Frist! But it doesn't mean much as it used to...

Why not impeach Dick Cheney? Politically and strategically, it's a no-brainer. It holds a person that no one really likes accountable without going directly to the president. And it's also a back-handed slap to Bush in saying, "we know who really runs this operation, and it's not you."

I'll believe ethics reform when I see it. I am hoping to see it, particularly with respect to dealings between relatives and former staffers in Congress now working as lobbyists and members of Congress.

www.LouDobbs4President.com Petition

Happy Thanksgiving, one and all!

No, no NO!

The Dems are paralyzed by infighting and being run by special interests! Stick to the script!!

Credit LB with the first interesting and original idea I've heard in a long time. I second the motion; the hell with Bush, impeach Cheney! (Charge: contempt of Congress for refusing to divulge details of the energy meetings.)

PELOSI TAKES CHARGE

Hey, K-Drum, don't you ever read the news? Pelosi has completely lost charge of the agenda because she can't control the liberals who dominate the House Democrats.

Link

"Anxious to chart a centrist course with Democrats' new majority in Congress, incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her top deputies are busily working in private and public to rein in the liberal ambitions of some senior party heavyweights --including proposals to reinstate the military draft and end the Pentagon's ban on gays in uniform."

Pelosi-Harman friction strains Democrats' unity

I predict that after months of Democratic backstabbing and infighting and George W Bush's State of the Union address in January, Bush will take back control of the national agenda with Nancy Pelosi being dismissed as a incompetent out-of-touch San Francisco liberal.

Breaking up ethics legislation into pieces is also a great idea. And I hope it is a harbinger for getting rid of these idiotic bills that combine dozens of bills into one vote. The republicans want cover. Now we have to see whether the democrats are courageous enough to do the people's business in the open, no matter what K Street does.

There had damn well better be an impeachment coming or the dems are going to have the shortest majority in history. If they will not prosecute the egregious crimes committed by the executive then what reason is there for anyone to vote for them? A blue lap dog is in no way preferable to a red one.

She could double down by coming up with a package to address--or even just publicize--the mess the Republican Congress is leaving behind.

LB:

On what grounds do you want Cheney impeached? Even Conyers only has impeachment papers drawn up against Bush. And, he says impeachment is "off the table" too.

Chocolate Thunder:

Doesn't Congress have to issue a subpoena, that is ignored, before charging contempt?

Tlaloc:

Both Pelosi and Conyers have stated that impeachment is "off the table" -- do you think they were lying about that?

Kevin's comment is a little naive, because Republicans will easily be able to slow this legislative effort to a crawl in the Senate. They won't even have to filibister anything. The Senate's normal procedures are slow enough and can be slowed almost to a standstill with very little effort and never leave a fingerprint showing.

Quaker in a Basement:

Are you sure you wouldn't have a single complaint if the GOP had passed all the budget bills over the wishes of the people?

tlaloc--

It'd take too long to build up the case for impeachment. Conviction would be impossible. And we'd get Cheney for real if it did happen. So you'd have to start with Cheney, and his fingerprints aren't on the policies.

Much better to advance all the legislation that the republican congress has not allowed votes on--popular stuff like end oil company subsidies, raising the minimum wage, getting rid of the donut hole, lowering student loan interest rates etc.

Why denigrate impeachment by tarring it as "loose" impeachment talk? Are you saying John Conyers, for instance, has been less than professional when discussing the constitutional offenses of this president and this executive branch?

Impeachment would be a cleansing process for the body politic. The Republicans proved, with the Clinton impeachment, that this is a process that can happen rather quickly, and run its course rather quickly.

Bush's offenses against the constitution are exactly the "high crimes" anticipated by the founders.

The facts on a bill of impeachment are so non-controversial that they could even be stipulated in one paragraph -- and the Bush White House would have no choice, based on the president's own assertions, but to agree with the stipulations.

I'll start with an obvious article: The destruction, by this administraiton, of the protections of habeus corpus, with follow-on secret trials in front of secret tribunals, with no legal counsel, and the accused not allowed to see the evidence against him or her. That, Mr. Washington Monthly, is an impeachable offense ... IS IT NOT?

Oh boo hoo -- it would upset the social apple cart. I'll tell you what -- if this is now our social apple cart, it deserves to be upset.

Do your job -- advocate for impeachment with serious entries at this blog. Or maybe you don't care so much about the Constitution anymore? You think this new Congress has "important" work to do?

Drum

...her dismissal of Charlie Rangel's political theater over the draft

Hell, Rangel knows it's political theater, and as much as admitted it in a radio interview yesterday. (audio at the link)

...and Pelosi seems to have put the Hoyer/Murtha fiasco firmly behind her.

Fiasco? What fiasco? More like media-manufactured conflict...Did your cable station get stuck on Fox News Channel, Kev?

Which is all the more reason to hope she doesn't send that into Act II with a Harman/Hastings/Reyes fiasco on the Intelligence Committee.

Well sheesh...if Pelosi is going to be such a fuckup, why not just put Hastert back in as Speaker?

Must be a slow news day all around...Pelsoi gets more press in two weeks than Hastert did in an average Congressional-Page-Scandal-less month.

IMPEACH! IMPEACH! IMPEACH!

I can't wait for Pelosi's Hour 101 explanation for not getting a single bill to the President's desk.

Republican incompetence, greed, stupidity and more incompetence has done major, major damage to our country. There's a huge mess to clean up. It's no wonder she wants to get started right away.

It would be pretty hilarious to see Bush veto a minimum wage increase. But I'd much rather see the damned thing become law.

Did you read the new Time.com article on Pelosi and Hastings?

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1562293,00.html

And, you guys thought I was going to leave after the election?! This is just when it's getting good.

IMPEACH! IMPEACH! IMPEACH!

So you'd have to start with Cheney, and his fingerprints aren't on the policies.

I think the trail of investigation to get Cheney goes like this:

1. Investigate Cheney's moves as SecDef to gut the military at the end of the cold war and privatize much of its functions.

2. Examine how Cheney became head of Halliburton and how Halliburton got no-bid contracts.

3. Ask the hard questions on contractor non-performance, fraud, and cost over-runs in this war.

4. Determine and publicize how much money Cheney has made from defence contractors in the last 15 years. Show how many closed meeting he has held with them.

5. Demonstrate how much Cheney has weakened the US military while enriching himself.

I think Cheney would resign by step 4. Or the American public would demand his impeachment.

Given the fact that Hastert&Co. decided to just punt on all those spending bills, maybe Pelosi should sit down with true fiscal conservatives such as Jeff Flake (GOP) and the Blue Dog Democrats and craft some means to eliminate some of the pork that was going to be in these bills. Lord knows - someone has to find a way to make sure those Bush tax cuts aren't going to bankrupt the government. And we sure know that we'll get zero leadership from the White House.

There are FY 2007 appropriations bills that need passing. I think the Congress that leaves with these bills unpassed should return their salaries because they haven't done their jobs as delineated in the United States Constitution. As a Fed Govt employee I have an annual Performance Appraisal. I am giving this Congress a big fat FAIL on their performance appraisal.

Both Pelosi and Conyers have stated that impeachment is "off the table" -- do you think they were lying about that?

No, but I do think that that must be understood contingently rather than absolutely. Once the Democrats are in charge, and have taken control of Congress' oversight functions, if doing that job reveals clear grounds for impeachment, the fact that it was "off the table" before those efforts will become irrelevant.

Meanwhile, the first priority of this new Congressional majority will be to take up the 100 hour agenda; while the Republicans, particularly in the Senate, may succeed in blocking some efforts from coming to the President's desk, and while the President may veto others, it will allow the Democrats to more effectively drive the define themselves and the Republicans in the public eye and set the terms for the policy debate over the next couple years. And, if the Democrat plans are popular and resisted by the White House, further hurt the public perception of the President, which will be key to getting action if it comes to impeachment later.

A lesson is coming for all of you to learn from.

Grandma Speaker is smarter than you are allowing for.

Sit back & watch a political master at work.

Toasted elephants are on the menu.

BWAAAAAAAAAHHHHAAAAAA

"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought." - Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi

Loookit me! Lookit me! Mommy, lookit!!!!

Wapiti:

Or, on this notable anniversary of JFK's assassination, Cheney has a heart attack and dies in office, with tremendous outpouring of sympathy, elevating Condi Rice to the first African-American VP and instant front-runner for 2008. Careful what you wish for. If "weakening the military" was an impeachable offence, Clinton would have been thrown out of office before 1994. Besides, what statutory authority does Cheney have for anything remotely military -- I think the closest you can get is NASA -- you want to pin the Shuttle disaster on him?

pgl:

Is that supposed to happen before, or after, the first 100 Hours?

Mazurka:

Election Day was November 7th. Get over it.

cmdicely:

Just wait until "contingent" lies come back to bit you in the butt.

See, my wittle Ally-kins is on-message! And I never lied to take him to see decadant, liberal art!

Just saw a headline asking "Is America ready for a Mormon president?" My guess is no problem as long as we can survive the "Moron president!"

maybe Pelosi should sit down with true fiscal conservatives such as Jeff Flake

Providing welfare for polygamists is not fiscal conservatism.

Pelosi wants to hit the ground running? Nominate Hastings and watch the Dems hit the ground stumbling.

Wapiti (I saw some of them in Yellowstone in Sept)

Yes, that five step process, without even mentioning impeachment makes a lot of sense.

Sorry for any confusion, cmdicely -- my "bit" (past tense) above should be "bite" -- carry on.

This plan will probably relegate the Republicans back to a minority status for the forseeable future, at least until their little upcoming civil war plays out.

There are two options here.

Bush signs the bills, the Democrats get the credit for the widely popular changes, get known as the party of getting shit done.

Bush vetos the bills, the Republicans get the blame as being do-nothing, and the situation will become ugly for 2008.

Heads the Democrats win, Tails the Republicans lose. I like those odds.

their first 100 hours is going to be spent finishing the job the Republicans are cutting and running from instead of finishing like responsible adults.

but, what else would you expect from Republicans ?

This whole notion of the Republicans obstructing the agenda of the new majority Democrats is something I look forward to seeing. If the Republicans intend on using that kind of a strategy, 2008 will be an opportunity to get veto-proof majorities in the House and Senate.

There will be no more poison pills in the bills and modifying bills in committees by the Republicans.

Let's see them vote against things people really want.

Ethics Reform, Ending the War, Increasing the Minimum Wage, Negotiating Drug Prices, Fixing Social Security, Stopping Corporate Welfare, Ending Contractor Fleecing, and on and on...

O.K., which one is it then:

A) First 100 hours spent on Democrats wish list, or

B) First 100 hours spent on anything but?

LOL, RSchewe -- you really think the Democrats are go to put de-funding the war or fixing Social Security up for a vote?! Ask Biden and Lieberman about "Stopping Corporate Welfare", or Murtha about "Ethics Reforms and Ending Contractor Fleecing", and on and on ...

For fuck's sake, dude - quit flooding every thread with your little quips. If you have that much to say, start your own blog!

quit flooding every thread
Thread-space is not scarce. He could post 100 comments per thread and there would still be plenty of room for everyone else to natter. What's the problem?

Mommy! Lookit me, mommy! can you see me? lookit me!!!

So what happens after the completion of the "Democrats' ambitious 100-hour agenda"?

What will all those liberal Dems Chairmen do with the power that been denied them for the last 12 years?

One shudders at the prospect. lol

What's the problem?

The problem is that Jeffery and his trollbait dominate the threads.

Chicounsel on November 22, 2006 at 1:57 PM:

What will all those liberal Dems Chairmen do with the power that been denied them for the last 12 years?

Completing the '07 budget that the 'Publicans chose not to finish, probably...Then move on to balancing the future budget, okaying VA funds to help returning veterans. Tweaking Social Security to be fully funded for the next hundred years.

Bad stuff like that, Chicounsel.

The problem is that Jeffery and his trollbait dominate the threads.

Which is Charles/Thomas/Chuck/Jeffery's admitted objective, to disrupt all threads. Just ignore the plagiarizing dolt; he won't get paid then.

Another solution for frivolous over-posters: put their IP on the black list. Simple to do -- and effective. For the special over-the-top cases, not everybody. And yeah, if somebody feels offended and doesn't like it, let them start their own blog and see how much fun it is to have their little community pool pi$$ed in continuously by goobers. Then come back and we'll have this conversation again.

You either get Cheney first or leave the Lame Duck-in-Chief in office.

Hopefully, Nancy is rounding up an army of able staffers to work from now until January 4th, cleaning up the legislative mess left by Hastert et al...strip those budget bills of all their pork, give the new committees something useful and speedy to pass while simultaneously getting oversight up and running, minimum wage on the table, and stem-cell research into the National Dialog. And Madam Speaker isn't waiting until she's sworn in to address the most egregious moral issue of the new millenium--the Democratic Forum on Iraq.

This ain't your Republican daddy's speaker.

The Dems are paralyzed by infighting and being run by special interests! Stick to the script!!

Al's Mommy has become a force to be reckoned with! Unlike Al himself.

The unpopularity of the war is stripping Bush of his Congressional support. By the time Pelosi takes charge in January the Dems won't have as much trouble getting their legislation through since Junior will be out on a limb by himself and probably won't even remember how to write 'veto'.

"Why not impeach Dick Cheney?"

LB, I was force to laugh aloud while reading yoour suggestion. You are hiliarious.

"On what grounds do you want Cheney impeached?"

Well, the Constitution allows impeachment for "high crimes and misdemeanors", and reckless ddischarge of a firearm resulting in personal injury clearly qualifies as a misdemeanor . . .

Heck, it's at least as serious as having oral sex . . .

Give em hell Pelosi, the Dems are counting on it.

But, really I'm waiting to see if they'll send Bush a subpoena, which Dems will most certainly HAVE TO DO. If Pelosi can't stand up to Bush, she won't be worth spit.

Unless, of course, slapping down the "impeachment issue" is the same as slapping down the oversight issue, according to Kevin.

But you know centrist Dems like Kevin, they don't care for spine nor word "oversight," but unfortunately, its what most Americans are looking for if not the centrist Dems and their combined squeamishness - its why the CA governor said Dems are girly-man. No more girly-man, go Senator Webb, I'm completely fed up with Charlie Rangel's lack of spine, and he wants the dead bodies of Americans drafted children to stand up to Bush since Charlie Rangel can't do it even with Bush at 31% in polls.

Don't buy into the GOP-engineered "Nancy Pelosi is a failure" smear campaign that is underway. The gaping assholes at the RNC (are you listening, Ken Mehlman, with your overstimulated sphincter?) have been sending out mass e-mails and faxes, trying to spread the notion that "Nancy Pelosi is a failure and the Dems are divided", when she has even been sworn in as Speaker and the incoming Democrats haven't even moved into their Congressional offices yet!!!!

The best things that the new Democratic Congressional group can do is to act honorably, work hard, be polite and show how true patriots act when they are doing the people's business in an honest and straightforward way, unlike the phony, criminal, dime-store patriots in the GOP.

Jeffery,

in response to Mazurka's pointing out that the 109th congress failed in their responsibility to pass spending bills relaated to the 2007 fiscal year, you replied with the following:

Mazurka:

Election Day was November 7th. Get over it.

To which I ask, so if you are okay with Congress defering passing the spending bills until the 110th congress convenes, then you must also be fine with them defering on W's recent nominations, right?

Pelosi seems to have put the Hoyer/Murtha fiasco firmly behind her.

Why would you call an election with contending candidates a "fiasco"? Certainly the Republicans and the media tried to frame it that way, but it looked to me like ordinary politics in a democracy.

Kevin,
Your post begs the question: "What decision on Harman et al. would constitute a fiasco?" For my money, I'd love to see Harman as chair. She's a sharpie; in fact, I'd love to see her as VP candidate in '08.

...and Pelosi seems to have put the Hoyer/Murtha fiasco firmly behind her.

Translation for the Drum-impaired:

"If the Republicans and their enablers in the corporate media say it's a fiasco, then by God, it's a fiasco! Who am I to disagree?!"

Spoken like a true Sensible Liberal!

Dems should try to expand their current list of issues to include:

amending/repealing the bankruptcy bill;

putting teeth in the fair debt collections practices act;

assisting folks with identity theft problems, possibly allowing replacement social security numbers;

penalizing employers that hire illegal aliens, possibly allowing third party qui tam suits to enforce immigration laws.

I cant wait,endless Investgations,snot slinging,bullshit waist deep,Waxman and Pelosi Choking each other.Rangel sitting in the Corner Babbling,picking his nose hair.Murtha with his dumbass ideas about pulling out to RE DEPLOY to JAPAN 5,0000 miles from the WAR???Where in the Hell did you all find this Guy anyway???Is he from Boston??.Miss America is cunning and Sharp, She is not stupid enough to act like A LIBERAL all the time.Because you all now are in the same Boat the Republicans Sunk.NO CLEAR MAJORITY.YOU CANNOT OVERIDE A VETO and they are coming...SOON!!!You will have to be Content beating up on Mr Bush.One problem..he isnt ever running again.DUH now what? I know ,act like Moderates..Beleive in Nothing,Stand For Nothing,Do Nothing,Fight For Nothing.Take a poll EVERYDAY,you all be good now and play nice!!!

Mr. Lockhart seems to have been using drugs from the same batch as Jeffery.

You folks need to change dealers cause the one you have is really doin you bad.

For real

"A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

jan. 4, huh? At least now we know when Bush will pull his next publicity stunt.