2006 and the GOP’s attempt to flog impeachment as a base-motivation issue.

There is nothing new under the sun.

Let me respond appropriately:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

:Deep breath:

…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: I couldn’t begin to tell you whether I was banging that particular drum, or not. I think that I was working under the assumption that the Democrats would use impeachment as a blunt club to make GWB back down from the GWOT, but I can’t remember and I might have very well been well and truly certain that impeachment was on the table. That’s not the important point. The important point is that this is what political fear smells like.

PPS: Geez, read that thing. Domestic eavesdropping, government spending, Iraq, and immigration: the only reason that the economy isn’t on that list is because in March 2006 unemployment and gas prices were noticeably lower than they are right now. Basically, it really is history repeating itself – or, to quote a button I once saw: it’s History screaming “Why won’t you ever LISTEN to what I’m SAYING!” and letting fly with a club.

13 thoughts on “2006 and the GOP’s attempt to flog impeachment as a base-motivation issue.”

  1. Actually, I remember that and I remember thinking that Democrats wouldn’t be that dumb. So I honestly took their word that they wouldn’t be that dumb. I also remember that story consuming just a day’s news cycle and then dropping off the face of the earth.

    1. To be fair, the historical parallel isn’t perfect: at least one high-ranking Democrat was calling for Bush’s impeachment. Doesn’t anyone recall John Conyers’ “hearings” (unofficial, but with much publicity) on the subject from that time?

      1. Aha. I missed this when I first skimmed the NY Times piece:

        Last year, Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and a member of the panel when it weighed proceedings against President Richard M. Nixon in 1974, proposed an initial inquiry into a censure or impeachment of Mr. Bush over the war. So far, the Conyers proposal has attracted support from about two dozen of the chamber’s 201 Democrats.

        It’s my recollection, though, that Conyers actually set up mock “hearings” in the House basement.

        1. Would that be the same Conyers who was almost shoved off the ballot by the Michigan Dem establishment earlier this year?
          .
          Mew

  2. I remember that.
    I remember arguing with several Dems that if they were going try to impeach Bush, they should try and do so where he’d actually played fast and loose with the law. (And gave them several helpful suggestions as to where those might be, starting with his administration knowingly providing Congress false numbers with respect to Medicare Part D. For some reason, they didn’t find those objectionable.)

  3. … or, to quote a button I once saw: it’s History screaming “Why won’t you ever LISTEN to what I’m SAYING!” and letting fly with a club.
     
    I believe that can be properly attributed to Poul Anderson, in a letter toAstounding Science Fiction sometime in the 1950s (my collection is in storage, so I can’t be more precise than that). Quoting from memory:

    History doesn’t always repeat itself. Sometimes it just screams out, “Dammit, can’t you remember ANYTHING?” and lets fly with a club.

  4. Desperation, maybe, but never underestimate the ability of the Republican party to shoot itself in the foot. Breitbart is reporting that Boehner will not include anything in his bill to address the border surge, and Harry Reid is now pushing to include the Gang of 8 Senate bill in the conference committee for whatever comes out of the House.

    If Boehner agrees, he just single handedly lost the midterms for his party, and the country for the rest of us.

    1. Ummm.. *which* party, Nancylee?
      .
      There appear, just based on public statements, to be more than one GOP these days…
      .
      Mew

  5. All I can tell you is to read the article on breitbart. That is where I saw it, and I hope to God it isn’t true.

    1. Harry Reid is, of course, not a Republican.
      .
      His intent is to scuttle whatever Boehner pushes, that’s pretty much been his job since 2010, and sadly he is showing a flair for being a lying hack.
      .
      Mew

  6. Well, now I hear Boehner told Reid no way — but since I know Boehner is drooling over the thought of a pat on the head from the Chamber of Commerce, with all that low-wage labor flooding into the US, I don’t count us safe for one minute after the polls close on election day.

    1. Real shame about the Chamber.
      .
      Thing is, their overreach (*cough* Cochran *cough*) brought their mendacity into the open, and Boehner is enough of a slimy (it’s a defense mechanism!) pol that he’ll wait.
      .
      Mew

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