How is Bush going to be impeached?

[ProSense]

Congress couldn't override Bush's Veto. How is Bush going to be impeached?

House equation (where impeachment begins): simple majority needed to approve articles of impeachment.

Senate equation: two-thirds majority needed to impeach. That 67 votes, meaning 16 Republicans and Lieberman would have to support impeachment.

The house couldn't override a veto. What's next?

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Over his dead body I would expect.

[lonestarnot]

2. Through the process outlined by the Constitution!

Snort!

[LiberalVoice]

3. Ummm...He won't? nt

[jillan]

4. My guess is that in September if Iraq is still such a mess

that the Republicans are going to go against this administration.

Unfortunately, how many more will have died, or been injured by then.

That's what it's going to take. The meantime, Reid and Pelosi need to keep this administration's feet to the fire.

[ClassWarrior]

5. Wrong

House equation (where impeachment happens): a simple majority is needed to impeach - another word for indict.

Senate equation: two-thirds majority needed to convict. That 67 votes, meaning 16 Republicans and Lieberman, would have to support conviction.

But no matter what the technicalities, it's the right thing to hold this administration accountable for its crimes.

NGU.

[ProSense]

12. Wrong?

It maybe the right thing, but, again, how is it going to happen?

What's next?

[ClassWarrior]

16. A simple majority is needed to impeach.

Kucinich is working on gathering that.

If you're asking about conviction, that's tougher to predict, but it will get easier as investigations go forward and momentum builds.

NGU.

[ISUGRADIA]

6. Actually he could be easily impeached

Clinton was impeached by the House, but he was not convicted by the Senate (their half of the equation)

[ProSense]

14. Simple: Impeach is jargon

for removal from office. Yes, House impeaches, Senate convicts. Still, if the House acts and not the Senate, what good does that do? Bush remains in office.

[ClassWarrior]

17. It proves that Dems hold criminals accountable.

And if we don't, what good does THAT do? It signals to the next pack of Rape-Publican criminals who come along that they can get away with worse.

NGU.

[onenote]

18. probably not so "easy"

All it would take is 16 Democrats to defect and articles of impeachment would be defeated. It wouldn't surprise me at all if there were 16 (or close to that number) of blue dog Democrats who don't support impeachment for various reasons (including their belief that an impeachment vote along purely partisan lines will do more to energize the repub vote in 2008 than anything else that could happen).

[ClassWarrior]

19. The Senate doesn't IMPEACH.

The House does. You can remove your foot from your mouth now.

:rofl:

NGU.

[onenote]

22. I assume you weren't speaking to me

Since I didn't mention the senate at all in my post.

[ISUGRADIA]

20. You are correct.

I was speaking more broadly, as in a majority is possible while the 2/3 needed for conviction is a much more difficult target. Until there is the possibility of any reasonable numbers of Republicans voting for impeachment and conviction it ain't going to happen.

[Birthmark]

7. Bush is not going to be impeached.

Neither is Cheney. Libby won't do any time. And the occupation of Iraq will continue.

If only there were an opposition party!

[mudesi]

8. The American people must order their representatives

Given enough public pressure, even the Republicans will jump ship. This is why it's important to call. But the Democrats have to start the action in order to lead the people.

[elocs]

9. What makes anybody think that every Democratic senator would vote to convict?

I see it over and over and over again. The only concern seems to be for impeachment and few are interested in how conviction in the Senate would actually take place. They evidently think it will magically happen and that all of the Republican senators who regularly get trashed here will suddenly become noble and patriotic, seeing the error of their ways and vote to convict Bush.
Reality is a bitch. There might not even be impeachment and then wait for the exploding heads here and the threats to leave the party.

[valerief]

10. It's time to make senators offers they can't refuse. Anyone have some horse heads? nt

[davhill]

11. Forget about the puppet

Concentrate on getting rid of Cheney and Rove.

[meldroc]

13. When Congressional Republicans throw Bush under the bus.

It's going to take some patience. A lot of patience. We'll need those 16 Republicans in the Senate to vote to convict, so how are we going to get them?

Tar them with Bush's scandals.

It's already happening. The Congressional investigations are continuing, relentlessly. Leahy fired off more subpoenas today at Gonzales, and it's likely that Domenici and Thompson will be feeling a lot of heat when their role in Gonzogate gets fleshed out. That's already on top of Delay, Foley, Ney, Cunningham, etc. who've already been forced out. Cunningham's already in prison, and Delay and Ney are looking at prison.

Trust me, every time a new development comes out in a Bushco scandal, the Congressional Republicans all scramble for their Maalox and bourbon, because any one of those scandals could contain a land mine that will implicate them. It's already getting old, and the Republicans are desperately looking for damage control. The lesser solutions, such as throwing low-level aides under the bus aren't working. The scandals keep coming, and they're getting tired of being human shields for the likes of Bush, Cheney and Rove.

Eventually, there will be a breaking point, and when that point is reached, they'll be sending their own to the White House, just like in 1974, to tell the President that he's done.

Keep the pressure up. Keep calling your Congresscritters, especially the Republican ones. Keep sending them emails. Keep blogging, and keep protesting, and Bush will end up under that bus.

[G_Leo_Criley]

25. under the bus...

Meldroc "Eventually, there will be a breaking point, and when that point is reached, they'll be sending their own to the White House, just like in 1974, to tell the President that he's done."

Agreed. Absolutely. He will resign, under sedation to keep him from kicking, but he will resign. This is just the absolute worst thing that's ever happened to this country. His own party is beginning to wake up.

I do think that impeaching cabinet members (and hey ... why not the VP?) will help in the long run too.

glc

[Warpy]

15. I outlined three scenarios under which he'd be impeached and

removed very quickly: the use of nuclear weapons, period, and/or a reckless attack on Iran or Syria, thus expanding an already lost war.

The declaration of nation wide martial law and dissolution of Congress for any reason whatsoever.

Vetoing every single bill that crosses his desk because nothing that comes out of a Democratic Congress can possibly be any good: this includes bills sponsored by GOPs and routine spending bills.

In the meantime, unless any of those occur, the Congress will be content with chipping away at the people who surround him in the bubble, eventually leaving him isolated.

[G_Leo_Criley]

24. isolated *

Let's start with calls and letters to our elected people to impeach Gonzales. His impeachment and conviction would go fairly quickly.

Impeachment of * is easy. Conviction of * is much more difficult (probably impossible) at this time, and that is the simple reality right now.

Agreed that, at this time, it would take incidents such as you cite for impeachment and conviction of *.

glc

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

21. Unless Unforeseen Things Of An Ultra-Dramatic Scale Happen In The Future, It Just Ain't Gonna Happen

[hootinholler]

23. I've been hoping it would be by 30-06 n/t