Rep. Rahm Emanuel regarding Bush: "He has been impeached by current history"

[sabra]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/us/politics/15web-hulse.html

<snip>

While the Judiciary Committee might do exactly that, the chances that such an inquiry would culminate in an impeachment proceeding are, according to top Democratic officials, virtually nil.

At the moment, the House is officially scheduled to meet for less than three weeks in September before adjourning for the elections and perhaps the year – hardly enough time to mount an impeachment spectacle even if top Democratic lawmakers wanted one.

And they do not.

Despite whatever resonance pursuing the president might have in progressive Democratic circles, it is not the message Democrats want to carry into an election where they need to appeal to swing voters to increase their Congressional majorities and win the White House. They would rather devote their final weeks to pushing economic relief and health care, even if they thought Mr. Bush and the conduct of the war merited impeachment hearings.

And leading Democrats argue anyway that Mr. Bush has already been tried and convicted in the court of public opinion.

“He has been impeached by current history,” said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. “He is going down as the worst president ever. The facts are in.”

:crazy:

[BulletproofLandshark]

1. Not good enough, chickenshit.

Bush doesn't give a damn about his reputation with the public. These criminals deserve nothing less than handcuffs and orange jumpsuits. If the Democratic "leadership" wants to put justice aside in favor of political expediency, then they're only marginally better than the GOP.

[jtrockville]

4. Marginally better? Maybe even worse!

They've EMBOLDENED the criminals by announcing there'd be no consequences.

[orleans]

16. it was the first thought that came to my mind: NOT GOOD ENOUGH! n/t

[Raven]

2. How stupid does Rahm think we are???

[seemslikeadream]

11. REALLY REALLY STUPID

I can not stand him

[bdamomma]

3. The Facts are In?

not according to your House Leader Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Emanuel, "you cannot impeach a President on bad policy" give me a break huh? Crimes have not stopped being committed since the coup took over in 2000.

[bluedeminredstate]

5. Why bother?

Why bother to answer impeachment questions with this lame answer? Jeez, it pisses me off more to see this response than nothing at all and I bet I'm not the only one. What a little dink this guy is. The FACTS are that Rahm and his leader didn't have the balls to get Democrats on board back in 2007 when they had the majority of public support. All they accomplished was making the Dems look even weaker than when they were being abused by the majority republicans prior to their victory.

:grr:

[Blue_In_AK]

6. Worst president ever?

So what, if the Democrats let him skate, which apparently they're more than willing to do. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem, Rahm.

[Raksha]

25. So if Bush is the Worst President Ever, and they let him skate

that makes them the Worst Congress Ever. Did Rahm happen to think of that? I'm a lifelong Democrat, and I'm not gonna argue with it.

[Individualist]

7. Typical DLC bullshit

DLCers are too cowardly to accept the consequences of admitting they don't want Bush to be impeached.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

8. Oh great, can we also ask "current history" to convict and imprison the little fucker? n/t

[magellan]

9. Hey Rahm, can we at least all get a free bumpersticker?

Worst President Ever

Thanks, I feel so much better now. :eyes:

What's the difference between DLC bullshit artists and Republicans? Not.A.Thing.

[Golden Raisin]

10. And Rahm and Pelosi are star members

of the worst Congress ever. A Congress of spineless, collaborating, enabling hacks. Sat through 7 years of the public rape of our Constitution, Abu Ghraib, the rise of Blackwater private mercenary armies, signing statements, unprecedented debt and the bankrupting of the Nation, and God-knows-what-else, and did zilch.

[Orsino]

12. Current history is more courageous than current Democratic leadership. n/t

[derby378]

13. Scared to take on Bush, but not his fellow Dems

That night, on the northwest side, Rahm Emanuel was elected to Congress. A former Clinton whiz kid who'd gotten his start as a fundraiser for Mayor Richard M. Daley, Emanuel was connected -- in the three years after leaving the White House (where he'd helped push through NAFTA), he earned $16 million putting together Wall Street mergers. He was also zealously partisan. He had once owned a consulting business devoted to finding skeletons in Republican closets. At a Clinton victory dinner in Little Rock in 1992, Emanuel celebrated by reciting a hoped-for necrology of Democrats who had "fucked" the president-elect. After every name, he stabbed a steak knife into a table and screamed, "Dead man!"

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2007/05/08/rahm_emanuel/print.html

This tells me that Rahm is a royal chickenshit.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

14. Why does that NOT make me feel any better?

-Bush has successfully covered up his (mis-)administration's criminality and the telecom companies whom facilitated it (ILLEGAL NSA spying program).

-Bush has managed to keep most of our troops in Iraq and, in fact, escalated our involvement there (i.e. "surge") despite the majority of the public wanting us out of there. But like Cheney infamously said, "So?"

-Bush successfully vetoed expanding SCHIP.

-Bush's AG (that he managed to get through a Democratic-controlled Senate) refuses to prosecute just about.......well, anything because according to his novel theory, criminal activity need not always be prosecuted

-BUSH IS STILL (P)RESIDENT!!!!!!!!!

Need I continue?

Impeachment by "current history", unfortunately doesn't mean anything to anybody who is not a historian. These other things, OTOH, have a little more impact on the rest of us and Bush is simply being allowed to get away with his malfeasance and incompetence (occasionally with his complicity and the complicity of other so-called "Blue Dog" Dems).

:argh:

[pat_k]

15. Wrong. Your failure to impeach is tacit approval.

Only Congress -- Our Voice -- can object to/reject authoritarian rule and torture.

The oath to support and defend is an individual oath. The duty an individual duty. Any member who is failing to demand impeachment is derelict.

And Pelosi's abuse of power to keep impeachment "off the table" is worse than dereliction. She readily tells us that she opposes impeachment because she fears that defending the Constitution would risk Democratic electoral victories. That is unpardonable corruption.

(Tragically for Pelosi, her actions are not only corrupt, they are doing the OPPOSITE of what she seeks. Refusing to impeach is destroying, not helping, the Democratic Party.)

Like it or not, Pelosi's corruption is more destructive to the nation than the crimes bushncheney commit.

And the assertion that three weeks is "hardly enough time" is flat wrong. Three weeks - or even three days -- is more than enough time to impeach bushncheney for putting torture "on the table." As Rahm points out, "the facts are in."

And if they needed longer, so what? Pelosi's target date for adjournment is set in stone? I think not. They can stay in session through Christmas if need be.

We can make impeachment a reality.

Even if you believe there is no hope for Pelosi's redemption. Even if you believe Conyers will remain committed to sanctioning lawlessness, torture, and authoritarian rule. As chair of the Subcommitte on the Constitution Nadler has the power to kick them in the ass and put impeachment front and center. Go after him. Go after his staffers.

Don't stop http://talkingimpeachment.com/">TalkingImpeachment.

Don't allow them to stop http://talkingimpeachment.com/">TalkingImpeachment.

[orleans]

17. rahm is a DICKHEAD! n/t

[autorank]

18. Which history - ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC - CNN, WSJ, NYT? He gets an "F" for

not showing his work and the networks get an F for not reporting the truth.

Bush is loathed because the citizens of this country do their own news gathering from
the Internet.

Glib but insults the audience (presuming we're stupid enough to go for this).

Here's a question for him: "Do you think that GWB has committed any crimes while serving
as president? If so, mention the top 4 or 5. Thank you."

[babylonsister]

19. Well, Pelosi was clueless. That must be the mantra. nt

[lonestarnot]

20. Are you finished drooling on yourself now R.E. you worthless piece of crap.

You and N.P. can now have your tea. :puke:

[mmonk]

21. And Congress as well.

[LynnTheDem]

22. And the court of public opinion has convicted the Dem congress,

elected in a historical sweep, only to be the only entity on the planet with ratings worse than George W. bUsh's.

The majority of Americans have wanted the bush regime impeached for their crimes for the past several years.

The Dem congress ignores the majority of Americans. And US law. And international law. And the US Constitution.

Worst president, worst congress. Ever.

[Enrique]

26. the 2006 election could be seen as a mandate NOT to impeach

contrary to misinformation repeatedly posted at DU, Pelosi took impeachment off the table BEFORE the election. So the country that swept the dems into office did so knowing that Bush wouldn't be impeached.

[myrna minx]

23. Oh please. Rahm and Pelosi's spineless Congress will be seen in history as the

most negligent, craven Congress in history. Bush, Cheney, Rice and the rest of the living damned have brazenly broken the law, defied the Constitution, committed War Crimes, raided our treasury, tattered our rights, and We the People for the last 8 years, have waited and demanded Congress to act and they have done nothing about these High Crimes and Misdemeanors. Nice try Rahm. Epic Fail on the checks and balances. :puke:

[katukov]

27. Indeed. Massive war crimes

Bush and Cheney are setting the pace for greatest mass murders of the 21st Century.

Got a long way to go to catch up with the 20th, but that's no reason to give them any more time. President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan is the only close competitor.

[judasdisney]

30. Rahm, Schumer, Pelosi & Reid have been impeached by common sense

[madeline_con]

24. Au contraire, mon frere. We have barely scratched the surface

of "the facts."

Most Reviled U.S. President.

[Enrique]

28. he's right

most impeachment advocates concede that an impeachment would not remove Bush from office, but that it would be for the historical record.

I think an impeachment would not change the historical record. It would be a totally partisan impeachment, the second one in a row. It would be a confirmation that the DEMOCRATS condemn Bush. Well, duh.

Much more significant than the obvious judgement of the Democrats against Bush, is the results of the 2008 elections, and even more importantly to the American people, the change in attitudes toward right-wing extremism, which could lead to long term progress.

An impeachment could endanger those important things.

[autorank]

29. How about prosecuting Bush for murder once his term is over

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0808/S00099.htm

INTERVIEW Part 1

"Apparently its okay for George Bush to take this nation to war on a lie, to be responsible, criminally responsible for well over 100,000 deaths, but it's not okay to prosecute him. Not only isn't it okay to prosecute him, it isn't even okay to talk about prosecuting him. This is unbelievable what's going on in this country. How can we have a country where they permit a president to do what he did and they do absolutely nothing to him except to try to protect him?" Vincent Bugliosi

Or would bringing him to justice upset too many people?

[Hekate]

31. Not. Good. Enough. The whole cabal deserves prison. Humiliation, conviction, & prison. And Hell. nt

[Hubert Flottz]

32. My imaginary check is in the mail every April 15th Rahm.

Spend it wisely!

[DU GrovelBot]

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[bertman]

34. And you, Rahm, have been cursed by history as a spineless traitor to your country.