Cafferty lambastes Dodd for saying it would be a mistake for democrats to begin impeachment proceedings against President Bush, and could jeapordize their control of Congress. ... Dodd also said this "If we become preocccupied with an impeachment process I think we could turn off an awful lot of people who might otherwise be willing to support Democrats."
Cafferty let him have it:
"So Senator Dodd is putting the election prospects of the Democratic Party next year ahead of whether or not President Bush might be guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors of the kind that would mandate his removal from office. Congress' job is oversight of the Executive Branch, unless of course that oversight interferes with getting elected."Here's the article Cafferty is referring to.
Dodd: Impeachment effort would be mistake
Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd, a U.S. senator from Connecticut, said today it would be a mistake for Democrats in Congress to launch impeachment proceedings against President Bush.
Dodd said Democrats could lose control of Congress in the 2008 elections if they pursued that course because many Americans would object to Congress spending 14 months on impeachment proceedings rather than focusing on other problems facing the
nation. ...
I understand what Dodd is saying, and I even think he might be right about it, but I also have to agree with Jack Cafferty. It's not just Dodd that thinks this though. It's apparently what the majority of Democrats on the hill think by their actions (or perhaps inactions). Save for Dodd now, and to some extent Nancy Pelosi's taking 'impeachment off the table' before the election, they're just not saying it.
I'm really not sure if Dodd''s right or not or what positive could come from letting Bush hand over the rest of his Presidency to Cheney or someone else of his choosing, like Nixon did with Ford, which is all that impeachment will do. So I guess I'm agnostic on the practicality of impeachment proceedings as far as the long & short run net effect politically but I agree with it based on principle with just what we already know. There seems to be ample reason both necessary and sufficient that Bush and Cheney along with half of the cabinet ought to have been removed from office already.
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