Pelosi: "Impeachment is off the table"

Via The Irish Trojan.

I'll believe it when I don't see it.

Some thoughts:

A few thoughts.

*Calls for W’s impeachment are about nothing less than removing the stigma of President Clinton’s impeachment. I thought impeachment of Clinton was a bad idea, not because I didn’t think the legal case was there (perjury has to count for something), but because the whole exercise seemed so pointless. It was as if Otter had somehow been elected House Majority Leader, and announced it was time “a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part.”

(To which Henry Hyde would respond, “And we’re just the guys to do it.”)

I hate their organization, but at the time I thought, Yeah, if Clinton won’t do the honorable thing and resign, censure his ass and move on. Impeachment won’t help anyone.

But the House went ahead and impeached, the Senate did not convict, and now Clinton has his two-comma problem (”Bill Clinton, one of only two US Presidents ever impeached, died in his daughter’s best friend’s arms this morning”).

Thing is, Clinton’s impeachment will never go away. The only Dem response is to make it more commonplace.

*Timing is everything. Remember the rumble about Clinton’s impeachment first stretched across September and October, 1998–before the midterms–and by November the GOP had overreached so badly it was slapped down in the form of 6 lost seats. Should the Dems take over, with John Conyers (absolutely unbeholden to Pelosi) chairing the Judiciary Committee, they would have an entire year to run wild before it became part of any election year debate, and two whole years before an election. Anything that happened would be long over before Hillary or Kerry or Gore would be asked their opinion on the matter. So, (as seems likely) should the Dems take the House, they can adopt the mantra of their forbears: “If it feels good, do it.”

(Yeah, I’m aware of the Foley comeback here.)

So: Dem House. Hearings. Nothing brought to the floor. But (the Dems think) Oh what fun. We’ll see.