WaPo winks at impeachment
The WaPo takes a ride through my old stomping grounds up north, known from Brattleboro VT to Springfield, MA as the Happy Valley. Its denizens are not so happy with the White House these days. The call for impeachment from these quarters has grown loud enough to be heard on the front page of the WaPo. Seems like only last week, the MSM was saying they wouldn't address impeachment because it too much a fringe issue. Oh wait -- that was last week.
Who knows what changed the WaPo's mind. Perhaps they feel the need to pay some penance for the Red State blogger debacle. Or perhaps they just noticed that once you leave the insulated comfort inside the Beltway, where overpaid consultants whisper words on focus groups to soothe anxious incumbents, the average Jake isn't buying the feel-good propaganda the media has been pimping for the White House anymore.
And before you write this off as just a manifestation of Yankee librul'ism, think again. Yeah, you got your academic elistists in spades in those parts but there's a solid base, even in WMA, of no-nonsense conservative independents who were solid supporters of the Iraq invasion when it started. I'd like to think I had something to do with the swing now towards common sense. G-d knows I plyed my politics at every VFW and Eagles club bar that would let me through the doors. Cranky Yankees. They may be stubborn but they not easily fooled and they've see the light.
Which makes this all the more irritating.
Our government has been hijacked by professional politicians who worry more about re-election than they do about running the government. Impeachment is a call for accountability, not only from the White House but from the Congress as well. We have a president who went to war for political reasons and bases his war strategy on political expediency rather than practical goals. Calling him to account for that is pragmatic, not partisan and for our troops, it's a life or death question that deserves a better answer than we've received so far.
If our elected representatives fail to demand those answers, they'll find themselves answering to their constituents at the polls in November.
Who knows what changed the WaPo's mind. Perhaps they feel the need to pay some penance for the Red State blogger debacle. Or perhaps they just noticed that once you leave the insulated comfort inside the Beltway, where overpaid consultants whisper words on focus groups to soothe anxious incumbents, the average Jake isn't buying the feel-good propaganda the media has been pimping for the White House anymore.
And before you write this off as just a manifestation of Yankee librul'ism, think again. Yeah, you got your academic elistists in spades in those parts but there's a solid base, even in WMA, of no-nonsense conservative independents who were solid supporters of the Iraq invasion when it started. I'd like to think I had something to do with the swing now towards common sense. G-d knows I plyed my politics at every VFW and Eagles club bar that would let me through the doors. Cranky Yankees. They may be stubborn but they not easily fooled and they've see the light.
Which makes this all the more irritating.
Democrats remain far from unified. Prominent party leaders -- and a large majority of those in Congress -- distance themselves from the effort. They say the very word is a distraction, that talk of impeachment and censure reflect the polarization of politics. Activists spend too many hours dialing Democratic politicians and angrily demanding impeachment votes, they say. [...]Polarization my ass. Iraq and impeachment go hand in hand. Iraq and the so called-war on terror is at the root of this administration's systematic destruction of not only our civil liberties but also our centuries old system of checks and balances. It's not even about succeeding at impeaching him. It's about opening a public dialogue on what "we the people" want our government to be.
"Impeachment is an outlet for anger and frustration, which I share, but politics ain't therapy," said Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts liberal who declined to sign the Conyers resolution. "Bush would much rather debate impeachment than the disastrous war in Iraq."
Our government has been hijacked by professional politicians who worry more about re-election than they do about running the government. Impeachment is a call for accountability, not only from the White House but from the Congress as well. We have a president who went to war for political reasons and bases his war strategy on political expediency rather than practical goals. Calling him to account for that is pragmatic, not partisan and for our troops, it's a life or death question that deserves a better answer than we've received so far.
If our elected representatives fail to demand those answers, they'll find themselves answering to their constituents at the polls in November.
posted by Libby Spencer at 12:55 PM
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