To impeach or not to impeach

The subject of impeachment is being talked about enthusiastically on the Web and other media, and a bit of overview might help.

George W. Bush was placed in the office of President of the United States twice through criminal action, mainly by vote fraud in the states of Florida and Ohio. He engaged in active criminal negligence prior to the attacks of September 11, 2001. He lied the country into a mass-murderous invasion and occupation of Iraq. He engaged in active negligence prior to and after Hurricane Katrina. He authorized torture, kidnapping, secret imprisonment, denial of due process, and spying on American citizens, all without legal authorization. He presided over the exposure of an intelligence officer, severely damaging the nation's ability to gather information about Iran's nuclear program. His war in Iraq has been marked by crony contracts with civilian contractors such as Halliburton and Bechtel, with billions of dollars completely missing.

His entire life has been marked by failure and criminality, including cruelty to animals, drug addiction, alcoholism, military desertion, and insider trading. He is a man of no worth as a human being in any honorable way. To say he deserves impeachment is one of the great understatements of human history.

House speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi has indicated that she does not support impeachment. At first glance this would seem to be a capitulation, a backing down from principle, bowing to expediency. Many are already making such accusations.

I beg to differ. As we saw with the downfall of Richard Nixon, principle is one thing, and the survival of the republic is sometimes another thing. It took the educational process of the Watergate hearings, an investigation by the House of Representatives, the reporting by various news organizations, and Nixon's strange behavior to bring him down. The country was spared impeachment by Nixon's resignation, which he clearly did bacause he was facing immanent impeachment.

Now we have a president who is far worse than Nixon. He should be facing an international trial for war crimes. He should be breaking rocks in the hot sun for the rest of his life. But there needs to be a groundwork laid before such trial and imprisonment take place.

The "American" people have given Bush a sharp rebuke in Tuesday's election, but may not be ready for the rancor of an impeachment. In this light, Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats are playing it very smart. She has said that there will be investigations, implying that Congressman John Conyers will be allowed to pursue his investigation of Bush's crimes. Other investigations will also proceed without hindrance.

So Nancy Pelosi and Senate majority leader-to-be Harry Reid are doing the wise and intelligent thing. It would be foolish for them to say that their first priority is to impeach Bush. There needs to be a warming-up process first. The "American" people need a thorough education on what has been going on for the last six years. The truth needs to come out, and it needs to come out in a deliberative way, free of hysteria and rush to judgement.

Another aspect of the bringing to justice of the Bush criminal operation is that there is one television network, "Fox News," that is a propaganda arm of the criminal "right," and will try to incite any manner of hysteria and threats in order to prevent the impeachment of Bush, Cheney, or any of their partners in crime. Fox can be defused by a number of means, but mainly they have to be debunked, shamed, sued, and prosecuted. This is where citizen action can come into play. Why has no one sued Fox and its owner Rupert Murdoch? Why has the architect of Fox's lie machine, Roger Ailes, not been sued, prosecuted, or called to testify? Mainly because of the perception of power they have been able to project. That projection is now a bit limp, rendered impotent by Tuesday's election. Though not on the Fox network, Rush Limbaugh can be seen as the poster boy for limp propagandists nationwide. He shot his wad, so to speak, on a long career of lying and cruelty. Now rendered impotent by his own hyperbole and its ironic empowerment of those he lies about, he will likely depart the airways before long. Claire McCaskill, the new senator from Missouri, credits his making fun of Michael J. Fox for her victory. Nice life, Rush. Better luck next time. A##h@*e.

So to zealots for impeachment I say be patient. It takes process. It took a long time for the country to sink to the level where a George W. Bush could become its president. Getting rid of him and bringing him to justice won't happen overnight. But if we are determined, careful, mature, and honorable as a people, he just might end up breaking rocks in the hot sun for the rest of his life. I would settle for clearing brush.