Why Impeachment Matters
Crooks and Liars has a video up from the Bill Moyer's show featuring two guys from opposite ends of the political spectrum discussing why its important that Congress move towards impeachment proceedings.
The reason I like the clip is because it makes a point that, while I've argued it a couple of times myself, often gets lost in the mix when discussing the Bush Administration's excesses: An impeachment of Bush is not really about Bush.
Peggy Noonan wrote an article yesterday about how people, even and especially those who used to support him, are now gritting thier teeth at the mere mention of his name. Given that fact, its hard not to look at talk of impeachment as being as much about the person as about his actions, but as the commentators in the linked clip noted, impeachment is important not because of Bush, but because of precendent.
When the arguments about warrentless wiretapping and other excesses come up, the defenders of those policies don't just talk about the threats these actions are supposed to diminish, but that they are certain that Bush and his Administration would never abuse these powers. Even if they were right about that, and it has already been proven wrong in several instances, they miss the point as well. Whatever abuses the Bush Administration might partake in, the powers aren't being given to Bush, they're being given to the Office of the President; this one and all those who follow him.
Bush probably isn't the second coming of Hitler, but the purpose of seperating powers among the various branches of the US government wasn't because certain individuals wouldn't abuse absolute power, but because at some point, someone would wind up in that office who will. If the powers this Adminstration has amassed aren't reversed and its excesses punished, those powers will remain tied to that office, and odds are that eventually, someone will take office willing to use those powers in the worst way imaginable.
That is why the Unitary Executive has to be fought and why impeachment is necessary: To roll back the progress the US has made to becoming a dictatorship in the future.
