Is Impeachment a Good Idea?

‘Impeach Bush’ chorus grows - Times online

With Dubya's approval rating at a record low, the talk of impeachment has begun to heat up.

THE movement to impeach President George W Bush over the war on terror began with a few tatty bumper stickers on the back of battered old Volvos and slogans such as “Bush lied, people died” on far-left websites. But as Democrat hopes rise of gaining control of Congress this autumn, dreams of impeaching Bush are no longer confined to the political fringe.

The question arises, is it a good idea to impeach President Bush or not?

Republicans are practically begging them to “bring it on” in the hope that the chatter will tar their opponents as loony leftists who care nothing for national security. “This is such a gift,” said Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing radio chat show host.

And the limited record seems to indicate that impeachment can have a negative impact on the opposition party

Some seasoned Democrat counsellors are warning party activists that voters are rarely interested in vengeful politics. In the 1998 mid-term elections, for example, the Republicans’ often mean-spirited efforts to impeach Clinton cost them seats that they had been expected to win.

However, when one considers the rediculous charges the Republicans were willing to use to impeach Pres. Clinton, it seems to me that what Pres. Bush has done is far more deserving.

The problem remains, however, that this is likely to be seen by many as a simple revenge tactic. I remember hearing last year, that people were only saying that Bush lied because the Republicans had said that Clinton lied. It's almost like the Republicans now have a free pass on anything they do, because of what they did to the Democrats during Clinton's terms. The article ever says:

The urge to impeach is partly payback for the Bill Clinton era when Republicans dragged the president through the mud over his dalliance with the intern Monica Lewinksy.

Anything that the Democrats try to do is just seen as petty retaliation.

Judged on it's own merits, what the Bush administration has done, misleading us into a war that we will likely never win and throwing the Constitution out the window whenever they feel like it, may be grounds for impeachment. It certainly deserves a closer look. And judged in the light of what Clinton was impeached over, it certainly merits impeachment.

However, judged in the light of all of US history, it's really just politics as usual. Is the Patriot Act or the wire taping issue any worse than Adams's Alien and Sedition Act? Is the intellegence used to mislead us into the war in Iraq that much different than the Maine incident that led us into the Spanish American War or the Gulf of Tonkin incident that got us full scale into the war in Vietnam?

Maybe those acts were impeachable too. But I don't believe the American people are ready for impeachment to become the norm of every administration. I don't believe the American system of government could survive if it did.

The Congress needs to take back its powers and stop abdicating to the Executive Branch. The executive branch has gained too much power in general, this administration is simply exploiting those powers. The checks and balances are there for a reason, USE THEM! Don't wait and use the last resort of impeachment.

In sum, does Bush deserve it? Yeah, probably so. Is it a good idea? Ultimately, probably not.