Close But No Cigar

You can be forgiven if you missed the blip in the news cycle late yesterday regarding the greatest debate that never happened in the Senate. Republicans very nearly forced the Senate to a debate on whether or not to impeach Vice-President Dick Cheney.

Amazingly enough, the event that I mentally refer to as "Liberation" was foiled at the last minute by the party that I have been for some time assuming shares my interests, namely the Democrats. Here I was merrily voting along, thinking that the Democrats were a) liberal, b) opposed to the Bush White House, and c) not idiots, when suddenly they ran from the very debate I've been itching for.

I suppose I could be charitable and think that since this wasn't on their terms maybe they didn't think they'd have enough time to put a case together. But in my heart of hearts I know that's not the case. I know that they just don't have the politcal cojones to force this administration to face its sins. Yet again the Republicans were able to run the table. Even the White House jumped on the opportunity to make it look like the Senate was avoiding "real" work while talking about impeachment. Never mind the fact that in reality it's this administration's pigheaded determination to not budge from its positions that is keeping "real" work from getting done.

I can't help but wonder if this is really what the framers of the Constitution thought would happen if it came to impeachment. Did they realize that the political repercussions around impeachment would be so severe that it would only be pursued in the worst possible case? Or did they fail to realize that the message could be spun against the party seeking impeachment in such a way as to render the tool meaningless?

Debating the impeachment of this reckless, stubborn, ill-informed, deceptive, misleading, and close-minded administration should be a priority for this congress. As much as I look forward to January 20th, 2009, I would have hoped we could make it come sooner.