigate this regime’s
crimes.
If you have been holding out hope that the Democrats will take care
of everything after the 2006 elections, this editorial from Conyers
should be the last straw. They’re straight-up telling you they
won’t impeach. As the Call to drive out the Bush regime puts it:
There is not going to be some savior from the
Democratic Party. This whole idea of putting our hopes and energies
into “leaders” who tell us to seek common ground with fascists and
religious fanatics is proving every day to be a disaster, and actually
serves to demobilize people.
The World Can’t Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime!
(For more on the Democrats and impeachment, check out Let’s Not Impeach the President by Stanley Rogouski, as well as today’s reason to drive out the Bush regime from 5/9 and 5/3.)