Democrats Hint They Can Use Impeachment To Rein In Bush's Power
Talk and threats and speculation of President Bush being impeached were widespread and sometimes fever-hot in the months leading up to the US mid-term elections late last year. Little of that talk came from Democrats themselves, but the idea that the Democrats would impeach Bush the first chance they got was pumped by Democrat supporters, particularly on the internet.
Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, crushed any hope of impeachment action against Bush within days of picking up her gavel. The netroots crowd (online Democrat activists and campaigners) were furious, but the fever died down remarkably quick.
Now, however, on the back of President Bush threatening to veto any move by the Democrats, or the Senate or Congress, to end his War On Iraq one day sooner than he wishes, the impeachment issue has resurfaced as a retaliatory way for the Democrats to rein in Bush's psuedo-dictatorial powers.
Senator Chuck Hagel, a fierce and passionate critic of Bush, and one of the most influential "End The War" federal campaigners, has warned the president that "this is not a monarchy" and that he does not rule without being called to account for his actions.
Raw Story has good coverage of recent impeachment-zone chatter via Hagel :
"The president says, 'I don't care.' He's not accountable anymore. He's not accountable anymore, which isn't totally true. You can impeach him, and before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment. I don't know. It depends how this goes."
"...any president who says 'I don't care' or 'I will not respond to what the people of this country are saying about Iraq or anything else' or 'I don't care what the Congress does, I am going to proceed,' if a president really believes that, then there are, what I was pointing out, there are ways to deal with that," Hagel said. Hagel added, "This is not a monarchy.
