IS IMPEACHMENT FEASIBLE? CAN ANY AMERICAN WITH A SHRED OF DIGNITY OR HONOR NOT WORK TO BRING IT ABOUT? AND DON'T FORGET: IMPEACH CHENEY FIRST

Friday I'm going to the California State Democratic Convention. I haven't been to a political convention since I was in my early teens. I've always seen them as a big old gaggle of geese encouraging each other's elitist behavior, imaginary self-importance and a degree of incompetence that would be tolerated in private industry for about 15 seconds. And politicians in general... I mean do you really want to get anywhere near one? I got talked into this one so I could help with a fundraiser for two guys who aren't really politicians, Jerry McNerney and Charlie Brown. But it turns out the gaggle will be there too. Inside the Beltway will be inside San Diego next weekend: Hillary, Obama, Edwards, Richardson, Pelosi, DiFi, Boxer...

Irwing wants to go find a donkey show in TJ after the fundraiser; he's as impressed with the self importance thing as I am. There is one thing I want to see at the convention though-- Pelosi's face when the convention passes a resolution calling for impeachment hearings for Bush and Cheney. We'll go see the donkey show in TJ after the donkey show in SD.

I hope you've detected a theme that runs through DWT that emphasizes, like the Constitution, that power resides at a grassroots level. Politicians may be a necessary evil but they do tend to be an evil. Pelosi's one of the very best of the lot. But how compromised is that person? How tied to Rahm Emanuel and Steny Hoyer? I have no doubt that when Speaker Pelosi took impeachment off the table she felt the realpolitik calculus made it necessary. (I wouldn't be surprsied if she'd like to see Bush impeached as much as I would.) It's up to The People to change the calculus.

Legislatures all over the non-Confederate states are doing that. A few days ago Vermont's Senate became the first to pass a resolution asking Congress to initiate impeachment proceedings against Bush and Cheney. The resolution was initially blocked by Insiders triangulating the political calculus. The People of Vermont changed that calculus with months of town hall meetings. When the resolution came to a vote it passed in less than 15 minutes, 16-9. They were too close, physically, to The People to avoid it.


It isn't for Nancy Pelosi and other compromised/compromising politicians to tell us whether or not impeachment is on or off the table. It's for us to tell them. This isn't about political calculation; it's about the soul of our nation and of us as a People. Friday, I'll watch us do that. And then I'll let Irwing take me to the donkey show.