IMPEACHMENT? FEINGOLD WON'T RULE IT OUT

As disgust with his policies has grown and realization has begun dawning on more and more Americans that we have saddled ourselves-- or at least that we find ourselves saddled with-- an incompetent and venal chief executive, sentiment for the impeachment of George Bush across the political spectrum has been picking up steam. Even a poll conducted by the extreme right wing hate organization, the John Birch Society, formerly a bedrock of Bush/Cheney fanatics, shows that a large and growing majority think Bush should be impeached.

As much as I despise Bush and Cheney, as deeply as I want revenge for all he has done to wreck the lives of so many millions of innocent people to further his own class' selfish interests and for the treason he has committed against our country and our Constitution, I'm not 100% certain that impeachment is the best stratgey for dealing with him and his cabal. (I am open to it though-- and I certainly love hearing people clamoring for it.)

So far there are two Democrats on the national scene I'd like to see run for president (other than my absolute favorite-- Howard Dean-- who isn't going to run in 2008): Al Gore and Russ Feingold. And Feingold just moved up a notch.

In Vermont campaigning for one of the most outstanding men in the U.S. House, Bernie Sanders, who is running for the Senate (as an independent), Feingold was asked what he felt about the increasing clamor for Bush's impeachment. Saying he wouldn't rule it out, the Wisconsin maverick told a throng of reporters that he thinks "there is an orderly and dignified way to find out what happened. And, if there was a legal violation there needs to be accountability ... you can't put the cart before the horse, but I would not rule out any form of accountability."

Sanders and Feingold were swamped by supporters at campaign stops including admirers from neighboring states. In Brattleboro, Senate Judiciary Committee member Feingold told the packed, ethusiastic auditorium that Committee Chairman Arlen Specter has already scheduled hearings on the Bush Regime's illegal, unconstitutional surveillance activities. On Friday The Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan arm of Congress, released an analysis that said Bush's rationale for eavesdropping on U.S. citizens without warrants rests on questionable legal ground.

The fiery and much-loved Sanders explained to the cheering crowd that "Terrorism is a serious issue in my view, and in the United States we've got to do everything we can to protect the American people. We can do that without undermining the constitutional rights which have made us a free country. We're not going to let George Bush mistake the fact that he is president with being king; we got rid of a king 200 years ago." Bush has already admitted that the National Security Administration has been secretly wiretapping domestic phone calls of thousands of U.S. citizens.

"I think [Bush] probably broke the law here, but we need to know why they did it this way and what the legal justifications were, and then we need to determine what kind of accountability will occur if laws were broken," said Feingold.