Rep. Pelosi: 'Impeachment Is Off The Table'

Behold the power of Tim Russert.

Last Monday, I discussed how a popular GOP scare tactic this campaign season has been spreading the idea that the Democrats only want to gain control of Congress in order to impeach President Bush. Tim Russert adopted that narrative (and how!) for his interview with House minority leader Nancy Pelosi on last Sunday's 'Meet The Press'. Even though Rep. Pelosi has long been on the record as not supporting the Conyers impeachment resolution (and has openly dismissed calls from the party base in doing so), Russert went out of his way to nail the issue to her and the party leadership as a whole. Nothing Pelosi said could dissuade Russert from his preconceived conclusion that a Democratic "takeover" of Congress only means "payback time" for the Bush White House. She tried to explain the Democrats' planned agenda for Congress (healthcare reform, some oversight hearings, etc), but Russert seemed entirely uninterested in what she had to say, as is usual when he's interviewing a Democrat.

Well apparently this strawman controversy has Rep. Pelosi worried. From the Washington Post-

Seeking to choke off a Republican rallying cry, the House's top Democrat has told colleagues that the party will not seek to impeach President Bush even if it gains control of the House in November's elections, her office said last night.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) told her caucus members during their weekly closed meeting Wednesday "that impeachment is off the table; she is not interested in pursuing it," spokesman Brendan Daly said...

This gesture is such a waste. The Republicans will still continue to use the specter of impeachment to rally whatever small percentage of their base that actually is concerned about that. The facts of majority Democratic disinterest in that path didn't bother them before and won't bother them now.

Another point- do you think if some partisan Democratic operatives (and a complicit media) had said during the '98 midterm elections "Don't vote for the Republicans, all they wanna do is impeach President Clinton!!", that the overzealous GOP Congress would've taken it down a few notches and removed the option from the table in the name of political civility? Of course they wouldn't have. After all, obstructing justice in a civil case made President Clinton too dangerous to be allowed to remain in office and the Republicans had the rule of law (very important to them, ya know) on their side. Of course the example I gave didn't happen. The Democrats barely stood up for the President in 1998 and the media definitely did not. Despite the lack of polling support for impeachment, they just decided to go along for the ride (and what a sexy ride it was!)... But in 2006, where we have a President who mislead his country into a disastrous war and has abused his constitutional authority in other ways too (and where polling has indicated that a slight majority might favor impeachment and/or don't even consider it a factor in the midterms at all), all Karl Rove and the beltway conventional wisdom punditry had to say was "Boo!" and Pelosi and the Dems folded like Superman on laundry day.

I understand the Democrats want their priorities to be policy and legislative-based (and don't want voters to make incorrect assumptions about other agendas), but they really need to start standing up for themselves, if only as a sign of strength. The main reason that Sen. Feingold is so popular isn't necessarily that all his supporters agree with him 100%, but it's because he has a spine. He defends what he believes in, he shows a public face of strength in the name of cheap political intimidation. As I noted in my entry on Monday, the Republicans created this impeachment 'conspiracy' talking point when no such thing existed in the Democratic party leadership. And the Democrats flinched anyway. If they are serious about unseating the Republicans this November (and God help us all, they better be), then it's time for them to stand their ground.

Note to Democrats- You are ahead in all of the polls. Start acting like it.

[PS- Digby looks at how the Republicans are relying on the same old, same old for their campaigns.]