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he was on Democracy Now, and made several lousy excuses not to pursue impeachment against Bush. Dan Gerstein. Democratic strategist and political commentator. He is a regular columnist at the website Politico. His most recent column is "Impeachment Question Divides Democrats.a few examples: I think we have to ask ourselves two important question if we're going to pursue impeachment: Is there a strong case that they committed high crimes and misdemeanors? And secondly, and more importantly, I think, is, is it going to be in the best interest of the country, our government and the American people?
I think on the latter question, as I said in your billboard, the most important thing Democrats can do to take the country in a new direction and repair the damage that the Bush administration has done is to retake the White House in 2008.
My personal feeling, I think a lot of the feeling of a lot of Democrats who are very angry at the Bush administration, nonetheless believe that an impeachment proceeding, (a), will not be successful. You need a minimum of sixteen Republican senators to convict the President. That's just not going to happen. It's completely unrealistic to think on the evidence that we have now that we're going to be able to convict George Bush. Oh!! the cost will be too much!! Dems should be going "America's business". Impeachment is not, in his opinion, "doing America's business". Then, so what is the cost of engaging in that process? Not only will we not be doing the work of the American people for a long time, you know, any chance of ending the war in Iraq, dealing with healthcare, dealing with a range of issues that are important to the progressive community, completely off the table for the next year. More importantly, I think what it will have -- the political effect it will have will be to galvanize the Republican base, energize them and really take away a lot of the advantage the Democrats have right now, in large part because the Republicans are split and dispirited. What that does, in essence, is make the 2008 election potentially a jump ball and put at risk our chances of taking the White House back.Besides, we would only re-energize the Republicans!! Because I think there -- this goes to the heart of my argument, which is that in 1998, as a matter of fact, that the impeachment effort by the Republicans, which did not have the support of the American people and was completely unjustified, helped galvanize and outrage the Democratic base and then the turnout, so that the first time, I believe, in history, that in the sixth year of a two-term president, the president's party picked up seats in a congressional mid-term election. That just hasn't happened in American history, and most analysts attribute that to the fact that the Republicans went against the will of the American people and went on this witch-hunt against Bill Clinton. So I think that historical parallel suggests to me that there's a real risk, if Democrats overreach and pursue of a quixotic impeachment process against George Bush, that it will help galvanize the Republican base in a similar way.He also seems to think that Bush's crimes don't meet the bar for impeachment: AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask Dan Gerstein a question. What do you think -- what would you believe would be a reason to impeach President Bush?
DAN GERSTEIN: He’s done something that is extra-constitutional. He’s done something that has completely compromised the trust of the American people to the point that he is no longer fit to be president.
You know, part of the problem I have with what Ray has been saying, which is he makes some very appealing and compelling arguments to a point, but I think this idea that the Constitution requires impeachment is deeply flawed, in large part because there is this presumption among people who favor impeachment that the evidence is airtight. I’m sorry, it's not airtight. It hasn't persuaded me, and I want George Bush to go. You have a whole rest of the country that doesn't feel as strongly, that is not as well informed and, you know, and again, this is a political process. And in a certain sense, the court is not just the Senate. It's the American people. And I think a lot of the evidence that Ray and people in the impeachment movement have assumed shows impeachable offenses was presented to the American people before the 2004 election, and they still reelected George Bush. And I think you can't write that off.
I think the other point to make that's very important is, this is not just a question of political expedience. I think that is an unfair assertion to sort of minimize and marginalize people who agree with Ray and Cindy that George Bush has been a disastrous president. But there's a real cost here to undergoing impeachment, and that would divide the country and split the Democratic Party and really, I believe, undermine our ability to -- like I said, the most important thing the Democrats can do right now to take the country in a better direction, repair that damage George Bush has done, is to retake the White House.
And then, this question about polling, I’ve talked to four leading pollsters -- two Democrats, two Republicans -- about the ARG poll, as well as other polling, which has usually shown impeachment somewhere between, I’d say, 35% and 40% among American people. Their belief, very strong belief, and interpretation of that data is that it shows an exhaustion, a fatigue with George Bush. The American people want him to go. And that's the extent to what that shows, that once you pushed people and said this is what impeachment is, this is what the burden is, and this is what would happen to the country, their belief is those numbers would go down dramatically.
With friends like Gerstein, we don't need any enemies..... http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/27/144218 |
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