Why won't Nancy put impeachment back on the table?

[Jackpine Radical]

[marylanddem]

1. because she's a collaborator?

[MNDemNY]

2. Other: She is trying to avoid jail in her complicity on torture.

[zabet]

3. Because she...

is afraid of water?
Cannot swim?
:shrug:

[derby378]

4. Hope she wasn't planning on running for President...

I never was a fan of her becoming Speaker of the House - she has disappointed the party too many times. We should have seen this coming in 2006.

[TheWraith]

5. THERE AREN'T THE VOTES FOR IT.

It's that simple. Even if you managed to get it through the house, which is far from guaranteed, then you run into a brick wall in the Senate, where you'd need 16 Republicans to side with us. If they haven't broken from Bush yet, after everything that we know, what makes you think they will now?

[onehandle]

7. Exactly. nt

[hlthe2b]

9. I think it may be that calculated....

I disagree vehemently, but I'm not at all certain there is any more to it than her total conviction that to do so would risk the 2008 elections.... However wrong that may be, she seems impossible to convince otherwise.

[Marr]

13. There aren't votes for it because there haven't been hearings.

Put everything on the table, make a public spectacle of it, and THEN see who's willing to stand with the Bush Administration. Either way, it would be a boon for the Democrats. Either they make the Republicans hug the Bush team while pleasing their own base, or they get a successful impeachment and please the whole world.

This sort of weak-kneed, "finger in the wind", do-nothing style only reinforces the Democrats' image of weakness. It costs them support.

But as for Pelosi in particular, I think she's blocked impeachment for the same reason Reid is stumbling all over himself to achieve failure on the FISA bill. They serve the same corporate masters as the Republicans.

[TheWraith]

17. After all the stuff that's already come out, do you really think the Republicans are going to bend?

There wasn't much more of a public spectacle than Katrina, and there's plenty of other examples. They really do believe that they're right, no matter what they have to say, do, or bullshit to keep pretending that everything's okay. Hell, there are still Republican senators who believe Saddam had WMDs.

You can't shame shameless people. And you can't educate the willfully ignorant.

[Marr]

19. That's fine- they can stand by the Bush team then.

Making them do so publicly and vociferously as often as possible can only hurt them. And standing up for something will only earn the Democrats more support.

[ThomWV]

14. So illegality means nothing if those who would condone it are great in number.

[TheWraith]

15. As long as at least 34 of them are senators, yes. It's the way the system works. NT

[HCE SuiGeneris]

16. Bullshit. We are a nation without laws if your "logic" is valid.

[TheWraith]

18. Like it or not, if you have 34 senators on your side, impeachment goes nowhere.

Or do you believe that the hardcore right-wing nutcases in the Senate would suddenly see the light just because of public hearings? More likely, the entire Republican minority would start beating their chests and screaming about Democratic "lies" and supposed revenge for Clinton. That's assuming that you can even muster enough Democratic votes to get it through the House. Do you really think all the Blue Dogs are going to agree to something as drastic as impeachment?

Last but not least, you impeach Bush, and Cheney becomes president. Unless you impeach him too, in which case the Republicans get to rail about Democrats trying to "steal" the White House.

[Occam Bandage]

6. 67.

51.

[AndyTiedye]

8. The Purpose of All Those Executive Orders is Plain Enough

Bush would declare a state of emergency and use all of those emergency power he has given himself if Congress tried to impeach him.

[TahitiNut]

10. I see. FEAR of the MIGHT DO is greater than OUTRAGE about the HAS DONE?

In my book, that's cowardice ruling over principle.

[Kucinich4America]

11. I'm not so sure it's a matter of "corporate" sponsors...

Alternatively, It Pre-supposes Another Corrupt influence which holds far too much power in Congress, and likes the way the Chimpministration has acted in the middle east.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. It might fail. The same reason there wasn't a revolution in 1776.

Oh, wait...

[warren pease]

20. Other: Because they're all members of the same cozy club and impeachment would be impolite.