It's TIME for the "I" word- IMPEACHMENT!

There is good reason to ponder this today. Yesterday well-respected journalist, Joe Klein, of TIME magazine, wrote an article throwing in the towel on Bush and bringing the issue of impeachment to the forefront of considering to more years of Bush and an incompetent Administration. First read the article, which I have pasted below, and then a few additional comments I make. Here it is:

Thursday, Apr. 05, 2007
An Administration's Epic Collapse
By Joe Klein
The first three months of the new Democratic Congress have been neither terrible nor transcendent. A Pew poll had it about right: a substantial majority of the public remains happy the Democrats won in 2006, but neither Nancy Pelosi nor Harry Reid has dominated the public consciousness as Newt Gingrich did when the Republicans came to power in 1995. There is a reason for that. A much bigger story is unfolding: the epic collapse of the Bush Administration.

The three big Bush stories of 2007--the decision to "surge" in Iraq, the scandalous treatment of wounded veterans at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys for tawdry political reasons--precisely illuminate the three qualities that make this Administration one of the worst in American history: arrogance (the surge), incompetence (Walter Reed) and cynicism (the U.S. Attorneys).

Iraq comes first, as always. From the start, it has been obvious that personal motives have skewed the President's judgment about the war. Saddam tried to kill his dad; his dad didn't try hard enough to kill Saddam. There was payback to be had. But never was Bush's adolescent petulance more obvious than in his decision to ignore the Baker-Hamilton report and move in the exact opposite direction: adding troops and employing counterinsurgency tactics inappropriate to the situation on the ground. "There was no way he was going to accept [its findings] once the press began to portray the report as Daddy's friends coming to the rescue," a member of the Baker-Hamilton commission told me. As with Bush's invasion of Iraq, the decision to surge was made unilaterally, without adequate respect for history or military doctrine. Iraq was invaded with insufficient troops and planning; the surge was attempted with too few troops (especially non-Kurdish, Arabic-speaking Iraqis), a purposely misleading time line ("progress" by September) and, most important, the absence of a reliable Iraqi government.

General David Petraeus has repeatedly said, "A military solution to Iraq is not possible." Translation: This thing fails unless there is a political deal among the Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds. There is no such deal on the horizon, largely because of the President's aversion to talking to people he doesn't like. And while some Baghdad neighborhoods may be more peaceful--temporarily--as a result of the increased U.S. military presence, the story two years from now is likely to resemble the recent headlines from Tall 'Afar: dueling Sunni and Shi'ite massacres have destroyed order in a city famously pacified by counterinsurgency tactics in 2005. Bush's indifference to reality in Iraq is not an isolated case. It is the modus operandi of his Administration. The indifference of his Environmental Protection Agency to the dangers of carbon dioxide emissions was rejected by the Supreme Court on April 2.

On April 3, the President again accused Democrats of being "more interested in fighting political battles in Washington than providing our troops what they need." Such demagoguery is particularly outrageous given the Administration's inability to provide our troops "what they need" at the nation's premier hospital for veterans. The mold and decrepitude at Walter Reed are likely to be only the beginning of the tragedy, the latest example of incompetence in this Administration. "This is yet another aspect of war planning that wasn't done properly," says Paul Rieckhoff of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "The entire VA hospital system is unprepared for the casualties of Iraq, especially the psychiatric casualties. A lot of vets are saying, 'This is our Katrina moment.' And they're right: this Administration governs badly because it doesn't care very much about governing."

Compared with Iraq and Walter Reed, the firing of the U.S. Attorneys is a relatively minor matter. It is true that U.S. Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President, but they are political appointees of a special sort. They are partisans, obviously, but must appear to be above politics--not working to influence elections, for example--if public faith in the impartiality of the justice system is to be maintained. Once again Karl Rove's operation has corrupted a policy area--like national security--that should be off-limits to political operators.

When Bush came to office--installed by the Supreme Court after receiving fewer votes than Al Gore--I speculated that the new President would have to govern in a bipartisan manner to be successful. He chose the opposite path, and his hyper-partisanship has proved to be a travesty of governance and a comprehensive failure. I've tried to be respectful of the man and the office, but the three defining sins of the Bush Administration--arrogance, incompetence, cynicism--are congenital: they're part of his personality. They're not likely to change. And it is increasingly difficult to imagine yet another two years of slow bleed with a leader so clearly unfit to lead."

Joe is the first of Main Street media to say it like it is and to raise the implied question, as to what are we going to do about this as free people and a Nation. This problem should not be addressed in a divisive manner by the Democratic Party. It needs to be an American solution. Impeachment is the answer for both Bush and Cheney. The method and timing need to be considered and discussed but there are plenty of reasons why this should be done. It is exactly for these reasons the framers of the Constitution left the language vague when they included "High Crimes and Misdemeanors", as reasons to impeach a President. The Constitution was written just for this period of time and circumstances that truly free people must consider. I saw this quote on a web site this morning called nanciesweb.com that Benjamin Franklin said, "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety". This is the time to put sufficient pressure on the Congress and Senate with Republicans and Democrats united because they know what is right for America and have the courage to take a principled decision of such gravitas. We don't need: 2 more years of this misery. Not 2 more years of the same failed course in Iraq. Not 2 more years of the possibility of another entry into a sovereign nation like Iran. Not 2 more years of arrogance, incompetence and cynicism. Joe Klein had courage to write this piece and admit he was wrong. We need courage to do what is right here. Put pressure on your elected officials and join me in calling for the Impeachment of President Bush and VP Cheney. Attach Joe Klein's piece to anything you write. God Bless America.

Postscript: You know something is wrong when citizens of a State want to secede from the Country. Vermont has such a movement. See The Once and Future Republic of Vermont" Washington Post article written on April 1st.