I Think Today Was The Beginning Of Bush's End

[MannyGoldstein]

It's hard to tell when the death spiral began: Terri Schiavo? Katrina?

But history will mark today as the beginning of the end for our would-be monarch.

Today, via teleconference, two of Bush's top incompetent boot-lickers in Iraq - Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker - told our Senate what most of us already knew: that Iraq would not meet the much-vaunted milestones set for September. They are already pleading for more time, and we're still two months before the deadline.

Now that the "one last deadline" will be blown, it must finally be crystal clear even to the Congressional Republicans that Iraq is only going to get worse, not better. And that, although Iraq is lost, Bush will not relent - he will not withdraw. Cut off his war funds and he'll take it from somewhere else - we all know that will happen. A stalemate between Bush and Congress will result in thousands more American casualties in an insane war that started on lies and will certainly end in defeat.

Unless we withdraw from Iraq and stop the bleeding, and do it fast, Congressional Republicans will become a very endangered species come January 2009. The shellacking they took last November will be a flea fart compared to what will happen in the next election - they will be decimated. To have any chance of salvation at the ballot box, they need to get the troops home quickly.

So: the troops have to come home. But Bush won't do it. The only answer is to get rid of Bush. The effort will be started by the Republicans, because it is a matter of their survival. I believe that the die was cast today.

We won't see articles of impeachment tomorrow. It will take some months before Republicans are ready to deliver the coup de grace. They will shift slowly but surely from their current beleaguered defense of Bush to open hostility. There is also the matter of Cheney - he must go before Bush.

This is it ladies and gentlemen - the impeachment train has left the station.