Do you get the feeling that there is a plot afoot to impeach Dick Cheney?
Sally Quinn has a growing list of friends.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
Impeach Cheney, he’s too much of a bully/wimp he would resign first, I think. Anyway, anyone who orders planes to be shot down on his own authority, needs a little “electric shot” to get him back on track.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50745-2004Jun17.html
I believe the Post article was the opening shot in a move towards making an Impeach Cheney position more respectable.
I hear that there will be more co-singers to the Kucinich Bill before Congress lets out for the July 4th recess.
I think Bush has let Rove pass the word that Cheney is “fair game.” Just a feeling, as Inspector Finch might say.
I just wonder who Rove has decided should receive the Golden Mantle of Incumbency for 2008 that comes with stepping into the VP slot Cheney will leave open. And will the voters fall for it and vote for a kinder gentler RatPub?
Haven’t we all suspected that they would get rid of Cheney mid-term to replace him with someone that wanted to be the next Preznit?
Jeb, of course.
Yeah, exactly. The whole idea of having no succession of power worked out in advance is really odd for a party whose leadership apparently had planned to hold on to power for decades. They have gone to such trouble to increase athority for the executive branch — to have no plan for who will continue those policies seems odd.
Especially since I don’t see a clear favored front runner in the Republican candidate crowd. Or is this a period of testing the waters to see what approach polls best against the Democratic field?
And they can’t guarantee that the Dems in the House won’t suddenly actually grow a spine and start impeachment proceedings against both Bush and Cheney. Doesn’t look likely now, but you never know what might come out later. And they know Bush’s popularity is tanking.
There are alternative scenarios (where the question becomes moot) that might make sense, but I don’t want to even think of those right now….
Yeah, exactly. The whole idea of having no succession of power worked out in advance is really odd for a party whose leadership apparently had planned to hold on to power for decades. They have gone to such trouble to increase athority for the executive branch — to have no plan for who will continue those policies seems odd.
This only seems odd if you imagine some kind of connection between the Bush administration and the Republican Party. The Bush administration is not designed for the long haul, nor does the survival of the GOP concern it much. This administration is, in essence, a lightning raid against the common good for the benefit of certain moneyed interests, of which the energy industry is the most visible. Those people knew all along that the “permanent Republican majority” was an unrealistic fantasy, and knowing it, they set out to grab as much as they could as quickly as possible and to so weaken the restraints on their power that it would take decades to reestablish them, if ever, once the crazies were stuffed back into the box.
The GOP — that loose coalition of mere millionaires and ill-educated lumpenproletariat — was merely a convenient instrument for vast transnational corporations that routinely deal in the trillions of dollars. Now that they are in decline, a new host will be found — an eventuality they had long prepared for through prefabricated “opposition” groups like the DLC, whose annointed candidate is already hailed by the corporate media as the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Keeping in mind rdf’s comment below (Remember these people have no scruples, they will do anything to stay in power.), I don’t expect Cheney to go down without a fight, even if Rove has decided Bush’s last hope is to throw Cheney under the train. There is no dog more dangerous than one threatened and backed into a corner.
Pop the popcorn, life could be getting very interesting in the coming weeks.
Could we be about to see a replay of the final scene of Hamlet, where all the hatreds and vengeance come home to roost and only a minor character is left standing after the bloodshed?
Is it just me, or do any other old timers here sense a funny vibe in the air? Like one you last felt in, say, the long, hot summer of 1974?
I think things seem like they’re about to get very interesting…in a “May you live in interesting times” sort of way.
We don’t have to agree with King Turdeater. Replace Cheney with a Democrat.
specifically, Al Gore. It would have legitimacy.
In the good old days of J Edgar Hoover it was understood that he had something on nearly everyone in politics.
How many of current congressmen have something they would rather not become public? How do we know that they aren’t being threatened and told to go soft on Bush and Cheney?
It doesn’t even have to be some sort of misdeed, it could just be a too close relationship with a major donor or large firm which has supported the candidate in the past.
Remember these people have no scruples, they will do anything to stay in power.
If the word is out that some significant number of Dems won’t support impeachment because of intimidation then there is no point in bringing it up in the first place.
This is how corrupt regimes collapse. First there are a few cracks in the foundation, then the whole thing implodes.
And afterwards, everyone says “How the hell did they last so long?” To be followed, a week later, by “Of course, it was inevitable, you know. We saw it coming all along.”
Well, if it does happen, I will give Booman credit. He did see it coming all along.
For whatever reason – and it’s not something I can really quantify – I have to agree.
And, the thing is – and I honestly hate to say this – the timing is perfect from a political standpoint. It absolutely puts every Republican – from vulnerable incumbents to presidential hopefuls – in a position of defending Cheney, one of the most unliked men on the planet.
If there was ever a time to make this move, it’s now. Cheney not deserves to be impeached about a million times over and, strategically, the timing could not be better.
If this proves to be anything more than speculation, it will put us in a peculiar position. Cheney is irredeemably hateful, but letting him take the fall for Bush would just obscure the real criminal here — the Decider, remember? It would have the propaganda effect of “reform” of the GOP conspiracy with no actual substance at all.
My own stand would be, no impeachment that doesn’t include Bush. But I fear Dems would jump at this bait without even thinking about the big hook it’s on.
Granted Bush is where the buck stops, whether he likes it or not, but I still have this nagging feeling that Bush plays Charlie McCarthy to Cheney’s Edgar Bergen. An evil, malign, sociopathic Edgar Bergen, to be sure. (Or maybe Mortimer Snerd would be a better comparison.)
Those of you who have no idea who or what I’m talking about, you owe it to yourselves to do a bit of research and find some old Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy routines if you can. Any guy who can do a ventriloquism act on the radio has my admiration.
It couldn’t happen to a more deserving individual.
so who are the republican senators who will vote to convict? recall, via wiki, that the senate did not convict clinton. he was “impeached” by the house but the 2/3 in the senate needed to make that a “crime” never materialized.
i’m a wet blanket, but i’ve got to say that 1) this is years too late if it does happen and 2) even if the house were to act upon the wishes of the clear majority of americans who despise cheney, the senate never will.
oh, and from wiki- you’ll love this:
Next, the Senate tries the accused. In the case of the impeachment of a President, the Chief Justice of the United States presides over the proceedings. Otherwise, the Vice President, in his capacity as President of the Senate, or the President pro tempore of the Senate presides. This may include the impeachment of the Vice President, although legal theories suggest that allowing a person to be the judge in the case where she or he was the defendant wouldn’t be permitted. If the Vice President did not preside over an impeachment (of someone other than the President), the duties would fall to the President Pro Tempore.
now, i’d love to believe that cheney would recuse himself from this process. but i don’t. like abu G’s “justice” department, i have exactly no hope that cheney would allow an investigation in the senate that would convict him.
sorry kids, but this chatter is nothing but that. it’s amusing and fun, but ultimately nothing but beltway bullshit. we’re stuck with cheney until 08. count on it.
The question would then be, whom do we choose to be the new VP? Bush will come up with a name, of course, and it will undoubtedly be a real stinker.
Whoever it is needs to be someone without any presidential ambitions so that we don’t set up a frontrunner for 2008.
I would almost be tempted to name Bush Sr. – he can then go in and give his kid a good spanking. If he hadn’t sucked so bad as a father, we wouldn’t have this mental case in the White House.
It would be no different from a SC nominee. There’s no point in nominating unless the Dems have already signed off on it.
But to get the votes for removal, we may need to compromise with the Republicans. In fact, I could say that you could bet on it. The Republicans wouldn’t want any of the current crop of presidential condenders however – that would give an advantage. They might want some elder-statesman type who has no presidential ambitions.
It isn’t quite the same as a SC nominee. Here the job will only be for 1-1/2 years. The SC is for life.
We also have the option of leaving the office empty for the duration of the term. I don’t know if that gets you enough Republican votes for removal though.
Well, to be honest, if this actually happens it won’t be done by impeachment (most likely). It will be done by resignation after a delegation of 17 Republican senators tells the VP that they won’t support him if he is impeached.
We could probably convince 17 senators to do that if we could agree on one of them to replace Cheney.
Either John Warner or Richard Lugar would be totally acceptable to me.