Reply #32: Yes, see what the Nixon impeachment proceedings brought...

[brentspeak]

Nixon's plan for universal health coverage for all Americans -- derailed.

Nixon's plan to mandate a guaranteed minimum income for every working American -- torpedoed.

Nixon's goal to broaden the enviromental oversight agencies that he had created -- never happened.

The people who backed the Republicans -- big business, in particular -- were more than happy to accept a temporary loss of GOP political power if it meant that Nixon's liberal policies would be nipped in the bud. If you remember Watergate very well, you would also remember that very few Republican benefactors supported Nixon during this time. They wanted him gone more than the Democrats did. And if impeachment hearings would mean that Democratic efforts to pass liberal economic policy would get tied up, don't be surprised to see corporate America sit silently on the sidelines as Bush gets raked over the coals. Don't be surprised to see even some Republicans make no objection to impeachment.

You're also wrong to imply that a Democratic wave similar to 1974 would likewise occur in 2008 should impeachment hearings be conducted against Bush: the public has already expressed its disgust with the Republican party, two days ago. The public kicked the Republican bums out of office in 1974, but were in a more forgiving mood in 1976.

Yes, Nixon deserved to be impeached, of course, as Bush definitely does today. But there's a great price to paid for doing that, as well as the possibility that one is unwittingly doing someone else's bidding.