Gonzo to resign in August!

dr. elsewhere here

Now that I have your attention, let me emphasize that this is a prediction, but - I feel - a reasonable one.

In the midst of packing up years of accumulated clutter in preparation for a move (just one of several rather huge shifts in my life going down these days; hence my prolonged absence), a fairly mindless task, I happened upon C-SPAN reruns of the Gonzo hearings (apologies; cannot find a link).

Don't kid yourself; the YouTube clips just do not do his performance justice. It was pretty arresting when seen in full theatre. Especially after just having finally caught the full segment of Bill Moyers' impeachment discussion with Bruce Fein and John Nichols. The line that caught me (Nichols, I think) was, "Folks seem to think if we move to impeachment proceedings, it will cause a Constitutional crisis. That's wrong; impeachment is the ingenious tool to correct a Constitutional crisis."

This line should become our mantra. And we need to start with Gonzo.

Here is another bonus prediction: If Congress impeaches Gonzo, their approval ratings will skyrocket. For what that's worth.

[Kagro X, also at thenexthurrah, gives us an UPDATE on impeachment history and how our founding fathers felt about it all. Of particular interest is Madison's point that giving the President appointment powers placed him in a position of responsibility for their conduct; protection of their bad conduct thus being an impeachable offense.]

(To read the rest, click "Permalink" below)


Schumer, Feinstein, Feingold, and Whitehouse are all calling for appointment of a Special Prosecutor (their press conference on this was also aired, and was quite good, unlike Arlen Specter's, who - despite his aggressive questioning in the hearing - nevertheless wishes to proceed cautiously); Leahy has not yet signed on.

But, in my humble opinion, no SP will be appointed because Bush won't allow it due to his handy dandy all purpose Executive Privilege badge (designed to protect him from any and all scrutiny or oversight), the entire affair will go into the courts, along with the contempt charges against Miers and Bolten, rendering everything moot because the administration will be out of office before a ruling (though isn't it interesting that Schumer and Specter are both just now asking about the promises Roberts and Alito made in their confirmation hearings, particularly about precedent? are they wondering about rulings on Executive Privilege? A bit late....). After Bush is gone, many will clamor to drop the whole affair and "get on with the business of legislating," or some equally condescending platitude.

Bruce Fein warned of this in his discussion with Moyers, pointing out that this was precisely what happened after Watergate. In fact, many in Congress wanted to continue the proceedings against Nixon, but "cooler heads prevailed," which Fein believed was a grave mistake. A similar scenario unfolded with Iran-Contra, the real dirt never surfacing to see sunlight. Fein did not make these connections overtly, but he stressed with great passion that the point of impeachment now is not only to get these criminals out of office, but to arrest the breathtaking usurpation of power by the Executive Branch; if we do not kill this monster now, it will forever be precedent for future Presidents to abuse.

As a brief aside into Joe's shifting opinions about impeachment, I have this much to say: I agree with him that these thugs must be impeached, and I agree that Cindy Sheehan's rigid insistence that it happen on her timetable is unwise. However, I do NOT agree that anyone should allow the actions of such extreme individuals sway opinion about the necessity of a movement to impeach (or anything else, for that matter). We should never allow such fringe elements to sway our thinking, no matter which direction your persuasion, and no matter which direction your aversion. One's own opinion should be reasoned and uninfluenced by such overwrought and unreasonable positions, regardless of source or their inclination.

For what it's worth, my advice regarding such characters is to give them precisely the time share they deserve, which is precious little. And certainly no power to change your mind on something as important as impeachment of this administration!

Just one more thing on that: I also have great respect and affection for Cindy Sheehan, for after all, she lost a son to this insanity, and she is responsible for bringing a country's attention to the fact that Bush and his minions are just too callous to care. I cannot honestly say how fringed out I might get had I lost my child to this nightmare. God bless her, and all her faults.

(An aside to this aside: I feel this way about most fringe characters, in truth. Though I roll my eyes with the best of them whenever the media become obsessed with Michael Jackson or Paris or Britney, I admit I'm grateful to those freaky folks who exercise the democratic freedom of latitude of behaviors - within reason and the Golden Rule - because they define the parameters of what's acceptable in our society. If these characters were not tolerated at all, the range of normally acceptable behavior would be much narrower, and we would all suffer, I feel, on numerous dimensions. The healthiest societies tolerate and even enjoy their fringes. But, I digress....)

Speaking of fringes, back to Gonzo and my prediction:

Inspired by Mimikatz at thenexthurrah on this matter, as well as Josh, who points out that Gonzo stays because there is no one Bush could appoint who would also be approved who would then allow the cabal to get away with all that Gonzo is allowing them to get away with.

Unless, of course, Gonzo resigns while Congress is on vacation next month, and Bush pulls yet another of his shameless recess appointments.

Hence, my prediction. Hence Mimikatz to strongly suggest that Harry keep a skeleton crew on board through August to keep things honest. Really good idea, but....

Will Harry do that? I doubt it. If he does, I think Gonzo will soon face impeachment, because Bush will not allow a SP in this matter, just ain't gonna happen. This really will leave Congress with no other choice but to impeach Gonzo.

However, if Harry doesn't keep the Senate in session, then I have no doubt Gonzo will resign and Bush will do his "In your face, you're not the boss o' me" recess appointment.

Either way, this brings some powerful winds of impeachment into the mix, because if Bush does pull this absurdly desperate move, it will be immediately and endlessly compared to the Libby commutation, both done to protect his sorry ass. And Cheney's. Bruce Fein saw the Libby commutation as an impeachable offense, as did Nichols; I don't see how a recess appointment of a Gonzo replacement would be any different.

So we impeach the lot of them, all three, in proper order, first Gonzo, then Dick, then Bush.

And the sad thing is, this would not even begin to resemble a clean sweep.

Geez, how far we have fallen.

And hey, the ONLY thing that will redeem us is if we each contact our reps and insist these protective (i.e., skeleton Senate crew in August) and corrective (IMPEACHMENT) tools be utilized fully.

If we really want to take our country back, we have to actually DO it!