Fuggedabout Bush; Impeach Cheney

I was going to save this particular screed for another day. You know, give President Bush some breathing room -- which is to say a measure of respect -- after his State of the Union speech. But the people who were immolated in the minibus bombing in Baghdad shown in the awful photograph atop the previous post didn't have the opportunity of any breathing room, let alone the hugs of their children when they were supposed to return home.

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I’ve argued for a couple of years that while the president's myriad misdeeds may rise to the level of impeachable offenses, to pull the trigger on him would be an enormous distraction at a time when Congress and the nation needs to try to pull together. Besides which, to the best of my knowledge, Bush didn’t lie about sex.

But how about impeaching Dick Cheney?

This alternative came to me while I was reading about opening arguments in the Scooter Libby perjury trial, which paint the Darth Vader of the Bush administration in an even darker light. (So sorry. Karl Rove can't be impeached, and from all available evidence Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald blew it in not seeking an indictment against him.)

Although a vice president technically serves at the pleasure of the president, this does not shield him from impeachment proceedings.

You didn’t ask, but no veep has been impeached, although such a proceeding in the Senate against Cheney probably would be on a technicality of a sort – he happens to be the de facto president of that august body. (Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon’s first vice president, asked to be impeached to forstall prosecution on tax evasion charges, but the House speaker refused. Spiggy then resigned.)

Back to Cheney: Being a Machiavellian power behind the throne who is widely despised and just happened to be the president of the company that has gotten the lion’s share of civilian contracts in Iraq (and seen its stock price triple since he was in office) is not an indictable offense.

But two of Cheney’s crimes are:

* Manipulating intelligence about WMDs in Iraq for political purposes.

* Outting Valerie Plame as a CIA agent for political purposes.

Maybe impeaching the veep, as blog buddy Will Bunch notes, is “an effective way to keep the White House in check without tearing the nation apart."

Will believes that impeachment proceedings against Cheney are "a very, very real possibility." Although I endorse the idea as a sort of national enema, I really can't imagine it happening. For one thing, I don't like the sound of the alternative should Cheney resign or be impeached and found guilty after a Senate trial.

Can you say Vice President Rice?